Items

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  Mariner's compass

  This mariners’ compass was collected by a Canadian physician working for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Back in August 2015, I asked Dr. Simon Bryant to document his perspective of the migrant crisis unfolding on the Mediterranean. At the time, he was stationed on the 40-metre rescue vessel, MY Phoenix. This compass was found in an inflatable migrant boat after all the passengers (108) had left. Initially, I had hoped that Dr. Bryant would collect objects that spoke directly to the medical experience of migrants. He did collect various items that reflected this harrowing experience, but he did something even more important - he collected objects that related to the overall experience of the migrants. Since collecting it, the object has moved in an out of multiple contexts. Some of the objects from that initial collection have been displayed down the road at Pier 21, Canada’s Museum of Immigration. They have also been on display at Canada’s Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. The compass eventually returned to China was part of Srajana Kaikini’s exploration of objects, relations and curatorial practice at the 2016/17 Shanghai Biennale. Back in China, the compass had returned to its context of manufacturing, as well as region of the world reputed as the inventors of the magnetic compass. When the object arrived at our museum in Ottawa, I was surprised that is was plastic. From the images I assumed that it was a brass and glass instrument found on many ships, and in many museum collections around the world. There is something telling about this plastic version of an iconic navigation instrument being used for such a desperate and dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean.
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  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 By the 1820s the data was judged to be out of date and consequently astronomers such as Qi Yanhuai and Zhang Zuonan conducted new observations.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.”
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  Pocket Compass Sundial, Spanish

  As with all pocket sundials, this instrument is made for travel. It carries a compass needle so that it can be aligned north-south, and its outer casing is engraved with the latitudes of many major European cities so that its shadow-casting gnomon can be adjusted as its owner moves. The predominance of Iberian cities in the latitudes list, and the presence of Antwerp as one of the four cardinal cities of Europe, suggests that it is Spanish-made and pre-dates the protestant reformation of Antwerp in the late 1560s. A second set of evidence points to the instrument’s global travels. The underside of the dial’s case has been heavily modified by a second artisan sometime after its original manufacture. A second set of city latitudes has been added, in a less assured hand. Remarkably, all of these cities are in the ‘New World’, and include both major Caribbean, Central, and South American cities (Havana; Mexico City; Lima; Quito), as well as many smaller and more obscure cities from across the north and west of the continent. Research links many of these cities to Spanish mining concerns; and so the dial appears to have been modified for use by a Spanish conquistador. Because this second latitude list cannot be matched to any known atlases or geographical texts in Spain, it is plausible that these modifications were made by an artisan working in Central or South America.
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  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.