Benjamin Martin: Author, Instrument-Maker, and ‘Country Showman’

253 Pages·1976·13.065 MB·English

by  John R. Millburn (auth.)

BENJAMIN MARTIN
AUTHOR, INSTRUMENT-MAKER, AND 'COUNTRY SHOWMAN'
SCIENCE IN HISTORY
GeneralEditor:G.L'E. TURNER
University of Oxford
ADVISORY BOARD
LUIS DE ALBUQUERQUE University of Coimbra
J. L. HEILBRON University of California
W. F. RYAN University of London
C. WEBSTER University of Oxford
2
BENJAMIN MARTIN
'BENJAMIN MARTIN, Optician. From an Original Portrait' Published
posthumously in The Gentleman's Magazine for August 1785, this engraving was
taken from a painting then in the possession of the editor, John Nichols. Later that
year the painting was given to Richard Greene for his Museum at Lichfield; its sub
sequent fate is unknown. From the position of the buttons, which are on the wrong
side for a man, it is likely that the original portrait faced the other way.
BENJAMIN MARTIN
AUTHOR, INSTRUMENT-MAKER,
AND 'COUNTRY SHOWMAN'
by
JOHN R. MILLBURN
Leyden
N oordhoff International Publishing
1976
© 1976 N oordhoff International Publishing
Sof'tcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1976
A division of A. W. Sijthoff International Publishing Company B.V.
Leyden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7884-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7882-2
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-011-7882-2
Set-in-type in the United Kingdom
Contents
List ofI llustrations
Vlll
Acknowledgements
1X
Notes on Units and References Xl
Chapters
1 Introduction and Early Life, 1705-35 1
2 Schoolmaster and Author, 1735-7 11
3 Dilettante and Microscope Maker, 1737-40 22
4 Itinerant Lecturer, 174{}-55 35
5 Philology and the General Magazine 65
6 Establishment of the Fleet Street Business, 1756-9 84
7 Consolidation: the 1760s 118
8 The 1770s 152
9 Death and Aftermath 172
Notes and References 183
Appendices
I Short-title List of Martin's Publications 193
II Manuscripts Relating to Benjamin Martin 211
III Martin's Catalogue of Instruments,
Books and Prints, 1762 218
IV Locations of Representative
Martin Instruments 224
V Bibliography of Printed Sources,
other than Martin's Publications 227
General Index 235
Vll
List of Illustrations
Plates
Frontispiece: Portrait of Benjamin Martin
I A scene illustrating the setting envisaged by Martin for
The Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy 72
II A map of New England, from the General Magazine,
1755 81
III A drawing by Martin of his own microscopical obser-
vations, from the General Magazine, 1755 82
IV Optical cabinets 91
V Planetarium and coin balances 99
VI Horizontal sundial and reflecting telescopes 106
VII Martin's first all-brass universal compound microscope,
from Philosophia Britannica 115
VIII J. L. Martin's octant and G. Wright's sundial 166
Text Figures
1 Title page of Martin's Pocket Microscope tract, 1738 24
2 Martin's pocket microscope: sketch based on the plate
and description in his 1738 tract 25
3 Martin's 1742 universal microscope: sketch based on the
plate in Micrographia Nova 31
4 Title page of Martin's Course of Lectures, 1743 42
5 Fleet Street and its tributaries in the mid-
eighteenth century 87
6 Martin's 'visual glasses', re-drawn from the plate
1fl
Essay on Visual Glasses, 1756 92
7 Martin's table clock and its escapement, 1770 155
viii
Acknowledgements
In compiling the material for this book I have received much
assistance from the staff of reference libraries, museums, archive
depositories, and other institutions in Great Britain and overseas. I
would particularly like to thank Mr Gerard L 'E. Turner, Senior Assis
tant Curator of the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford, and
Mr Peter J. Wallis, Reader in Historical Bibliography of Education at
Newcastle University, for many helpful discussions on Martin's
products and publications respectively. The numerous other in
stitutions, organizations, and individuals whose resources I have
drawn upon, either directly or via correspondence, include (in London
unless stated otherwise):
The Adler Planetarium, Chicago; Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology, Washington, D.C.; Bath Public Reference Library, Avon;
Berkshire Mercury Archives, Reading; Berkshire Record Office,
Reading; Birmingham Public Reference Library, Birmingham;
Bodleian Library, Oxford; British Library; British Museum; British
Optical Association; Derby Public Reference Library, Derby;
Deutsches Museum, Munich; Messrs Charles Franks Ltd., Glasgow;
Gloucester Public Reference Library, Gloucester; Goodwood Estate
Co. Ltd., Chichester; Guildford Muniment Room, Guildford; Mr
R. D. Gurney; Harriet Wynter Arts and Sciences; Library Company
of Philadelphia, Philadelphia; Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.; the Libraries of Birmingham, Edinburgh, and London Univer
sities, and of University College. London (Graves Collection); Lon
don Library; Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence; National
Maritime Museum; National Portrait Gallery; Norfolk Museums Ser
vice, Norwich; Public Record Office; Royal Astronomical Society;
Royal Institution; Royal Microscopical Society, Oxford; Royal Scot-
ix
Acknowledgements
tish Museum, Edinburgh; Royal Society; Royal Society of Arts;
Royal Society of Medicine; Dr W. F. Ryan; Salford Museum and Art
Gallery, Salford; Science Museum; Mr A. J. Turner; Victoria and
Albert Museum; Wellcome Historical Medical Museum; West Sussex
Record Office, Chichester; Whipple Museum for the History of
Science, Cambridge (Mr D. J. Bryden, Curator); Wiirttembergisches
Landesmuseum, Stuttgart; and several owners of private collections
who wish to remain anonymous.
The detailed invoices for goods supplied by Martin to Harvard
College, Massachusetts, in the 1760s, which are quoted in full in
Chapter 7, are published here by kind permission of the Curator of the
Harvard University Archives. I am particularly indebted to Mr John
Lancaster, Mr Ebenezer Gay, and Mr Clark A. Elliott, of the
Houghton Library, the Collection of Historical Scientific Instru
ments, and the University Archives, respectively, for assistance
in locating and obtaining copies of the relevant documents, and for
supplying information on the instruments and publications con
cerned. I am also indebted to Boston Public Library, Massachusetts,
for the loan of copies of manuscripts in their possession that relate to
the Harvard orders.
Dr Henry C. King, of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, with
whom I am happy to be collaborating on another project, kindly read
and commented on the first draft of the typescript.
For permission to reproduce certain plates I am indebted to the
British Library, the Science Museum, London, and the Museum of
the History of Science, Oxford. Plates IVa, Va, VIa, and VlIIa are
Crown copyright. Illustrations not acknowledged in the captions are
from my own collection.
John R. Millburn
Aylesbury, July 1975.
x
Notes on Units and References
Units
Some of the extracts from Martin's works and catalogues given ver
batim in this book necessarily include units of measurement,
especially where dimensions of instruments are concerned. The prin
cipal units in the system that he used for linear measure were as
follows:
1 yard (0· 914 metre) 3 feet
36 inches
1 foot (305 millimetres) 12 inches
1 inch (25·4 millimetres) subdivided fractionally.
For accounting purposes, the basic monetary system was pounds
sterling ([,), shillings (s.) and [old] pence (d.):
1 pound sterling 20 shillings
= 240 [old] pence
1 shilling = 12 [old] pence.
As there was no coin or note of value [,1, prices were often quoted in
guineas and half-guineas, for which there were gold coins:
1 guinea = [,11s.0d.
= 21 shillings
Half-guinea = 10s.6d.
No universally-applicable factor for the value of eighteenth-century
money in today's currency can be given, as not only have prices in
general risen considerably but also the relative costs of various goods
and services have changed. As a very rough guide it may be reckoned
Xl