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‘Iron lung’ as metaphor
I will argue that ‘iron lung’ became eponymous as it connected the material reality of the NPV with imagined sensory experiences for publics in the UK, highlighting the often contradictory earlier metaphors of modernity and sound.
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A model instrument: the making and the unmaking of a model of the Airy Transit Circle
The article investigates the construction, reception and fate of a set of models of the Airy Transit Circle (the instrument that defined the Greenwich Prime Meridian) at the Exposition Universelle in 1855 and at the South Kensington Museum.
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A royal gift? Mrs Strangways Horner’s small silver clock, 1740
This article celebrates the rediscovery of a small silver-cased clock allegedly given to Mrs Strangways Horner by Lady Archibald Hamilton on behalf of Augusta, Princess of Wales in 1740.
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‘Great ease and simplicity of action’: Dr Nelson’s Inhaler and the origins of modern inhalation therapy
This paper reconstructs the history and reception of the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler as a means of understanding the growth of inhalation therapy in the mid-nineteenth century.
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The provenance and context of the Giustiniani Medicine Chest
In 1946 the Giustiniani Medicine Chest came into the Science Museum Collection having originally been bought in Italy in 1924 by an agent of Sir Henry Wellcome, for his medical collection. This article assesses its provenance and history.
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Rather unspectacular: design choices in National Health Service glasses
This article discusses the provision of spectacles under the NHS scheme in Britain from 1946-86. It reveals there was no explicit consideration of consumer choice or fashion and argues that this limited design across the British optical industry.
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Something in the Air: Dr Carter Moffat’s Ammoniaphone and the Victorian Science of Singing
This essay analyses representations of the ammoniaphone across nineteenth century advertising and the medical and musical press, and situates these representations within the broader Victorian fascination with the supremacy of Italian opera singers and the emergent corporeal anxieties of late nineteenth century consumer culture.
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Why the anonymous and everyday objects are important: using the Science Museum’s collections to re-write the history of vision aids
Drawing upon experience of being a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) student at the Science Museum, this article reflects on the value of collections with limited cataloguing in historical research and offers ways to overcome the problems of interpretation.
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Understanding storm surges in the North Sea: Ishiguro’s electronic modelling machine
An introduction to one of the star objects in Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, an electronic storm surge modelling machine.
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Science and the City: Valentine Gottlieb, immigrant engineer of Lambeth: his trade card of c. 1810 unpacked
In addition to uncovering the life and work of a relatively unknown immigrant engineer, this paper indicates how a detailed study of a small ephemeral museum object can unlock wider historical horizons.