The Society's 24th Annual General Meeting took place on 7 July at King's College, Strand Campus, next to Somerset House by Waterloo Bridge and was followed by a Society visit to the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons.
'Unemployed for just one hour'. David Wallis held forth on his fascinating and sometimes unplanned career in instrument manufacture. The lecture was full of energy and humour and listed enough famous names in scientific instruments to fill an historic trade directory.
Our panel literally rose to the occasion as members posed their questions.
Incorporated into the day's activities were talks by:
Our picture shows members grabbing a rare opportunity to handle and inspect the range of Replica Rara instruments produced in the mid 1970s. Charles Miller can be seen holding a replica Culpeper-type microscope whilst Bud La Rue stands pensively at the end of the table. In the background our Chairman is engaged in vigorous conversation (he knows no other type!). Meanwhile on the far right, the man who started off Replica Rara, Dr Jim McCormick from Chicago (holding the grey folder) shows two members the original sales catalogue.
Sixteen members also made a visit to the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, with an introduction by Neil Handley, Secretary of the SIS and a former Secretary of the London Museums of Health and Medicine, a consortium of which the Royal College is a leading member. Highlights included microscopes by Ross and by Watson used in training in the 1840s and 1940s respectively, plus a stereoscope used to gain an appreciation of depth when viewing the photographic results of facial plastic surgery, material associated with Hunter, Lister, Quekett (a former conservator at the museum) and some early pace makers. There is even an interpretative display on the identification of (surgical) instruments and on the historic manufacturing companies involved, which concentrates on the firm of John Weiss Ltd.
Paolo Brenni, President of the SIS could not be present but sent the following message which was read out at the start of the lecture programme:
Dear Members of the Scientific Instrument Society
Unfortunately I cannot be with you today and I sincerely apologise for my absence, but that is the disadvantage of having a President living far away from London! I am really sorry, because the programme of the 24th Annual General Meeting is very attractive and I am sure that the talks of Dr. Morrison Low and of Mr. David Wallis will be extremely interesting. By the way, I would like to personally congratulate Alison for her excellent book which cast a new light on various aspects of the history of the British precision industry in the age of industrialisation.
Also this year the Society was able to organise a rich series of events and I thank all the members of the Honorary Committee and all their collaborators for their excellent job. The Conference in Florence and Arezzo was a success and we certainly would have had more participants if their number had not been limited by obvious practical reasons. The preparation of these conferences is time and energy consuming...but the great reward for the organisers is the enthusiasm and the satisfaction shown by the participants! As far as I am concerned, I am ready to organise a new conference in Paris in 2009. (The last SIS visit to Paris was almost 10 years ago).
Finally, my indefatigable friend, Willem Hackmann, deserves a special thanks for his great work for the Bulletin, which is nowadays an indispensable reference for all those interested in historical scientific instruments.
Your President
Paolo Brenni