Calculating instrument

Description

Signed scientific instrument made in Scotland, a double sided calculating instrument incorporating double horizontal dial and Circles of Proportion for setting out sundials, by Robert Davenport, Edinburgh, c. 1650

Museum reference

T.1972.252

Collection

History of Science

Object name

Calculating instrument, Sundial instrument, Double horizontal dial, Circles of proportion

Production information

Davenport, Robert, 1623 (b.) - c. 1650 (fl.)
Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, Northern Europe

Date

c. 1650

Materials

Brass

Associations

Previous owner: Shaw, William J., 1904 (fl.)

Exhibitions

• Power of Ten: Inventing Logarithms (21 Mar 2014 - 31 Aug 2014)
  National Museum of Scotland

• Instruments of Science (1982 - 27 Apr 2008)
  Royal Museum of Scotland

References

'Chronos', 'Astrolabe', in English Mechanic and World of Science 66, December 3 (1897), 367-8, with illustrations.

Anon., 'Interview with the President of the Sheffield Watchmakers' and Jewellers' Association', The Jeweller and Metalworker, 30 (1 October 1904), 1412-6.

D.J. Bryden, 'Scotland's earliest surviving calculating device: Robert Davenport's Circles of Proportion of c.1650', Scottish Historical Review, 60 (1976), 54-59.

A.J. Turner, 'William Oughtred, Richard Delmain and the Horizontal Instrument in Seventeenth Century England', Annali Dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze 6 (1981), 99-125.

A.D. Morrison-Low, ‘Recent Acquisition by the National Museums of Scotland: William Oughtred’s horizontal instrument and 'Circles of Proportion' by Elias Allen, London, 1648’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No 85 (2005), 20-22

On display

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