ABSTRACT
The instrument-making activity outside London described in the preceding chapters was on a much smaller scale than that which occurred in the capital, and to some extent it has been masked by the apparent pre-eminence of London at this time. It has long been accepted by instrument historians as a given that, during the eighteenth century, London was the world centre for this trade. For example, G. L’E. Turner has observed that ‘during this period, the London scientic instrument trade achieved an international reputation’;1 J.A. Bennett has written that ‘by the late 18th century, London makers had achieved a position of international pre-eminence in the mathematical instrument trade’;2 and Willem Hackmann, synthesising the earlier authority of E.G.R. Taylor, wrote:
London emerged as the premier market for scientic instruments in the mid-eighteenth century … [when] the … trade consisted of an intricate network of specialist makers and retailers. Workshops congregated in the Clerkenwell region, jostling with makers of clocks, watches and engines, and other craftsmen in wood and metals.3
