麻豆传媒

IF YOU were an aspiring scientist or navigator in 16th-century London and wanted a well-made folding rule or astrolabe, you were probably best off shopping on the continent 鈥� that is, until Elizabeth I and her advisers came along. They decided that London should produce its own high-quality mathematical instruments, in one of many projects that helped establish the English capital as a great science centre.

A new gallery at London鈥檚 Science Museum charts scientific development in the city from 1550 to 1800, a period that saw it become a world hub, says curator Alexandra Rose. 鈥淪cience was really an integral part of that transformation,鈥� she says.

These Elizabethan mathematical instruments aided architects and navigators, says Rose. When a bridge at Westminster was first built in the mid-1700s, it was a watchmaker, James Valou茅, who designed a pile-driving machine that helped engineers span the sludgy Thames. A contemporary model of Valou茅鈥檚 machine is found in Science City 1550 鈥� 1800. Such models were once used to explain the principles of Newtonian mechanics to audiences in the city.

The great London scientists of the period are represented: the exhibition features Isaac Newton鈥檚 reflecting telescope, on loan from the Royal Society, as well as an ornate microscope designed by Robert Hooke that he used to make detailed drawings of insects and plants.

But while London craftspeople made some beautiful tools, it would be a mistake to think all scientific instruments of the age were so aesthetically pleasing. Many pieces of equipment were simply drawn on paper, cut out and stuck to bits of wood.

鈥淭hey obviously don鈥檛 survive to the same extent,鈥� says Rose. 鈥淲e have a few examples of those, but they鈥檙e much rarer.鈥�

Instrumentation proved indispensable to the many English traders and explorers of the time. Aggressive imperial ambition went hand in hand with the development of science and technology in London. The imperialism has gone; the city and the science remain.