This three-inch triangular boxwood rule is grooved on each side. The top edge of one side is divided to 1/10" and numbered by ones from 0 to 3. The bottom edge is divided to 1/50" and numbered by twos from 0 to 14. This side is marked: QUEEN & CO. PHILAD'A.
The second side is divided to 1/60" and numbered by twos from 0 to 18 along one edge and divided to 1/30" and numbered by twos from 0 to 8 on the other edge. The third side is divided to 1/40" and numbered by twos from 0 to 12 along one edge and divided to 1/20" and numbered by ones from 0 to 6.
James W. Queen of Philadelphia sold a two-inch triangular boxwood scale for offsets as model 464-1/2 from at least 1874 to at least 1884 for 75¢. No three-inch scale is mentioned in catalogs from this time period. The Department of Mathematics at Brown University gave this object to the Museum in 1973.
References: James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue and Descriptive Manual of Mathematical Instruments and Materials (Philadelphia, 1874), 41; James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue and Descriptive Manual of Mathematical Instruments and Materials (Philadelphia, 1884), 44.
Hero’s Fountain is a classic demonstration of fluid pressure that has long been attributed to Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (ca. 120 B.C.E.). This example came from Princeton University, and was probably made in the nineteenth century.
Ref: James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Physical Instruments (Philadelphia, 1888), p. 23
This fairly rugged and inexpensive instrument has a wooden frame, a horizontal plate of blackened glass for the polarizer, a brass stage to hold the object to be examined, a magnifying lens, a Nichol prism analyzer, and a ground glass screen to shut off images of distant objects. The whole fits into a wooden box (12 inches x 18 inches x 6.75 inches high). The “James W. Queen & Co. / PHILADELPHIA” inscription on the stage refers to the firm that introduced this type of instrument in the 1880s.
Ref: Queen & Co., Inc., Catalogue of Physical Apparatus (Philadelphia, 1898), pp. 8-90.
This device, showing that the tension of vapor increases with the degree of saturation, was devised by the French physicist, Claude Pouillet (1790-1868). The “J. Salleron, Paris” inscription is that of Jules Salleron (1829-1897), an instrument maker who began in business in 1855. Used at Princeton University, it was probably purchased after the establishment of the John C. Green School of Science in 1872 and the arrival of Cyrus Fogg Brackett as professor of physics in 1873.
Ref: J. Salleron, Notice Sur Les Instrumens de Précision (Paris, 1864), parts 3 and 4, p. 240.
Claude Pouillet, Éléments de Physique Expérimentale et de Météorologie (Brussels, 1836).
James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Physical Instruments (Philadelphia, 1888), pp. 66-67.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) and Louis Jacques Thénard (1777-1857) were French physicists who studied the physical properties of gases. This instrument, which is based on their work, measured the surface tension of water vapor mixed with gasses. The “J. Salleron, Paris” inscription is that of Jules Salleron (1829-1897), an instrument maker who began in business in 1855. Used at Princeton University, it was probably purchased after the establishment of the John C. Green School of Science in 1872 and the arrival of Cyrus Fogg Brackett as professor of physics in 1873.
Ref: J. Salleron, Notice Sur Les Instrumens de Précision (Paris, 1864), parts 3 and 4, p. 246.
James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Physical Instruments (Philadelphia, 1888), pp. 67-68.
Henry Carvel Lewis (1853-1888) was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, resident of Germantown, and active member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, who sought an inexpensive and accurate polariscope that could be used to measure the optic-axial divergence in minerals. By 1880, James W. Queen & Co. had produced an instrument suitable for his purposes. This project probably led to the reflecting polariscope that Queen introduced to market a few years later. This example of that instrument was used at Mount St. Mary’s College in western Maryland. The inscription on the wooden frame reads "J.W. QUEEN & Co. / PHILA."
Ref: “A New Polariscope,” Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 32 (1880): 241.
James W. Queen & Co., Special List of New Polariscopes and Polarizing Objects for the Use of Schools and Colleges (Philadelphia, 1887).
James. W. Queen & Co., Catalogue and Price-List of Instruments and Apparatus Used in Physical Optics (Philadelphia, 1892).
A professionally framed and matted color print showing an assortment of 105 Geissler tubes identified as from James W. Queen & Co., Philadelphia. Tubes are numbered on the 8 visible panels as follows: 1-38, 45-64, 70-79, 85-92, 100-106, 110-115, 120-128, 135-141. The missing numbers may be on the reverse of the print.
The inscriptions on the face of this aneroid barometer read “Compensated” and “James W. Queen & Co. / PHILADELPHIA.” The pressure scale around the circumference extends from 18 to 31 inches of mercury. The altitude scale extends to 15,000 feet elevation and is read by vernier and microscope to single feet. The diameter is about 3.5 inches. Although this instrument was sold by Queen, it was was probably made in London, perhaps by Short & Mason. New, it would have sold for $60.
Ref.: James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Meteorological Instruments (Philadelphia, 1882), p. 93.
This is a compound monocular with rack-and-pinion, trunnion, tri-leg base, and one Crouch objective. The stage, large, solid and circular, has a screw that moves it from side to side, and a “J. W. Queen & Co. / PHILADA / 1184” inscription. A printed paper tag in the wooden box reads “JAMES W. QUEEN & CO.” While this instrument was obviously sold by Queen, it may have been made by Bausch & Lomb. Indeed, it resembles the American Type (or Library) stand, model DD, that Bausch & Lomb described as “a good working, simple instrument” designed “to take the place of the unreliable cheap foreign microscopes.”
Ref: Bausch & Lomb, Microscopes, Microtomes, Apparatus for Photo-Micrography (Rochester, 1896), pp. 30-31.
Microscope used by Charles Valentine Riley (1845-1895), a British-born entomologist who settled in the United States, worked for the Smithsonian Institution, and convinced Congress to create the United States Entomological Commission. It is a compound monocular with coarse and fine focus, triple nosepiece, inclination joint, circular stage, and sub-stage iris diaphragm; the sub-stage mirror is missing. The inscription on the tri-leg base reads “Queen & Co. Philada” and “1392.”
This appears to be an Acme No. 3. Sidle & Poalk began making Acme microscopes in 1879. By 1880, the firm had moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and was trading as John W. Sidle & Co. and/or the Acme Optical Works. Queen & Co. took over production soon thereafter.
Describing the Queen business in April 1888, a reporter for Scientific American noted that “The microscopes of the various ‘Acme’ patterns are made here, these being finished up in lots of from 25 to 50 of a kind; many of the parts are made up by hundreds at a time. As the best drawn steel pinions to be found in the market have proved to be of insufficient exactness to make a perfect rack and pinion movement, all the pinions and racks used here in the manufacture of microscopes are cut by fine machinery specially adapted to this work. To secure smoothness in motion, each rack and pinion is ‘ground in.’ The making and adjustment of the rack and pinion is one of the most vital points of a microscope; indeed, it is an art of itself.”
Ref: James W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Microscopes and Accessories (Philadelphia, 1890), pp. 46-48.
The lace collection was started in 1908 to assemble a collection of arts and crafts for the Smithsonian Institution. From the initial 500 pieces it has grown to approximately 6,000 objects. Most of the objects originated in Europe and were donated by American collectors.
John Locke, a physician and scientist in Cincinnati, Ohio, described a reflecting level at a meeting of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists in 1842, and obtained a patent (#7,477) in 1850. Locke's instrument consists of a small spirit level on a brass sighting tube, with a small diagonal reflector so arranged that the user can see the bubble and a distant sight at the same time.
This example belonged to Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887, the naturalist who served as the second Secretary of the Smithsonian. A paper label on the box reads “FROM / JAMES W. QUEEN & CO., / OPTICIANS / NO. 92½ CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA.”
