Strangely, they do not show their Bygrave rule in the current
"Mathematical" exhibition,
though they show many slide rules, including cylindrical ones.
There is also a Troughton sextant looking exactly as the one that
belonged to Gauss (see an old discussion beginning with "Sextant in
German money").
The most
impressive piece is a hudge analog differential equation solver,
which is a clockwork-type mechanism with shafts and wheels, occupying
a large room and served by no less than 20 people:-)
Alex.
> I visited that museum in 2009 and, by prior arrangement, also visited
> their storage facility and was allowed to examine and handle their Bygrave
> slide rule. See:
>
>
http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Manufacture-Bygraves-LaPook-aug-2009-g9378>
> gl
>
> --- On Tue, 6/26/12, Alexandre Eremenko <eremenko---purdue.edu> wrote:
>
> From: Alexandre Eremenko <eremenko---purdue.edu>
> Subject: [NavList] London Science Museum
> To: NavList---org
> Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 9:20 AM
>
> I recently visited the Science Museum in
London.
> It has a Troughton dividing engine in a permanent exposition,
> but currently they also have two exhibitions:
> "Mathematics" and "Computers". In "Mathematics" exhibition they
> have many interesting items, I mean analog computers, various
> plotting devices and two other dividing engines, one of them WORKING!
> (What else can you display under the title "Mathematics" in a museum:-)The
> other dividing engines are another later one by Troughton,
> and one by Cary (London), which was used until 1920 and still working:
> in the museum display, you press a button, and an electric motor makes
> the parts of the engine move.Other very impressive things are differential
> analisers: pure mechanical
> devices for solving differential equations. It is amazing to see a high
> precision clockwork
> devices of such size:-)Alex.P.S. The very first Ramsden's dividing
engine
> described in Bill Morris
> blog is in Smithsonian Institution
> in Washington DC. But I was never able to see it. Apparently it is not on
> display.
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