Editing Scientific Revolution (section)

=== Materials, construction, and aesthetics ===
Surviving instruments from this period<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chsi.harvard.edu/|title=The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments|website=chsi.harvard.edu|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=7 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607113032/https://chsi.harvard.edu/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/|title=Search Home|website=collections.peabody.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=30 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170530182003/http://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca/home/|title=University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection|website=utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca|language=en-US|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526141806/http://utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca/home/|archive-date=26 May 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/collections/|title=Adler Planetarium Collections Department|work=Adler Planetarium|access-date=30 May 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=10 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710100852/http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/collections/|url-status=live}}</ref> tend to be made of durable metals such as brass, gold, or steel, although examples such as telescopes<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dioptrice.com/|title=Dioptrice : pre-1775 refracting telescopes|website=www.dioptrice.com|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=17 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517235301/http://dioptrice.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> made of wood, pasteboard, or with leather components exist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dioptrice.com/telescopes/466?search=wooden|title=Dioptrice : Accession #: M-428a|website=www.dioptrice.com|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=6 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806091743/http://www.dioptrice.com/telescopes/466?search=wooden|url-status=dead}}</ref> Those instruments that exist in collections today tend to be robust examples, made by skilled craftspeople for and at the expense of wealthy patrons.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kemp|first=Martin|title=Interpretation and Cultural History |chapter='Intellectual Ornaments': Style, Function and society in Some Instruments of Art |year=1991|publisher=St. Martin's Press|pages=135–52|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-21272-9_6|isbn=978-1-349-21274-3}}</ref> These may have been commissioned as displays of wealth. In addition, the instruments preserved in collections may not have received heavy use in scientific work; instruments that had visibly received heavy use were typically destroyed, deemed unfit for display, or excluded from collections altogether.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Schaffer|first=Simon|title=Easily Cracked: Scientific Instruments in States of Disrepair|journal=Isis|volume=102|issue=4|pages=706–17|doi=10.1086/663608|pmid=22448545|bibcode=2011Isis..102..706S|year=2011|s2cid=24626572}}</ref> It is also postulated that the scientific instruments preserved in many collections were chosen because they were more appealing to collectors, by virtue of being more ornate, more portable, or made with higher-grade materials.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.refa.org.ar/contenido-autores-revista.php?idAutor=75.|title=REFA, Revista Electrónica de Fuentes y Archivos del Centro de Estudios Históricos Prof. Carlos S.A. Segreti, publicacion periodica digital.|last=Anderson|first=Katharine|website=www.refa.org.ar|language=es|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106173943/http://www.refa.org.ar/contenido-autores-revista.php?idAutor=75.|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Intact air pumps are particularly rare.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Bennett|first=Jim|date=1 December 2011|title=Early Modern Mathematical Instruments|journal=Isis|volume=102|issue=4|pages=697–705|doi=10.1086/663607|pmid=22448544|s2cid=22184409|issn=0021-1753}}</ref> The pump at right included a glass sphere to permit demonstrations inside the vacuum chamber, a common use. The base was wooden, and the cylindrical pump was brass.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/to-scrutinize-nature/boyle-and-hooke/boyles-air-pump|title=King's Collections : Online Exhibitions : Boyle's air-pump|website=www.kingscollections.org|language=en|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-date=20 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520111812/http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/to-scrutinize-nature/boyle-and-hooke/boyles-air-pump|url-status=live}}</ref> Other vacuum chambers that survived were made of brass hemispheres.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://waywiser.rc.fas.harvard.edu/view/objects/asitem/search@/4/displayDate-asc?t:state:flow=efd7f60c-909c-47d9-8399-d61d27444422|title=Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet Air Pump|website=waywiser.rc.fas.harvard.edu|access-date=31 May 2017}}{{dead link|date=August 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Instrument makers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries were commissioned by organizations seeking help with navigation, surveying, warfare, and astronomical observation.<ref name=":3" /> The increase in uses for such instruments, and their widespread use in global exploration and conflict, created a need for new methods of manufacture and repair, which would be met by the Industrial Revolution.<ref name=":2" />