Instruments of Science An Historical Encyclopedia

This authoritative work on the history of scientific instruments brings together information from hundreds of primary sources and specialized studies in many languages. Written by 223 scientists, instrument designers, and historians, the Encyclopedia's 327 entries cover instruments from the beginnings of science to the present day and explore devices designed for cutting-edge research as well as routine testing. Each entry explains how a device works, how it is used, who developed it, and shows what it looks like. The Encyclopedia is the first reference work to address the great historical range of instruments and is also the first to consider applications, innovations, and costs. Because of its focus on 20th-century devices and disciplines, its coverage is particularly valuable to students and scholars of modern science and technology.

This authoritative reference covers 325 scientific instruments ranging from antiquity to the present, and from the mundane to the highly sophisticated. Entries explain how they work and trace their invention, development, distribution and use. Fully illustrated and complete with bibliographies, it will be particularly useful to students and scholars of modern science and technology. Reflecting contemporary practice, it examines instruments used for testing and monitoring, as well as those used for research, and even considers a number of widely used laboratory organisms (such as drosophila and e.coli) as instruments.

A sampling of the coverage: Actinometer * Artificial Horizon * Atwood's Machine * Breathalyzer * Camera Obscura * Chladni Plates * Clock, Atomic * Dip Circle * Earth Strain Meter * Electroscope * Electron Microscope * Ellipsometer * Fatigue Testing Instruments * Galton Whistle * Geiger Counter * Global Positioning System * Gyroscope * Heliostat * Kymograph * Laser and Maser * Magic Lantern * Mariner's Astrolabe * Napier's Rods * Pendulum * PET Scanner * Polygraph * Protein Sequencer * Seismograph * Sun-Dial * Tachometer * Theodolite * Visceroctome * Wheatstone Bridge * X-ray Diffraction

Robert Bud holds a doctorate in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as Head of Research (Collections) at the Science Museum in London. His widespread publications on the history of chemistry and biotechnology include Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions and Science (l992), and The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology (l993).Deborah Warner holds a M.A. in the History of Sciences from Harvard University, and serves as Curator of Physical Science Collections at the National Museum of American History. Her widespread publications in the history of science and scientific instruments include Alvan Clark & Sons: Artists in Optics (1968; rev. 1996), and The Sky Explored: Celestial Cartography 1500-1800 (1979). She is also founder and editor of Rittenhouse, a quarterly journal of the American instrument enterprise.