Room XIV - The Precision Instrument Industry

In the 18th and 19th centuries the production of precision instruments for astronomy, geodetics, surveying and navigation was concentrated mainly in Britain, France and Germany. The British instrument maker Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) invented the first machine for precisely dividing graduated scales. In Bavaria, Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826) produced the finest optical-quality glass ever made. In Italy, only Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863) was able to design original optical instruments, many of them displayed in this room. They include excellent microscopes and exceptionally long telescopes. These innovations went to improve the instrumentation of the astronomical observatories founded in Italy starting from the first decades of the 18th century. The Florence Observatory (1780-1789), annexed to the Museum of Physics and Natural History, aspired to compete with the great astronomical centres of Greenwich and Paris. It was equipped mainly with instruments of British make.

Category:

Science & Technology