Marvin Bolt, the Museum’s curator of science and technology, traveled to Europe last fall to research some of the world’s oldest telescopes. Read along to hear about his adventures and discoveries.
An early flight from Berlin to London enabled me to make a relaxed visit to the Tate Britain museum. The highlight (for me) was Joseph Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), on loan from the National Gallery. I had seen illustrations, but seeing the actual painting was far better.
Joseph Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768)
The hapless bird is about to expire as the air is evacuated from the glass chamber.
The witnesses display a wide range of emotions, ranging from the serious
to the matter-of-fact
to the horrified.
Glass was an essential part of this device, providing strength to withstand the vacuum and enabling observation of the evacuated space. Without glass, the air pump would have been a much less successful device, albeit one that would have made many birds and at least some witnesses much happier.
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