The Society's 25th Annual General Meeting took place on Saturday 5 July at King's College, Strand Campus, next to Somerset House by Waterloo Bridge. It was preceded by a mini conference on Instruments and the Guilds, held at Glazier's Hall on Friday 4 July.

To mark the Society’s 25th anniversary, the 2008 Annual General Meeting was extended to a two-day programme. There were two prestige venues, both of them boasting a fine 'River Room', so members had no excuse not to socialise by the Thames in July!

In recent years, the Society has established a good relationship with the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers (WCSIM), a Livery Company of the City of London formed in 1955 by members of the industry, with the support of the Clockmakers and the Spectacle Makers companies. For more information on the WCSIM and its activities, see the SIS Bulletin 85 (June 2005), page 24, or the Company's website.

On Friday 4 July, we invited members to a series of talks on the history of instrument making and the London guilds. The setting was the magnificent Glazier’s Hall alongside London Bridge. Originally built in 1808 as a warehouse at the then heart of the Port of London, it is now owned jointly by the WCSIM with two other City Livery Companies, the Glaziers & Painters of Glass, and the Launderers. Lunch was served in the River Room, which afforded a splendid view of the river Thames.

The day's proceedings were followed by an optional guided museum tour led by the Honorary Curator of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.

The photograph above shows the outgoing Chairman and the Master Scientific Instrument Maker making the formal vote of thanks at the end of the tour of the Clockmakers' Museum.

On Saturday 5 July, we returned to King’s College, where we also had last year’s AGM. We started with the by now traditional series of talks, this time by two of our members and one guest speaker, Joanna Migdal, who is an authority on sundials. In his illustrated keynote address after lunch, our President discussed the Society’s past and future, its aims, achievements and challenges. we were delighted that he journeyed from Switzerland to share this event with us.

The photograph above shows a section of the delegates waiting for the AGM to commence on the Saturday afternoon.

Paolo's Presidential address was a witty assessment of the Society's activities over the past 25 years and the advances in instrument studies that have transformed the academic study of the history of science in that time.

Programme

Friday 4 July: Mini-conference on 'Instruments and the Guilds'

Jointly organised by the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers (WCSIM) and the Scientific Instrument Society (SIS)
Location: Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London Bridge SE1 9DD

10.30 Arrival, coffee
11.00 Introductions on behalf of the SIS and the WCSIM
11.20 Keith Hinde, ‘The Evolution of the London Livery Companies’
12.10 David Wallis, ‘A Life in Instrument Making: from Apprentice to Russia’
13.00 Lunch in the River Room
14.20 Gloria Clifton, Head of the the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on Instrument Makers in the London Guilds 1850-1914 - New Research
15.10 Neil Handley, ‘More Than "A Blessing to the Aged": The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers’
16.00 Tea
17.00 Guided tour of the Clockmakers’ Museum by the Keeper, Sir George White. Location: Guildhall Library, London EC2P 2EJ

A note on the speakers:
- Keith Hinde has written a history of the Worshipful Company of Solicitors and has also compiled a descriptive catalogue of the London-made knives in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers.
- David Wallis has spent a lifetime in the instrument-making business and is a former Master of the WCSIM.
- Gloria Clifton is Head of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Her best known publication is the Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers, c. 1550-1851 (London, 1995).
- Neil Handley is the Curator of the British Optical Association Museum, London which also provides a museum service for the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, of which he is a Liveryman

Registration fee: £25.
This included coffee and tea and finger buffet lunch.

The Clockmakers’ Company is the oldest surviving horological institution in the world. Its museum, founded in 1813, constitutes the oldest collection specifically of clocks, watches and sundials in existence. The guided tour by the Keeper, Sir George White, was limited to 25 (maximum 30) on a first-come, first-served basis. Cost £5. Participants made their own way to the Guildhall (20 minutes walk from the Glaziers Hall; one stop on the Underground; taxi)

The Society presented the Worshipful Company with a copy of Gloria Clifton's Directory of Scientific Instrument Makers, a book the publication of which was originally supported by the Society.

Saturday 5 July : Annual conference and AGM
Location: King’s College, Strand, London

10.30 Arrival, coffee
11.00 Allan Mills, ‘Inversion of the image in the eye: a practical demonstration originated by Leonardo da Vinci’
11.30 David Bryden, ‘The Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and the evaluation of scientific instruments, 1760-1839’
12.15 Joanna Migdal, illustrated talk on sundials
13.00 Lunch in the River Room
14.00 Paolo Brenni, Presidential keynote address
15.00 AGM
16.00 End of programme

Outgoing Chairman, Ron Bristow with the pewter quaiffe presented to the Society by the WCSIM on the occasion. Shortly afterwards Patrick Mill was elected the new Chairman of the Society whilst Paolo Brenni's term of office as President was extended, to the great satisfaction of everyone present.

Additional information:

The Clockmakers’ Museum in the Guildhall Library