Ancient Instruments Research Articles

Analytical instrumentation in the 18th century

Two basically simple and ancient instruments — the balance and blowpipe — were the most successful tools of an 18th century analyst. The development of blowpipe analysis by the Swedish school of mineralogists and chemists is discussed in detail.

Instrumentalism in psychology

Abstract I aim to examine two questions. First, whether ‘folk psychology’ is a kind of theory and, second, more seriously, how are we to understand the system of principles of folk psychology. As to the first, there is a confusion between ‘theory’ and ‘science’. Much of the debate ignores the differences between these, and I argue that whereas folk psychology cannot be called a science there are grounds for calling it a theory. On the more serious question of interpretation, I review the general considerations against instrumentalism and argue that they do not apply to folk psychology. The instrumentalist construal of folk psychology is strengthened by the remarkable fact that folk psychology is guaranteed to be successfully applicable to almost any system that has evolved under natural selection. Thus one can maintain that folk psychology is in fact a codification of certain quite general principles of evolutionary theory, and thus is an ancient and brilliant instrument for explaining the behaviour of co...

IL FENG SHUIE LA BUSSOLA GEOMANTICA DELL'ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA DI FIRENZE

Abstracttitle SUMMARY /title The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza of Florence preserves some ancient Chinese scientific instruments, very interesting for historians. These instruments are: one compass for navigation, one geomantic compass, one compass with agricultural calendar, two sound spheres, two balances. Only the first of them has been studied, the others are not known yet. The present paper begins a close cooperation between the Institute of Florence and the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples (Group of Research on History of Sciences and Technologies of Eastern Asia, direct by A. Tamburello); here, I will attend to the second instrument over mentioned, the geomantic compass. The geomantic compasses are very important for the history of sciences because they bear witness to enormous complexity of the Chinese thought and, in the technical and scientific field, they represent the instrument for the ancient studies on feng shui. After a panoramic description of the divining system of feng shui, I give a deep explication of the geomantic compass preserved in Florence that seems particularly important because it presents some characters rarely used in this kind of instruments.

A MELUS Interview: Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Ungston is the author of three books which integrate her ancestral Chinese tradition with American culture, life styles and literatures. The Woman Warrior, published in 1976, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, and was enthusiastically acclaimed. China Men, published in 1981, won the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, an encyclopedic novel, was published in 1989. Shortly after Tripmaster Monkey came out, Maxine Hong Kingston read at the Living Writers Series, which I coordinate at San Diego State University. We spent a rich day together, and this inteview is the result of our discussion. Reprinted with permission from the September, 1989, issue of Poetry Flash. Interviewer. The opening chapter of Tripmaster Monkey made me cry. Kingston: Really? I'm so glad. Interviewer: You're glad you made me cry? Kingston: Because everybody is saying it's tough, or they're saying, Wittman has such an obnoxious personality. I am so glad it brings out a softer emotion. Interviewer: Well, I recognize that squalor, that desperation. Being an unemployed poet, going through life in San Francisco where the immigrants are making their dream. I remember sitting in coffee shops, writing up my resume while the immigrants were out there working hard and buying their houses, working towards this |dream.' I said, how have I lost that dream? I recognize that desperation in Wittman. And those piles and piles of unfinished poems in the false bottom of his Gold Mountain Theater truck... Kingston: That dream that he's gonna be a poet. You know, lately I've met new immigrants that have been coming in, and they are so different than my parents. I've met a whole bunch of brand-new people who are musicians, and their strength and their music is so strong. They come here looking for part-time jobs. They don't want to open a restaurant or laundry, but they will take a menial job in a restaurant in order to practice their music. And their dream ... they've come here with the ancient instruments - their erh hus and yuehs [2 string fiddles and moon guitars], and they want to introduce American people to this music. And they think they can introduce those ancient instruments and make music and compose and make a career Interviewer: Let's talk about the opening chapter. Why Wittman Ah Sing ... and not Wilma Ah Lan? Why a male protagonist this time? That surprised me when I opened the book. I wasn't expecting a male protagonist. Kingston: Oh, many reasons. One of them is that my life as a writer had been a long struggle with pronouns. For 30 years I wrote in the first person singular. At a certain point I was thinking that I was self-centered and egotistical, solipsistic, and not very developed as a human being, nor as an artist, because I could only see from this one point of view. I was only interested in myself. So for 30 years I did that - all my poems, my prose, evexything that I wrote. And then in about the fourth chapter of The Woman Warrior I felt the claustrophobia of that very strongly. I thought I had to overcome this self-centeredness. I guess what I'm saying is that I think you can't write well unless you're a good human being. That you cannot fake wisdom, or good values, in a book. You have to be a good person in order to write that way. So about three-quarters of the way through The Woman Warrior I was thinking, I have to care about other people more than I do. And so, very artificially, I wrote a chapter that's done with an omniscient narrator. So I could use a third person. That's the chapter about my mother and her sister going to Los Angeles to reclaim that bigamist husband. Interviewer: That was a wonderful vignette. Kingston: I liked it because it really fell into place as a classical short story shape. …

Academy Exhibits and the Museum

The glitter of the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting was, to no one's surprise, the commercial displays. Over an area approximately equivalent to three football fields, potential buyers were exposed to an impressive display of chromium, plastics, electronics, and tireless salespersons. There was no lack of opportunity to restock one's office with the latest equipment or to release surplus cash. All this represented the best and worst of free enterprise. At the fringes of the exhibition hall were the displays of posters and scientific enterprises of a more modest nature. Against one back wall was possibly the most unique exhibit of all, for it emphasized neither the present nor the future but rather the past. Under the heading of the "Museum" were artifacts of quaint spectacles, some ancient instruments, commemorative stamps, and vignettes of historical significance. But the real purpose of this exhibit was to announce the academy's sponsorship of

A set of silver dental instruments from the New Milton Collection.

This short paper studies a set of ten silver instruments belonging to the New Milton Collection, which are believed to be dental and of Roman date. A brief history of the set is given, also a description of each instrument together with suggested name and function, based upon the accounts of dental procedures recorded in classical medical texts. In an attempt to determine the antiquity of the set, results of non-destructive tests upon two of the instruments are compared with those of metal artefacts of authenticated date. In addition, stylistic comparisions are made with ancient instruments in museum collections, and representations of instruments upon ancient stelae and in medical manuscripts.

A newly discovered Aulos

An ancient reed-blown pipe (αὐλός) has recently been acquired by the Museum of Greek Archaeology in Reading University. This article contains a full descriptive account of the instrument, and a brief discussion of its relationship to other surviving auloi.The instrument is designed to be played with one hand, and must therefore have been one of a pair; its especial value as evidence for ancient auloi lies in the fact that it is more nearly complete than almost any other surviving ancient instrument. Two losses, however, are particularly to be regretted; as with all other ancient instruments, the reed has been lost, and (so far as I know) the other pipe of the pair does not survive. So we cannot gain any new information on two of the most vexed questions regarding the aulos—the size and structure of the reed, and the method of playing two pipes together.For convenience of description, this instrument may be divided into seven sections (see Plate 55). Some of these have been put together, not very expertly, in modern times; in particular, the joins at each end of the sixth section (F and G) are badly out of alignment. These divisions have been chosen because they are externally visible; the method of construction will be examined more closely later.

Ship-shape andSambuca-fashion

In Book viii ch. 6 Polybius describes the structure and use of a siege-engine, theσαμβύκη, so called from its resemblance to a musical instrument of that name. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence for the shape of the musical instrument, and for the structure of the siege-engine, and for possible points of similarity between them.References to the musical instrument are not uncommon in literature from the fifth century B.C. onwards; there are a number of points on which they agree. Theσαμβύκηwas a stringed instrument, and was generally thought to be of non-Greek, near-Eastern origin. The alternative view, that it was invented by Ibycus the lyric poet of Rhegium, was probably based on a fanciful etymology, and can reasonably be disregarded. The derivation ofἰαμβύκη(probably just a variant spelling) fromἰαμβόςis also fanciful.As regards chronology, theσαμβύκηseems to have been introduced into Greece in the late fifth century B.C., and was at that time regarded as something of a novelty by the comic poets. Some later scholars, however, saw fit to correct this impression, and point out that it was in fact a very ancient instrument. Its main use was apparently to provide a musical accompaniment for debauchery: in fact, so disreputable was the instrument that the word for a female player of it,σαμβυκιστρία, was virtually synonymous withπορνή.

The Brauron aulos

This ancient instrument, which is, for the student of Greek music, one of the most significant finds of recent years, came to light during excavations at Brauron, on the east coast of Attica, in August 1961. These excavations, under the direction of Dr. I. Papadimitriou (Director-General of the Greek Archaeological Service), are still in progress, and a full report has not yet been published: so far as this item is concerned, it was found in a sacred spring near the north-west corner of the ancient temple, along with a number of objects which are dated by Dr. Papadimitriou to the late sixth or early fifth century B.C. They were perhaps in situ, buried or hidden, when the Persians sacked the site during the Salamis campaign.The find (item 1059 in the catalogue) comprises the two lower sections of an aulos: there is no apparent reason to doubt that they belong together. The central joint is of the usual type—spigot and socket—and at one end (A in the diagram) there is another socket for the attachment of the next section. At the other end (C in the diagram) there is no spigot or socket: as Hole V is manifestly a vent-hole (see below) this must have been the lower end of the instrument.

The Pentatonic Tuning of the Greek Lyre: A Theory Examined

It has commonly been assumed that, on ancient Greek instruments of the lyre-type (lyre, barbitos, cithara), when a string had been tuned to a certain note, that note and that note only could be played, until the string was retuned; thus, that a separate string was required for each note of a given scale. This (which may be called the orthodox) view involves certain difficulties. The canonical number of strings was seven, and seven-stringed lyres and citharas continue to be represented in art throughout the classical period. But, with one note to each string, a seven-stringed lyre could not even play a complete diatonic octave.

Traité de l‘astrolabe

THERE are not a few treatises, old and new, that concern themselves with that ancient and beautiful instrument, the astrolabe ; but few, if any, are of use to the student or collector possessing an astrolabe who wishes to know how old it is, how it is used, and what are the principles that underly its construction. The work under review most admirably fulfils these functions, and its account of the multifarious types of astrolabe is the clearest and most reliable of those known to the reviewer. Traite de l‘astrolabe Par Henri Michel. (Ouvrage publie avec le concours de la Fondation Universitaire de Belgique.) Pp. viii + 202 + 24 plates. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1947.) 1,200 francs.

Some Problems of Central Asian Exploration

IDEEPLY appreciate the honour which the President and Council have conferred upon me in asking me to deliver the Asia Lecture for 1943, but it is with some hesitation that I have accepted an invitation which I have done so little to deserve. Five years have passed since I was last in this Hall and had the privilege of giving you an account of some explorations in the Oxus regions that lie close under the Roof of the World. I have spent most of the interval travelling in the interior of China on business more urgent than the study of ancient civilizations, without books or instruments or opportunities for scientific research. I must therefore ask your indulgence, if what I have to say about the raw material of the history of Asia contains too much wide generalization. The half century of Central Asian exploration which has just drawn to a close was a golden age of discovery. It will perhaps be known in the international vocabulary of science as the period of the Asienforscher, of great travellers, each of whom collected data belonging to the many different branches of learning which bear on the climate, physical geography, peoples, and history of the regions into which they penetrated. There were the Russians, Przhevalski and Kozlov; Hedin, the Swede, whose great volumes on the Tarim river and on the structure of Tibet provide much of the material with which we still debate about the desiccation of Asia; the French, under Pelliot, who secured a goodly share of the Tunhwang manuscripts for the College de France, long the fountain-head of higher linguistic criticism, inspired as it was by the genius of the late Monsieur Chavannes; the Germans, Richthofen, giant among geographers who have studied China, and Griinwedel and Le Coq, who brought back to Berlin an art gallery of Central Asian paintings; and the Americans, Pumpelly and Huntington, whose detailed fieldwork was mostly done in the taspian regions in the early years of this century. On the British side we may claim with pride one colossus of Central Asian exploration, Sir Aurel Stein, the grievous news of whose death reached us only a few weeks ago. His small and wiry figure has so often graced this

The study of the early history of terrestrial magnetism

In order to furnish a background for our present knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, many scholars have devoted much time and labor to the examination of ancient and medieval instruments containing references to the magnet and its properties. Such studies involve the expenditure of much patience because the original documents are not readily accessible since they are widely scattered in libraries and collections. Difficulties are also encountered in understanding them, because they are usually written in language now not easily intelligible even to those who speak the modern forms of the languages represented. Parchment and other materials on which these manuscripts were written were, during the middle ages, so scarce and expensive that the urge for economy led to the excessive employment of arbitrary abbreviations which, often dimmed by the effects of time, render the text difficult to decipher. Expressions, too, employed before modern physical concepts came into use, make doubtful the interpretation of many passages.

II.—The Astrolabe of Queen Elizabeth

During the past summer a number of parts of ancient English astronomical instruments were found in the University Observatory at Oxford, during the refitting of certain rooms for the new programme of work of Professor Plaskett, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy. Professor Plaskett was kind enough to draw my attention to the find, and, on my expressing the opinion that it was of historic value, was gracious enough to present the instruments to the Oxford Museum of the History of Science in the Old Ashmolean.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

PARISAcademy of Sciences, September 30.—M. Fizeau in the chair.—The following papers were read:—Formation of an astronomical museum at the Observatory of Paris, by M. Mouchez. This is to include portraits of astronomers and savants, a collection of medals, drawings and photographs of celestial objects and phenomena, ancient instruments, &c.—Experimental facts showing that abundant sudoral secretions are not necessarily connected with excessive activity of cutaneous circulation, by M. Vulpian. In a dying cat, e.g., when the heart's action is much weakened, and the digital parts are bloodless, the sweat exudes freely from these parts.—Remarks on the phonograph and the telephone, by M. Bouillaud. —Determination of the exact number of irreducible co-variants of the binary cubo-biquadratic system, by Prof. Sylvester.—Industrial utilisation of solar heat, by M. Mouchot. This describes experiments made during the Exhibition. Inter alia, he set in action, on September 2, a solar receiver with mirror having an aperture of about twenty square metres. It had, at the focus, an iron boiler weighing, with accessories, 200 kilogrammes, and having a capacity of 100 litres (30 for the steam chamber and 70 for the liquid). In half-an-hour the 70 litres were raised to boiling, and the manometer soon registered 6 atm. pressure. On September 22, with slightly veiled sun, he got 6.2 atm., and worked, under a pressure of 3 atm., a Tangye pump raising 1,500 to 1,800 litres of water hourly to the height of 2 m. With a clear sky on the 29th ult. 7 atm. was reached.—Discovery of a small planet at the observatory of Ann-Arbor, by Mr. Watson.—On intra-mercurial planets, by M. Gaillot—On molecular attraction in its relations to the temperature of bodies, by M. Levy. To know all the isothermal and all the adiabatic lines of a body, and so to be able to study it completely, it is necessary and sufficient to know two of its isothermal lines and only one of its adiabatic lines.—On losses of charge produced in the outflow of a liquid when the section of the flow undergoes a sudden increase, by M. Boussinesq.—On the rotary power of quartz and its variation with the temperature, by M. Joubert. The angular coefficient of the curve of variation increases at first pretty rapidly up to 300°- From this to 840° (the boiling point of cadmium) it is nearly constant and the curve nearly a straight line with point of inflexion about 500°. Beyond 840° and up to 1,500°, the rotatory power increases only with extreme slowness. With a quartz of 46.172 mm., giving a rotation of 1,000° at zero, the increase from 300° to 900° is twelve minutes per degree. With a quartz of only 11 mm. the increase would still be three minutes per degree. Thus quartz makes an extremely sensitive thermometer, with the essential condition of comparability.—Phonic wheel for regularisation of the synchronism of motions, by M. Lacour. An iron-toothed wheel turns with its teeth very near an electro-magnet which is caused to exert periodic attraction by means of a vibrating diapason.—On the presence of isopropylic, normal butylic, and secondary amylic alcohols in the oils and alcohols of potatoes, by M. Rabuteau.

On Improvements in the Trumpet

The two instruments which I have the pleasure of describing to the Association are the results of my endeavours to remedy some of the shortcomings of that ancient and important instrument, the trumpet.

Chemical examination on ancient instruments, &c.

Chemical examination on ancient instruments, &c.