ABSTRACT
Reference has already been made to the important function of scientific instruments in modern science. The merest beginnings of the history of modern science cannot be told without reference to some scientific instruments. The instruments selected for historical treatment are the microscope, the telescope, the thermometer, the barometer, the air-pump, the pendulum-clock, and a few marine instruments. The simple microscope, or single converging lens of short focus, has a long history. Such magnifying glasses, as well as burning glasses, were well known to the ancient Greeks and to the mediaeval Arabs. Various instruments for measuring time were used in antiquity and during the Middle Ages, and some of them have survived, if only as ornaments or toys, to the present day. The anchor-escapement in common use was invented somewhat later. It was introduced into the art of clockmaking by Clement, a London horologist, in 1680, but had been described, and perhaps invented, by Robert Hooke.
