The Arthur Frank Loan Collection : Early Scientific Instruments
Glasgow: Charles Frank Limited 1973. First Edition. 60 pp., 11-3/4 by 8 1/4 inches. Comb bound with original Special Exhibition Tools of Science brochure bound in. A well read copy, with mild denting, creasing and other signs of wear. Very Good. Wraps. [29152]
While not as well illustrated as we might want (common for books of this time) there are 808 instruments listed. It is worth owning to learn the scope of this portion of Franks collection and what was possible in the years Frank was collecting.
"At the turn of the century, in Glasgow's history Saltmarket, Arthur Frank's father, Charles, opened a small corner ship where he designed, repaired, and sold photographic apparatus and scientific instruments. Over the years, there accumulated in the cellar under the shop a miscellany of old telescopes and microscopes and other instruments in varying degrees of disrepair. When Arthur Frank returned from service in the Army in 1945, he was faced with the mammoth task of sorting through the accumulation of the years. His first impulse was to throw out what appeared to be a lot of rubbish. Perhaps it was sentiment - he, himself, doesn't quite know - but he decided there and then that the old, broken instruments could be the start of a collection. From then on he used both his spare time and spare money to build up a collection of instruments that he hoped would, one day, be of historical importance. At that time few people paid any attention to old instruments, and articles which today might be worth hundres of pounds could be bought for a song. Since Arthur Frank trained as an optician and optical instrument maker, it was not surprising that his inclination lay towards optical instruments.
The collection covers a wide range of instruments, but is strongest in microscopes and telescopes'; the section on nineteenth century microscopes is ranked among the world's best. Another secition of which he is justly proud is the Scottish Collection" [see Brass and Glass, another book on just this subject]" From the Introduction.
Price: $35.00