Precision instruments

sourge for history and strategies for their permanence

Abstract

Cultural heritage is transferred from generation to generation. Each object or set of objects which has recognized artistic or historical meaning has the right to be safeguarded as an item of cultural value and as a legacy from the past. The recognition of this meaning does not seem to depend, however, on pre-set criteria, but much more on the development of a given people’s historical and cultural awareness. Collections preserved in museums make up part of this heritage and are the source of all museum activities. These essentially non-renewable, limited resources are not unlike the resources related to the ecology movement, requiring as they do careful management and conservation. Of all such collections, we will focus, in the present study, on those which are most closely related to the history of science and technology: collections of scientific instruments and in particular those which embody the quest for ever greater precision in scientific research. Instruments and technical-scientific apparatuses, for their part, become increasingly quickly obsolete and the disappearance of their documentary record may mean the loss of an intrinsic part of knowledge. As the notion of conservation arises as a first and necessary stage towards assuring the safeguarding of these historical instruments, considerations about the strategies to promote the permanence of such objects are presented, concerning the interventions related to conservation and restoration.