Pyrometer (1 of 2)

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A pyrometer usually demonstrates the different degree of thermal expansion of various metals. This example, designed by James Ferguson, was made around 1800 and retailed by W. & S. Jones, scientific instrument makers based in London. It is pictured here with its fitted case.

The pyrometer consists of a brass clamp to hold metal rods, three burners to heat them, and a dial on a pillar. The silvered-brass dial is marked from 0 to 200 degrees, with a long steel needle. A second smaller needle points at a scale marked from 8 to 0. The dial is marked 'W. & S. Jones/ 30 Holborn London'. Six metal rods are supplied, marked 'B' [for brass], 'C' [for copper], 'M', 'P' [for platinum] and 'I' [for iron]. The sixth is unmarked. The apparatus possibly lacks a thermometer.

Ferguson first described and illustrated this apparatus in 1767. This particular example appears to have been commissioned from W. & S. Jones by Charles Nicoll Bancker (1778/9-1869), a wealth Philadelphia insurance and shipping agent, who built up a substantial collection of scientific instruments in the first part of the 19th century.

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• Online ID: 000-100-104-305-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1987.354
• Date: Around 1800
  c. 1800
  
• Material: Pyrometer, Ferguson's
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Pyrometer, Ferguson's
  
• Subject:
• Who: Ferguson (Eponym)
  W. and S. Jones, London (Maker)
  
• Where: England, London
  
• Event:
• Description: Ferguson's pyrometer by W. and S. Jones of London, c. 1800
  
• References:
  • Adams, George, Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Second edition edited by Jones, William: London: 1799, volume I p 296 
  • Ferguson, James, A Supplement to Mr Ferguson's Book of Lectures...second edition, London: 1767, pp 9-12 and pl. ii 
  • Simpson, A. D. C., ' "La plus brillante collection qui existe au monde": A lost American collection of the nineteenth century' in Journal of the History of Collections 7 no 2 (1995), pp 187-96 
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