Skip to content
1887
Volume 23, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0032-1400

Abstract

A comparison of entries in notebooks kept by William Hyde Wollaston with the records of an account that he maintained in the bank of Thomas Coutts & Co, London, serves to establish that approximately three quarters of Wollaston’s output of malleable platinum was disposed of through the London scientific instrument maker, William Cary. This article reviews the relationship between these two men, the nature of their business association and their incomes from the sale of platinum.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1595/003214079X233112123
1979-01-01
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/pmr/23/3/pmr0023-0112.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1595/003214079X233112123&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Gilbert L. F. “W. H. Wollaston MSS at Cambridge”, Notes and Records Roy. Soc. Lond., 1952, 9, 311332 [Google Scholar]
  2. Wollaston F. “A Description of a Transit Circle, for determining the Place of celestial Objects as they pass the Meridian”, Phil. Trans, 1793, 83, 133152 and tab. XV [Google Scholar]
  3. Gentleman’s Mag., 1786, 56, 2 [Google Scholar]
  4. Brewster D. “The Edinburgh Encyclopædia”, 1830, 6, 484 [Google Scholar]
  5. “Dictionary of National Biography”, 1900, 62, 311316
  6. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, Henry Warburton’s notebook summarising Wollaston’s miscellaneous expenditure, 7, 17, 18 and 21
  7. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook L1
  8. Wollaston W. H. “On a method of rendering Platina malleable”, Phil. Trans, 1828, 119, 18 [Google Scholar]
  9. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook F
  10. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook D
  11. McDonald D. “A History of Platinum”, Johnson Matthey, London, 1960, 61 [Google Scholar]
  12. Usselman M. C. “The Platinum Notebooks of William Hyde Wollaston”, Platinum Metals Rev., 1978, 22, (3), 100106 [Google Scholar]
  13. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebooks D, E, K and L1
  14. Preserved in the archives of Coutts & Co, 440 Strand, London WC2R 0QS; these are at present closed to researchers but photocopies of folios relating to Wollaston’s account can be seen at the library of University College, London, in the Wollaston Collection, box 13, file 2, encl. A
  15. Bollmann E. Dr., and Wollaston Dr. Holograph letter from University College Library, Wollaston Collection, box 13, file 3, encl. A [Google Scholar]
  16. Knight R. “A new and expeditious Process for rendering Platina malleable”, Phil. Mag., 1800, 6, 13 [Google Scholar]
  17. Neal W. K., and Back D. H. L. “The Mantons: Gunmakers”, Jenkins, London, 1967, 146147 [Google Scholar]
  18. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook I; see also Ref. 14, entries for the years 1809–1813, 1815 and 1816
  19. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook H
  20. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook G
  21. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook I
  22. Kidd J. “Analysis of a new Mineral found in Cornwall”, J. Nat. Phil. Chem. Arts, 1806, 14, 134140 [Google Scholar]
  23. Holograph letter from W. H. Wollaston to Thomas Farmer dated 30 November 1809, Science Museum Library MS 3a–14
  24. Chaldecott J. A. “Wollaston, Malacrida, and the Platinum Thermometer”, Ann. Sci., 1971, 27, 409411 [Google Scholar]
  25. Examples in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, include the Greenwich mural circle (inventory M.5) and a sextant (inventory S.152)
  26. Henry W. “The Elements of Experimental Chemistry”, London, 1810, 2, 36 [Google Scholar]
  27. British Museum (Natural History), Sir Joseph Banks Correspondence, Dawson Turner copies, 15, 338340
  28. National Library of Scotland MS 3813, ff 43r and v, 44r
  29. Ibid., ff 45r and v, 46r and v. For the full text of this letter and the one mentioned in Ref. 28 see J. A. Chaldecott, “Contributions of Fellows of the Royal Society to the fabrication of Platinum Vessels: some unpublished manuscripts”, Notes and Records Roy. Soc. Lond., 1967, 22, 155172 [Google Scholar]
  30. Rees A. “The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature”, 1819, 27, Article ‘Platina’ [Google Scholar]
  31. Cary W. “Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments, Made and Sold by W. Cary”, London, n.d.,. 12 [Google Scholar]
  32. Stodart J. “Precipitation of Platina as a Covering or Defence to polished Steel, and also to Brass”, J. Nat. Phil. Chem. Arts, 1805, 11, 282284 [Google Scholar]
  33. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, loose sheet of paper in notebook O
  34. Guerini V. “The Life and Works of Giuseppangelo Fonzi”, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 1925, 29, 71118 [Google Scholar]
  35. Campbell J. M. “Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini 1728–1813 Surgeon Philanthropist Surgeon-Dentist”, Dental Mag. and Oral Topics, 1953, 70, 402422 [Google Scholar]
  36. Neal W. K., and Gilbert L. F. Letter from 1951, University College Library, Wollaston Collection, box 8, file 2, item 3(i)
  37. Cambridge University Library Add. MSS 7736, notebook K
  38. Thorpe T. E. “Essays in Historical Chemistry”, 2nd edn., London, 1902, 558 [Google Scholar]
  39. Royal Society Domestic MSS, 3, item 127
  40. Gentleman’s Mag., 1829, 99, (1), 646648 [Google Scholar]
  41. Letter from Henry Warburton to Charles Macintosh dated 16 February 1829; see G. Macintosh, “Biographical Memoir of the late Charles Macintosh”, Blackie, Glasgow, 1847, 93 [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1595/003214079X233112123
Loading
/content/journals/10.1595/003214079X233112123
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error