Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers

Before America could claim independence in ideas, it needed instruments of precision. This groundbreaking scholarly work traces the hidden history of the tools and artisans who helped colonial America find its place in the scientific world. Silvio Bedini, drawing on decades of archival research, documents how colonists moved from relying on imported English and French instruments to cultivating a distinctly American tradition of craftsmanship. The book introduces us to the remarkable makers who shaped this evolution, none more significant than the Rittenhouse brothers, whose work represented the first serious American contribution to the field. As you turn these pages, you will discover the artisans, navigators, and surveyors who quite literally mapped a new nation, and understand why their delicate, ingenious devices remain treasured artifacts of American intellectual history.