Slide rule & thermometer, from set of specific gravity beads

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This slide rule and thermometer were included in a set of specific gravity beads made around 1810, probably in Edinburgh by Isabella Lovi, the widow of a scientific instrument maker, Angelo Lovi, who emigrated to Scotland from Milan in 1772, but who died in 1804.

David Brewster described Mrs Lovi's 'Patent Areometrical Beads' in the article 'Hydrodynamics' in his Edinburgh Encyclopaedia: 'The patent aerometrical beads have been brought to a very high degree of perfection by Mrs Lovi ... The beads are accompanied by a sliding rule and a thermometer for making corrections for differences of temperature, and for finding the strength of the spirits.' The rule is misleadingly stamped 'H. LOVI', although this may have been another, as yet unidentified member of the family.

The set features 363 specific gravity beads, together with two slide rules, the thermometer, six glass rods and an instruction book. The set could have been used for a variety of purposes: from ether to concentrated sulphuric acid, which is why there are so many individual glass 'beads', each marked with their respective specific gravity. The Highland Society of Scotland were keen to see it applied to testing the quality of milk, and awarded Mrs Lovi a premium in 1816.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-190-002-207-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1962.115
• Date: Around 1810
  c. 1810
  
• Material: Box wood slide-rule / bone slide-rule / glass rods / mahogany box
  Bead, gravity / bubble, philosophical / sliderule / thermometer
  
• Dimensions: Box 13.13" x 12.38" x 5.38" H
  
• What: Bead, gravity / bubble, philosophical / sliderule / thermometer
  
• Subject: 22. PHYSICS, Hydrostatics (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who: Mrs J. Lovi, High Street, Edinburgh (Maker)
  
• Where: Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  
• Event:
• Description: Three hundred and sixty three aerometrical beads, two slide-rules, one thermometer, six glass rods and an instruction book, all in a drawer of a mahogany box, and made by J. Lovi of Edinburgh, c. 1810
  
• References:
  • I.Lovi and J.R. Irving, British Patent 2826, 9 March 1805, 'Apparatus for determining the specific gravity of fluid bodies'.I. Lovi, Directions for Using the Patent Aerometric Beads, Edinburgh, 1813 
  • T.C. Hope, 'Report of a Committee of the Highland Society appointed to examine the Beads for Ascertaining the Specific Gravity of Liquids Invented by Mrs Lovi and the application of them to discover the richness of milk, Transactions of the Highland Socie 
  • [D. Brewster], 'Hydrodynamics', in Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. XI , Edinburgh, 1817, p 441  
• Translations:
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