Robert P. Multhauf

“ He speaks of the advantages of some, noting that the horse whim has a power two and a half times that of the man windlass, and emphasizing the even greater power available in flowing water “when a running stream can be diverted to a mine.” The most powerful machine then in use for deep mines appears to have been the horse-powered rag and chain pump.
Such, then, were the important mining machines of this early period of deep mining, according to the leading authority. But did they continue, as has been claimed, to be the only important machines of the subsequent century? ”

“ The history of the technology of mining, as distinguished from metallurgy, is largely a history of mechanization, and that mechanization has until the last century consisted principally in the development of what Agricola calls tractoriae—hauling machines. ”

“ Forbes goes on to call for a greater emphasis on theory, and the replacement of the many small-scale observatories with "a few great Registers" to be adequately maintained by "great Societies" or by the government. He suggests that the time for pursuit of theory might be gained from "the vague mechanical task to which at present they generally devote their time, namely the search for great numerical accuracy, to a superfluity of decimal places exceeding the compass of the instrument to verify." ”

“ Peate decided to concentrate on that basic tool, the telescope. It is possible that he first made a telescope, as many amateurs do, to advance himself in the study of astronomy, and only after completing it realized that his primary interest lay in the instruments rather than in the theoretical science. ”

“ He was the first that sold a telescope of American manufacture. All the telescopes used in this country before 1833, had been obtained in Europe. It had been said that they could not be made in this country. He had been greatly assisted in his sales, by the influence and recommendation of scientific men. It was soon discovered that telescopes could be made in America and about 1845, one after another went into the business, and there is now no further need of going to Europe for telescopes, as good ones can be made in the United States as can be made in Europe. ”

“ The movement of the mercury over a certain minute distance within the tube served as a switch to energize an electrical recording system. Hipp, who was perhaps the latest of this group, first applied the aneroid barometer (fig. 8) to self-registration. The idea of the aneroid—an air-tight bellows against which the atmospheric pressure would act—had been advanced by Leibniz in the 17th century and had been the subject of a few abortive experiments in the 18th century. Not until 1848 was an instrument produced that was acceptable to users of the barometer. ”

“ That hauling machines of some complexity, Archimedian screws and a kind of noria, were used by the Romans for dewatering mines has been known for some time. Evidence of the survival of this technology beyond the fall of Rome remains to be found, and it is generally agreed that mining activity declined through the first millenium. The revival and extension of mining in the central European areas of German settlement is thought to have occurred from the 10th century, with an intensive development of the region known to Agricola (Erzgebirge) in the 13th century. ”

“ Self-recording barometers and thermometers were more vulnerable to the influence of friction than were wind instruments, but fortunately pressure and temperature were also less subject to sudden fluctuation, and so self-registration was less necessary. Nevertheless, two events occurred in the 1840's which led to the development of self-registering instruments. One event was the development of the geomagnetic observatory, which used the magnetometer, an instrument as delicate as the barometer [Pg 105] and thermometer, and (as it then seemed) , as subject to fluctuation as the wind vane. ”

“ Rittenhouse made other telescopes which survive, notably two zenith sectors now in the U.S. National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, [2] but he does not appear to have made them for commercial sale. In the history of telescope-making in America he seems to have been something of a “sport.” Not only were the instruments which still grace the desks of Washington, Jefferson, and others, of European manufacture, but the earliest observatories in the United States (eleven between 1786 and 1840) were outfitted exclusively (except for the Rittenhouse observatory) with European instruments. ”

“ The mechanical clock also had a considerable history in the 17th century, and had long since been applied to the operations of figures through cams, as was almost certainly the case with the punches in Hooke's clock. Still, the combination of an instrument-actuated pointer with a clock-actuated time-scale and a means of obtaining a permanent record represent a group of innovations which certainly ranks among the greatest in the history of instrumentation. It appears that we owe these innovations to Wren and Hooke. ”

“ It is possible that these shaft houses also cover horse whims used to operate bucket hoists such as that shown in the lower center. A house with three chimneys in the background may be the smelter. The horse over whose head the Deity holds a wreath is a symbol of Luneberg.
For a detailed description of the mechanical equipment of this era we are largely indebted to Agricola. He classifies hauling machines into four types; the ordinary bucket windlass, the piston (suction) pump, the chain of dippers, and the rag and chain pump. ”

“ The telescope submitted to the examination of the Committee of the Franklin Institute is of the reflecting kind; has a focal length of six feet; the diameter of the speculum is three inches nine-tenths; the rays of light are reflected but once; the image formed in the focus of the speculum is viewed by a common astronomical eye piece, or by a single lens; it has also an eye piece for viewing land objects, which shows them erect. The telescope is of the same construction as those of Sir William Herschell, the observer having his back towards the object and looking directly towards the speculum. ”

“ Dolland's barometer was a wheel instrument controlling a hammer. His thermometric element consisted of 12 balanced mercury thermometers. Its mode of operation is not clear, but it probably was similar to that of the thermometer developed by Karl Kreil in Prague about the same time (fig. 4) . Dolland's wind force indicator consisted of a pressure plate counterbalanced by a string of suspended weights. Altogether, it is not clear that Dolland's instrument was superior to Hooke's, or that its career was longer. ”

“ The Bonds established what was to be the Harvard Observatory in 1839, and by 1847 Harvard had obtained its famous 15-inch refractor from Merz and Mabler. [6] Fitz was to have a more sophisticated market than had Holcomb.
Despite the glowing recommendations of the Franklin Institute committee, [7] no actual use of Holcomb’s instruments by astronomers has come to light. We may owe to the rapid progress of American astronomy after 1840 the fact that we have evidence of a more distinguished history for some of Fitz’s instruments. ”

“ Its complexity is sufficient reason for its ephemeral history, but complexity in machine design was the fashion of the time and Hooke may have intended no more than a mechanistic tour de force. On the other hand, he may have recognized the desideratum to which later meteorologists frequently returned—the need for simultaneous observations of several instruments on the same register. In any case, no instrument so comprehensive seems to have been attempted again until the middle of the 19th century, when George Dolland exhibited one at the Great Exhibition in London (see fig. 3) . ”

“ The source of power, hidden by the curious “log cabin” at the right, was probably a waterwheel. I have not found evidence that the Stangenkunst was used to operate bucket hoists, as appears to be the case here. It will be noticed that the above and below ground portions of these illustrations do not correlate precisely. This coin, like the others, shows miners doing various things familiar from Agricola—divining, digging, carrying, and operating windlasses. ”

“ Peate was something of a poor man’s philanthropist, and his fame would have been no greater than that role customarily brings had he not undertaken in 1893 the astonishingly audacious project of making the largest glass reflector that had ever been built. ”