MDMD2: None but the best for this Party ...

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Well, they're known for being a nation of shopkeepers,
but these quotes of Bernoulli connect in another way.
If I recall, the english colonies differed significantly
from the other european colonial pursuits in that they 
were pretty much private enterprises, as Mason suggests,
252.30-1:

    "...both Pennsylvania and Maryland are Charter'd Companies
    as well, if it comes to that."

An empire of shopkeepers grown large? And also, that take by Bernoulli:

    what surprised him was the commercial context for all this
    astronomy: the vulgar but dynamic and exhilarating
    world of the London shops ....  What business did
    astronomy have to display its apparatus in such a
    context?" (p. 370)- [Bennett, see below.]

Could add some dimension to fellow astronomer Mason's bemoaning the
loss of his hoped for "Moment of Purity" sacrificed to the forces of 
commercialism and trade. Interesting...


In a message dated 1/2/02 8:58:53 PM, davidmmonroe at yahoo.com writes:

<< "Each of us is to have his own twin Telescope, by Mr.
Dollond, fitted with the latest of his marvellous
Achromatics,-- our Clock by Mr.Ellicott,-- and of
course the Sector by your Mr. Bird,-- none but the
best for this Party, I should say!" (M&D, Ch. 2, p.
13)

>From James A. Bennett, "Shopping for Instruments in
Paris and London," Merchants and Marvels: Commerce,
Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe, ed. Pamela H.
Smith and Paula Findlen (New York: Routledge, 2002),
pp. 370-98 ...

"On 8 December 1768, Jean Bernoulli wrote from London:

I've been here in London for eight days.  I am still
not able to tell you about astronomers or
observatories, but I will share the pleasant surprise
which strikes an astronomer walking through the
streets of this capital.  You have surely heard talk
of the richness and brilliance of the shops of London,
but I doubt whether you can imagine how much astronomy
contributes to the beauty of the spectacle: London has
a great many opticians; the shops of these artists are
full of refracting and reflecting telescopes, octants,
&c.  All these instruments, ranged and set out with
care, strike the eye at the same time as imposing
reflections on the mind.

"He was astonished, and confident that his
correspondent would share his astonishment, that he
continue his report on the state of astronomy in
Europe without yet having visited such conventional
sites as observatories, academies, and the homes of
astronomers.  He was not surprised that instrument
making flourished in London: that was well known to
anyone active in practical astronomy in the eighteenth
century, when London instruments were being used in
observatories all over Europe....  Instead what
surprised him was the commercial context for all this
astronomy: the vulgar but dynamic and exhilarating
world of the London shops ....  What business did
astronomy have to display its apparatus in such a
context?" (p. 370)

"Bernoulli himself attended 'with pleasure' a lecture
on the forthcoming transit of Venus ...." (p. 379)

   "Of the mathematical instrument makers, three
rivals stand above the others, and among them
Bernoulli believes their reputations to stand in the
order: Bird, Sisson, and Jesse Ramsden.  He has
clearly spent time talking to Bird and Sisson, but not
Ramsden.  Her does describe in detail a telescope
mount by Ramsden, but he may have seen this in
Dollond's workshop.  Among other things, he has
discussed with Bird the application of achromatic
lenses to divided instruments and with Sisson his
method of dividing scales--a point of interest because
Bird's method had now been published by the Board of
Longitude, and Sisson had been trained by his own
father, who had also trained Bird.  For the
well-informed shopper the history and workshop
traditions of the London makers already fall within
the orbit of connoisseurship...." (pp. 379-80)

   "One of the most useful aspects of Bernoulli's
record is the negative report he writes on Dollond
....  The more valuable instruments are made only to
order....  For the instruments made in quantity, he
cautions that people who buy English work imagining
that the signature 'Dollond' is enough to ensure
excellence are seriously mistaken.  Indeed, if they
are fortunate enough to get a good instrument, this
means that it was not made by Dollond's workmen at
all, but that at least part of the work has been
subcontract ed to his brother-in-law Ramsden." (p.
380)

And so forth.  Just figured this'd be of some slight
interest, is all.  A few years later than the events
we've been concerned with, but there are some familiar
names there.  Anyway, Bennett is citing Jean
Bernoulli's Lettres astronomiques (Berlin, 1771) ...


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Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 17:57:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: MDMD2: None but the best for this Party ... 
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