Grant Aided Projects
The SIS Grants Programme began in 2006 and the following awards have been made with subsequent publication in the Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society: see also our blog page for brief summaries of recent projects. Projects are listed in date order, with the most recently published projects first.
Daniel Belteki (UK)
The galvanic connections of the Airy Transit Circle and the Airy Chronograph. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 149 (June 2021), pp 2-9
Gaye Danışan (Turkey)
Paper instruments in the history of Ottoman astronomy. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 149 (June 2021), pp 34-43
Victor Perez (UK)
Life and works of Martin Altman, Engineer to the Hapsburgs. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 147 (December 2020), pp 11-19
Lucy Jane Santos (UK)
Spinthariscope. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 147 (December 2020), pp 20-21
Sarah Griffin (USA)
The San Zeno Wheel: A wooden volvelle and monastic timekeeping in fifteenth-century Verona. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 145 (June 2020), pp 41-43
Johan Gärdebo (Sweden)
A Franco-Sueco satellite in America: Transnational remote sensing at the end of the Cold War. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 144 (March 2020), pp 32-34
Patricia Andrea Dosio (Argentina)
The cabinet of experimental physics. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 144 (March 2020), pp 36-39
Frederick Page (UK)
Binks and a burette: An account of a burette and an analytical chemist named Christopher Binks (1808-1873). Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 139 (December 2018), pp 32-43
Toby Athersuch (UK)
An early commercial, all glass, gas chromatograph, by Toby J. Athersuch and Ian D. Wilson. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 137 (June 2018), pp 28-31
Takis Lazos (Greece)
Greek Secondary School science collections in Istanbul. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 134 (September 2017), pp 16–23
Sergei Masilkov (Russia)
Large wooden astrolabe from the State Hermitage Museum. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 133 (June 2017), pp 2–12
Fabrizio Bigotti (UK)
Recreating the Pulsilogium of Santorio: Outlines for a historically-engaged endeavour, by Fabrizio Bigotti, David Taylor and Joanne Welsman. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 133 (June 2017), pp 30–35
Günther Oestmnann (Germany)
Manufacture and testing of marine chronometers in Germany during the First World War and in the interwar period. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 133 (June 2017), pp 36–38
Viviane Quirke (UK)
From Pharmaceutical Innovation to Public Engagement: Stephen Carter and the Micrarium in Buxton. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 132 (March 2017), pp 18-21
Toby Athersuch (UK)
A private collection of vintage chromatographs (2016)
Cesare Pastorino (Germany)
Early modern mathematical instruments based on values of specific gravities held at the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden (2016)
David Singerman (Canada)
Sugar polariscopes (2015)
Jenny Bulstrode (UK)
Magnetic dip (2015)
Rachel Dunn (Durham, UK)
Collections associated with John Dalton
Emily Winterburn (UK)
The Chemical Museum. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 124 (2015), pp 39–41
Antoine Gallay (UK)
Chérubin Orléans and binocular telescopes
Günther Oestmnann (Germany)
English chronometers imported to Germany at the start of WWI
Monica Blanco (Spain)
On Gardeners, Dukes and Mathematical Instruments. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 125 (2015), pp 22–27
Dawn Correia
The scientific nature of the kaleidoscope. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 131, pp 2–7
Heloise Finch-Boyer (UK)
Instruments of the Jesuit Observatory at Ambohidempona, Madagascar 1888–1967
Matteo Realdi (Italy)
The Double-Image Micrometer of Giovanni Battista Amici. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 131, pp 11–16
Jennifer Wallis (UK)
The use of the sphygmograph (an instrument creating a visual tracing of the pulse) in the asylum in 19th-century Britain. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 124 (2015), pp 25–28
Jane Insley (London)
Crystal Clear! Crystal Models in the Natural Science Collections at the National Museums Scotland. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 125 (2015), pp 38–43
Günther Oestmann (Germany)
On the compensating pendulums used by Heinrich Johann Kessels (1781-1849). Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 122 (2014), pp 28–32
Hautala, Svetlana (Finland)
A Fifteenth Century Instrument for Computing the Quantity of Verses in Latin Hexameters and Pentameters. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 121 (2014), pp 34–35
Flora Paparou (Greece)
Following the traces of science education in Greek schools and institutions of the North Aegean region from the beginning of the nineteenth century up to the 1920s. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 117 (2013), pp 10–21
Terje Brundtland
The correspondence between Francis Hauksbee and Samuel Molyneux on the air pump. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 116 (2012), pp 14–16
Roberto Affonso Pimental Junior (Brazil)
The ruins of an experiment: Zeeman’s Fizeau-effect experiments within the Boerhaave collection. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 115 (2012), pp 41–44
Darren Wagner (UK)
Arousing applications: syringes and anatomical preparations of genital organs in the long eighteenth century. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 113 (2012), pp 10–15
Ignacio Suay Matallana (Spain)
Secondary school science collections in Spain: Castelló and Alicante. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 113 (2012), pp 16–22
Claire Jones (UK)
Magic lanterns and slide in Leeds
Report presented to the SIS Committee
Boris Jardine (UK)
The scientific instrumentation of the astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth (2010)
Talk: “One vast headless society”: Charles Piazzi Smyth and the material culture of anti-internationalism’, Artefacts XVII, Edinburgh, 8 October 2012.
Jane Draycott (UK)
Medical and Surgical Instruments in Roman Egypt: Evidence from the Documentary Papyri. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 107 (2010), pp 18–20 and Lenses in Roman Egypt. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 117 (2013), pp 22–24
Martin Willis (UK)
The telescopic practices of specific nineteenth-century astronomers (2010)
Dana Freiburger (USA)
The History of Scientific Instruments at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 106 (Sept 2010), pp 20–30.
Samuel Gessner (Portugal)
The Vopelius-Schissler Connection: Transmission of Knowledge for the Design of Celestial Globes in the 16th Century. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 104 (March 2010), pp 32–42
Ron Thompson (Canada)
Critical edition of pseudo-Masha’allah on the astrolabe (2008)
Stanley Greenberg (USA)
Photography of particle detectors (2007)
Shae Trewin (USA)
The Curatorial Legacy of Derek de Solla Price. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 99 (Dec 2008), pp 11–16.
Alexi Baker (UK)
Talk: ‘The instrument trade in London, 1700-1750’, SIS AGM, Oxford, 22 July 2006.
Reading Between the Lines: The Instrument Trade in the Newspapers of Early 18th Century London. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 102 (Sept 2009), pp 12–18