40
THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
and all the manipulative implements of handicraft trades. Many of the objects in this third division would of course be shown only in model, not of their actual size.
4. Besides machines or instruments of the kind described, the object of which is to transform workable materials into wrought goods, a prominent place in the Museum galleries must also be given to those forms of apparatus which are employed in the application to useful purposes of finished products, and in the exercise of what may be called the Dynamical Industrial Arts. Such instruments are pens, pencils, brushes, thermometers, barometers, compass-needles, lamps for burning solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels, the batteries and other requisites for producing and maintaining the electric light, the whole machinery of the electric telegraph, the whole apparatus of the photographer, and much else. In this department, only the practical forms of those instruments which it includes would be shown; such refined modifications of thermometer, barometer, electric machine, optical lens, and the like, as theory pronounces best for the purely scientific student, not falling within its province.
On this important division of Museum objects, I would especially observe, that till the permanent building is erected, it will be impossible to say, to
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE,
519
41
what classes of Industrial products and machines the Museum should limit its collection. On the one hand, it is important that the idea of the Industrial Museum should be fully and impartially carried out, and that every economic art should receive its just share of illustration. On the other, it would be culpable folly in a city like Edinburgh, which occupies an area quickly traversed even in its longest diameter, to collect the same objects in adjoining or neighbouring buildings, and thus needlessly multiply duplicates. The pre-eminently important art of medicine, for example, is so amply cared for by the University, the College of Surgeons, and the College of Physicians, that it would not be necessary for the Industrial Museum to do more than supplement in certain directions those illustrations of medicine as an art, which the medical museums in the city contain. Thus the forms of electrical machine most suitable for therapeutic use; the qualities of steel best fitted for surgical instruments; the similar qualities of caoutchouc and gutta percha; the varieties of distilling, and other pharmaceutical apparatus; the different kinds of glass and porcelain vessel useful in the laboratory and surgery; and some other things, would properly find a place in the
B
40
THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
and all the manipulative implements of handicraft trades. Many of the objects in this third division would of course be shown only in model, not of their actual size. 4. Besides machines or instruments of the kind described, the object of which is to transform workable materials into wrought goods, a prominent place in the Muscum galleries must also be given to those forms of apparatus which are employed in the application to useful purposes of finished products, and in the exercise of what may be called the Dyna mical Industrial Arts. Such instruments are pens, pencils, brushes, thermometers, barometers, compass- needles, lamps for burning solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels, the batteries and other requisites for producing and maintaining the electric light, the whole machi- nery of the electric telegraph, the whole apparatus of the photographer, and much else. In this department, only the practical forms of those instruments which it includes would be shown; such refined modifien- tions of thermometer, barometer, electric machine, optical lens, and the like, as theory pronounces best for the purely scientific student, not falling within its province.
On this important division of Museum objects, I would especially observe, that till the permanent building is erected, it will be impossible to say, to
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE,
519
41
what classes of Industrial products and machines the Museum should limit its collection. On the one hand, it is important that the idea of the Industrial Museum should be fully and impartially carried out, and that every economic art should receive its just share of illustration. On the other, it would be culpable folly in a city like Edinburgh, which occupies an area quickly traversed even in its longest diameter, to collect the same objects in adjoin- ing or neighbouring buildings, and thus needlessly multiply duplicates. The pre-eminently important art of medicine, for example, is so amply cared for by the University, the College of Surgeons, and the College of Physicians, that it would not be neces- sary for the Industrial Muscum to do more than sup- plement in certain directions those illustrations of medicine as an art, which the medical museums in the city contain. Thus the forms of electrical ma- chine most suitable for therapeutic use; the qualities of steel best fitted for surgical instruments; the similar qualities of caoutchouc and gutta percha; the varieties of distilling,, and other pharmaceutical apparatus; the different kinds of glass and porcelain vessel useful in the laboratory and surgery; and some her things, would properly find a place in the
D
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