Astrolabe Catalogue

‘The Oxford Astrolabe’, designed by the Oxford professor of engineering science C. F. Jenkin (1865-1940), was inspired by the Museum’s collection when it opened to the public in May 1925. Six months later this newest astrolabe entered the collection, and was also for sale to visitors – 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence, 52½ pence) including the instruction booklet written by Jenkin.

Manufactured for him privately by the London instrument-making firm of W. Watson & Sons, they subsequently took over the distribution, adding their name as the maker (see inventory no. 58805 [ID 210]) and advertising it on a larger scale. It was available in versions for several latitudes, this one being for 51° 30' (London, but suitable for Oxford too).

Its unconventional shape and its unabashed use of modern materials (aluminium and plastic) indicate that it was not attempting to be a historical replica but a practical working instrument meant chiefly for educational purposes. The innovative idea of a transparent rete, made possible by the materials used, led to a spin-off in the form of the astrolabe projection slide (inventory no. 21423 [ID 209]). The Lewis Evans collection of astrolabes – the foundation of the Museum’s collection – thus inspired the first of a renewed tradition of modern didactic astrolabes, several examples of which are now in the collection (for instance, inventory no. 40670 [ID 264]) or are used by the Museum’s teaching staff.

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