Spring, 1999
FOLLOWING the article in Issue 8 of Sphæra that reported the gift to the Museum of a set of Russian matchboxes bearing images of instruments, John Millburn has pointed out another connection between the superficially unrelated topics of matches and instrumentation. He also notes the particularly fortuitous placing of the article next to one discussing the instrument-maker Jesse Ramsden.
A rival product was also advertised on the same page of the Advertiser: ‘philosophical tapers’, which were being sold by a chemist on Ludgate Hill. Although of English manufacture, these were more expensive, at five shillings per dozen. |