American Nineteenth-Century Manufacturers and Importers of Philosophical Apparatus

Professors of physics in nineteenth-century America had two options for procuring the apparatus that they needed to demonstrate the phenomena of physics to their students. Some apparatus was available from makers and dealers in Europe, mostly in France (for optical apparatus) and Germany. A few teachers, such as Ebenezer Snell of Amherst, made some of their own apparatus. The rest of the instruments came from the fledgling North American apparatus industry, based in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and toward the end of the century, Chicago. In this article, I will discuss apparatus made by Chamberlain, Wightman, Davis, Ritchie, Pike and Ritchie, Queen, and then a few Chicago companies, and will give examples of some of their products. Toward the end of the century, a few colleges decided that the making of physics apparatus was a key adjunct of the experience of learning physics, and I will give some examples.