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Precision of scientific instrumentation

I plan to investigate different instruments belonging to the historical collections of the physics and astronomy departments at the university of Göttingen

bmirwald
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Precision of scientific instrumentation

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  1. Repetition circle by Tobias Mayer (University Göttingen, historical collection, institute for astrophysics, call no. A.088) Heliometer, originally by Fraunhofer/Utzschneider/Repsold, 1814 (University Göttingen, historical collection, institute for astrophysics, call no. A.101) Precision of scientific instrumentation – claims, meanings and reproducibility

  2. Around the year 1800 • 1761 & 1768 – transits of planet Venus • 1763 – first academy of mining in Schemnitz • 1785 – power loom invented • 1799 – Mètre des Archives and Kilogramme des Archives • 1800 – voltaic pile • 1804 – steam locomotive • 1806-1814 – blockade of the French and French-allied coasts • 1818-1840 – survey of Württemberg • 1833 – magnetic observatory in Göttingen – center of magnetic society • 1850 – 260,000 power looms in operation in England

  3. objectivity industry/ manufacturing The need for precision reproducibility science precision military comparision & collaboration state authority reliability

  4. today: trueness? what is “precision”? accuracy? precision resolution, resolving power? exactness? sensitivity? International vocabulary of metrology — Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM), 2008

  5. Compass for surveying by Bianchi precision instruments at Göttingen • Collections: astronomy, physics, geophysics • Tobias Mayer: invention of repeating circle (c 1750) • Surveying compass from Bianchi (1821-1898) ↔ 1820-47 – land survey by Gauss • Magnetic measuring devices • Heliometer (1814) Inclinatorium by Moritz Meyerstein (1847)

  6. Principle of repeating circle Heliometer

  7. Questions on instruments Work with collections • evaluating related correspondence, manuscripts and literature • photographic documentation • checking condition and functionality • methods for measuring accurateness of engravings, graduations, screws, slow motions and similar features; • short report about the instrument: expectations and goals of the inventors vs. evaluation of the instrument's performance coming out of my own work • Who defined them as precision instruments? • According to what criteria was a single instrument being judged as (im)precise? • How differed concepts of precision between craftsmen and scientists, and what traces of their controversies have eventually materialized in instruments?

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