Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was a company founded in the late 1870s by Robert Fulcher. The original use of the company was to service instruments for the Cambridge physiology department. In the beginning, the company was financially driven by a friend of

Horace Darwin Sir Horace Darwin, (13 May 1851 – 22 September 1928), was an English engineer specializing in the design and manufacture of precision scientific instruments. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Personal life and education Dar ...

(1851–1928), Albert Dew-Smith (1848–1903). Eventually, Fulcher was fully replaced in the company by Darwin and Dew-Smith, in 1881, who would then become the sole co-owners. In light of the company being taken over, by Darwin and Dew-Smith, it grew in regard and size. By the time the company was about 15 years old, in 1891, Horace Darwin became the sole owner of the company. Darwin, the son of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, was first apprenticed to an engineering firm in Kent, and returned to Cambridge in 1875. Dew-Smith was an engineer, photographer and instrument maker who was at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

with Darwin. Darwin's grandson Erasmus Darwin Barlow was later chairman. Designed between 1883/84, the rocking

microtome A microtome (from the Greek ''mikros'', meaning "small", and ''temnein'', meaning "to cut") is a cutting tool used to produce extremely thin slices of material known as ''sections''. Important in science, microtomes are used in microscopy, all ...

, otherwise known as The "Darwin Rocker", was one of Darwin's most successful designs which continued to be manufactured until the 1970s. Another famous instrument manufactured by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company and created by Horace Darwin was the micrometer used with "worm stone". This was used to study and analyze the rate at which worms would bury stones in the ground. Their

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

became a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the li ...

in 1895. In 1920 it took over the R.W. Paul Instrument Company of London, and became The Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd. The name was shortened to the Cambridge Instrument Company Ltd. in 1924 when it was converted to a

Public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

. As of 1960 the company started to decline and continued to struggle to make profit, until 1968 when the company was eventually sold out to the

George Kent group Founded in 1838, George Kent Ltd was initially a manufacturer of household gadgets, then a manufacturer of munitions during World War One, and became the largest British manufacturer of instruments for Industrial control systems, prior to its acq ...

. The Cambridge name was continued to be used on some products. In 1928 when Horace Darwin died the company and the instruments continued to progress rapidly. Charles G. Darwin (1887 - 1962), Horace's nephew, took over as chairman of the board. Robert Whipple (1871 - 1953) would also become Managing Director and share that role with Cecil Mason, until Darwin moved on to be head of the National Physical Laboratory and Whipple moved to be chairman of the board. Whipple stayed as chairman until his death in 1953. Several early employees went on to further renown, including Robert Whipple, who was appointed personal assistant to Horace Darwin in 1898, and later became Managing Director and Chairman of the company. His collection of scientific instruments later formed the basis of the

Whipple Museum of the History of Science Whipple may refer to: People * Whipple (surname) (including a list of people with the surname) * Whip Jones (1909–2001), American ski industry pioneer, founder, developer and original operator of the Aspen Highlands ski area in Aspen, Colorado * ...

in 1944. William G. Pye, who had joined as foreman in 1880, left in 1898 to form the W.G. Pye Instrument Company with his son, which ultimately become the Pye group of companies.

References

External links

Smithsonian Collection Catalogs
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Collections du musée de sismologie et magnétisme terrestre: inclinomètre roratif, sismomètre Galitzine ...Word Press

Sources

* Cattermole, M.J.G. & Wolfe, A.F., ''Horace Darwin's Shop: A History of the Cambridge Scientific Company 1878–1968'', (Adam Hilger, 1987) {{ISBN, 0-85274-569-9 *Wilson, D. (1987). Instrument Makers. ''Science,'' ''237''(4816), 783-783. *Learner, R. (1987). Horace Darwin and the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. Contemporary Physics, 28(3), 323. Technology companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Cambridge Instrument-making corporations