Science Museum Group Journal Issue 15

Science Museum Group Journal Issue 15

This Spring issue reflects the wealth of research which continues to be conducted and written about despite pandemic disruption. A collection of papers associated with the Science Museum’s ‘Science City 1550–1800: The Linbury Gallery’ features an article by Jane Desborough and Gloria Clifton on how the absence of women in the sources on early modern science hides their very real contribution; an analysis by Rebekah Higgitt et al., on the importance of the physical spaces where science was conducted in London; and David Bryden’s focused study of a single trade card, which shows how a small ephemeral object can bring a relatively unknown inventor and tradesman to life. In other articles, Emily Rees Koerner brings Henrietta Vansittart, an extraordinary Victorian female engineer, into the spotlight; and Farrah Lawrence-Mackay explores the origins and use of the popular metaphor of ‘iron lungs’ to describe machines that were generally made of plywood. Tackling the importance of decolonisation, Kristin Hussey and Martha Biggins analyse a collection of images held by the Royal College of Surgeons Museum that depicts Dr Bhau Daji’s secret cure for leprosy, showing how Imperial power mediated the evaluation and exchange of medical knowledge between the colonies and the Metropole. Also making use of some extraordinary images, Sarah Stradal et al. present research on the ways that the wounds of Christ were used in devotional practice in Medieval Europe. And finally, the Group’s Director, Ian Blatchford, presents early findings from his ongoing biographical study of Lyon Playfair, chemist, educator and politician who was instrumental in the creation of the Great Exhibition but who tends to be overshadowed by the more extravert Henry Cole. A book review and an obituary of another Science Museum Director, the extraordinary Dame Margaret Weston, round off Issue 15.
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    Item type:Journal article,
    Science and the City: Valentine Gottlieb, immigrant engineer of Lambeth: his trade card of c. 1810 unpacked
    (2021-05-26)
    Bryden, David
    Born in Biebrich, J V Gottlieb was an economic migrant who settled in London in the mid 1770s, initially working as a hairdresser before establishing himself as a mechanical engineer, designing and selling cranes and other machinery. An illustrated trade card in the Science Museum collections provides material evidence of his activities and an opportunity to examine the roles played by such advertising in the development of the technology and commerce of the period. The iconography of this unique item of printed ephemera is used to outline Gottlieb’s various inventive activities. Gottlieb patented his crane designs (1786) and a form of friction-reducing bearing (1787). He successfully lobbied government to install his design of a mechanical perpetual ship’s log to two newly-designed fast postal packets commissioned in 1790 for the North American and West Indian mail service. He also advertised his services in the London press. Gottlieb was a small player in fields where there were many competitors, and the business terminated with the death of the founder in 1820. 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.
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