Items

• 
  Chinese celestial globe

  These globes from 1830 reflect how global exchanges produced new objects of knowledge and how the places where science happened were transformed. Qi Yanhuai, an official from Suzhou, manufactured this globe to update the imperial star catalog called the Compendium of Computational and Observational Astronomy (1723) and its Supplement (1742), the result of efforts by Jesuit and Chinese astronomers. By the 1820s the data was judged to be out of date and consequently astronomers such as Qi Yanhuai and Zhang Zuonan conducted new observations. These globes, therefore, demonstrate how Chinese users applied such translated models for their own purposes. Moreover, these globes expanded the audience for who produced astronomical knowledge. During the 18th century, exchanges occurred primarily at the Imperial court with Jesuit missionaries and other go-betweens. Yet that knowledge was limited. Only a handful of libraries had access to such printed books or manuscripts. These celestial globes aimed to distribute this knowledge more broadly through a different media and experience. They simplified computation and allowed for most educated people to participate. One remarkable feature of these globes is that they also function as clockwork devices. Created by Chinese clockmakers, these mechanisms transferred a global technology into a useful system for Chinese officials and families. The clock reported hours and time according to the traditional system of timekeeping in China, rather than simply a wall decoration. Moreover, since some globes included bells for hours of sunrise and sunset, the clocks could also be used as a practical device for bureaucratic needs to report those times to the city watch. More than just repurposing technology in a local context, Qi Yanhuai claimed that this feature was in fact what made them so useful as knowledge making devices. Although some conservatives viewed elaborate automata as wasteful and unnecessary or as appealing to base senses for popular audiences, Qi said that clockwork allowed one to check and evaluate celestial positions with just a single glance. They made calculations easier. “If your household has one, even your wife and children will be able to know the stars,” he said. Although clockwork connected this device to the world of entertainment, Qi suggested they were “Chinese instruments.”
• 
  Ami Stone Tool Collections

  Henri-Marc Ami made his career at the Canada geological survey, where he became convinced that all humans descended from Neanderthals. In the 1930s he created the Canadian School of Prehistoric Archeology in France and started collecting literally tons of prehistoric stone tools, notably at Combe-Capelle, at a time where no law limited the exportation of prehistoric artifacts. Ami's goal was to create collections for most Canadian university to train future archeologists. The collection speaks to the ethical issues that follow the belief in a shared human history when it comes to the collection and circulation of artifacts, notably with respect to the role it gives to Indigenous populations in human evolution and the role museums play today in the preservation of these collections that were acquired “far away from home”. Some of the tools are marked with labels indicating where they were collected. They are stored in a box along with a letter that indicates how the collection arrived at King’s College from the National Museum, after Ami's death.
• 
  Watanabe "Type No. 21" Side View Arthroscope

  The arthroscope is a surgical instrument that permits the optical inspection of the knee. It was first developed in Japan in the 1950s by a group led by Dr. Masaki Watanabe at Tokyo Teishin Hospital, an institution dedicated to the care of Japanese postal workers and their relatives. It has been suggested that the diagnosis and treatment of knee arthritis received particular attention in Japan due to the cultural importance of the seiza kneeling posture. This particular instrument was among the first practical arthroscopes in commercial production. During its rapid adoption over the 1960s and 1970s, the arthroscope evolved from a diagnostic instrument into the central component of an increasingly effective system for keyhole surgery that drastically improved outcomes and decrease healing time for knee joint surgery. Japan in this period was known for the quality of its optical equipment, especially cameras. This instrument can be fitted to a 1/2 frame 35mm Olympus Pen film Camera. An Atlas of Arthroscopy, first published by Watanabe and collaborators in 1959, helped to spread the technique through excellent colour photos taken using the device. However, Watanabe’s contribution was initially underplayed by the international orthopedic community. Robert W. Jackson, who interned with Dr. Watanabe in Japan in 1964–65, is often credited as having introduced the instrument into the orthopaedic practice, in part through trials done at Toronto General Hospital in 1966. This artifact is one of several from his collection. As the popularity of arthroscopy grew, various international manufactures of surgical instruments, especially those already manufacturing endoscopes, took over the market. The manufacture of precision optical instruments for surgery is now largely based in Germany.
• 
  Numeral Frame

  This well-used abacus comes from Mexico. It is not known who made it or when, although it is tentatively dated to around 1900. The abacus, as an aid to doing arithmetic, has a long history that can be linked to Roman times. China, Japan, Korea, and Russia have distinctive forms of the instrument. A French mathematician and soldier learned about it in Russia during imprisonment at the time of the Napoleonic wars and brought one back to France for teaching purposes. From there it spread to England and then the United States, where it came to be widely used in teaching at newly established public or common schools. As this example attests, the device also spread to Mexico. Abacuses made for doing commercial arithmetic, such as were common in Asia and Russia, tended to have uniform beads shaped for easy manipulation. Columns might be split, with one or two beads representing the digit 5 and the remaining the digit 1. When the abacus was adopted as a teaching device for young children, the beads became larger and were often colored.