Bohnenberger gyroscope (detail, 1 of 5)

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This photograph shows the inscription on a demonstration orbital globe. The instrument is an example of the device designed by professor J.G. Bohnenberger of Tubingen University in 1817 to provide the correct dynamical demonstration of the precession of the equinoxes. It was provided to an American collector by the instrument suppliers W. & S. Jones of London.

The inscription on the sphere's brass gimbal ring reads: W.& S. JONES / 30 Holborn / LONDON.'

The Jones firm claimed they could supply apparatus made to special order, and this item would appear to have been made from the 1819 published description, for a wealthy North American collector named Charles Nicoll Bancker (1778/9-1869). Although signed by the Jones firm, there is a concealed signature inside the wooden globe of the subcontracting instrument maker, William Stiles.

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• Online ID: 000-180-001-011-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  
• Date: 1831
  
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• References:
  • Simpson, A.D.C. 'La plus brilliante collection qui existe au monde' a lost American collection of the nineteenth century. Journal of the history of Collections 7 (1995), pp 187-196. 
  • Simpson, A.D.C. A Sub-Contractor of W.& S. Jones Identified. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 39 (1993), pp 23-27. 
  • von Bohnenberger, [J.G.F.]. Beschreibung einer Mashine zur Erlauterung der Geseze der Umdrehung der Erde um ihre Axe .... Tubinger Blatter fur Naturwissenschaften und Arzneikunde 3 (1817), pp 72-83. 
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