Houghton 90W-164 - Nairne electrical machine, plate I

Edward Nairne (1726 – 1 September 1806) was English optician and scientific instrument maker.

Biography

Nairne was born in

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was apprenticed to the optician Matthew Loft in 1741 and established his own business at 20 Cornhill in London after Loft's death in 1748. In 1774 he took his apprentice Thomas Blunt into partnership, a relationship that lasted until 1793 when Blunt opened his own shop at 22 Cornhill. Nairne patented several electrical machines, including an

electrostatic generator An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electrical generator that produces ''static electricity'', or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current. The knowledge of static electricity dates back to the earliest ci ...

consisting of a glass cylinder mounted on glass insulators; the device can supply either positive or negative electricity, and was intended for medicinal use. In the eighth edition of the instruction manual for this device he claimed that "electricity is almost a specific in some disorders, and deserves to be held in the highest estimation for its efficacy in many others". He recommended its use for nervous disorders, bruises, burns, scales, bloodshot eyes, toothache,

sciatica Sciatica is pain going down the leg from the lower back. This pain may go down the back, outside, or front of the leg. Onset is often sudden following activities like heavy lifting, though gradual onset may also occur. The pain is often described ...

, epilepsy,

hysteria Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...

, agues and so on. He also made improvements to the Cuff

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...

, building it into a portable case and calling it a chest microscope. In the early 1770s, Edward Nairne constructed the first successful marine

barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...

by constricting the glass tube between the cistern and register plate. The instrument was suspended from gimbals mounted within a freestanding frame to provide additional stability. Nairne's first marine barometer was sent on

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

's second voyage to the South Pacific. One of the earliest references to

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

appears to be in 1770, when Edward Nairne was selling cubes of natural rubber at his shop at 20 Cornhill. The cubes, meant to be

eraser An eraser (also known as a rubber in some Commonwealth countries, including South Africa from the material first used) is an article of stationery that is used for removing marks from paper or skin (e.g. parchment or vellum). Erasers have ...

s, sold for the astonishingly high price of 3

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

s per half-inch cube. Nairne is credited with creating the first rubber eraser. Prior to using rubber,

breadcrumb Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

s were used as erasers. Nairne says he inadvertently picked up a piece of rubber instead of breadcrumbs, discovered its erasing properties, and began selling rubber erasers. Nairne was a regular contributor to the

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of London, and was elected a fellow of that institution in 1776. He enjoyed an extensive international reputation, and was in correspondence with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

for whom he made a set of magnets and a telescope around 1758. In 1770 he was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, which was founded by Franklin. Also on Franklin's recommendation, he was asked to supply instruments for the fire-damaged collection at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He died 1 September 1806 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England.

Gallery

File:Nairne London telescope - Franklin Institute - DSC06714.JPG, Telescope by Nairne, London, late 1700s File:Nairne & blunt barometer.jpg, Nairne & Blunt barometer, ca 1780, in the collection of The

Mariners' Museum The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. Designated as America’s ''National Maritime Museum'' by Congress, it is one of the largest maritime museums in North America. The Mariners' Museum Library, cont ...

References

External articles

;General * "
Nairne and Blunt Electrostatic Generator
'". The Bakken, June, 2004. ;Publications * Nairne, Edward, "''Directions for using the electrical machine; ''". London, 1764. (ed. engraved by J. Couse; Advertisement) * Nairne, Edward, "''Description of the electric machine''". Paris, 1784. * Nairne, Edward, "''The description and use of Nairne's patent electrical machine : with the addition of some philosophical experiments and medical observations''". London (Nairne and Blunt), 1783. LCCN 85664571 //r90 {{DEFAULTSORT:Nairne, Edward 1726 births 1806 deaths People from Sandwich, Kent English inventors British opticians British scientific instrument makers Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the American Philosophical Society