At the Sign of the Compass and Quadrant

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. A significant although little known figure in the history of early American science is Anthony Lamb, a maker of mathematical instruments who was active in NY from 1730 to 1784. He had been trained in a skill which was rare in his time even in England, and it was one which was virtually unknown in the American colonies in the early 18th cent. English-born and transported to Maryland as a convicted felon, Lamb emerged as the first professionally trained maker of scientific instruments in the American colonies, and the first to be established in NY. Contents of this study: The Apprentice and the Sorcerer; The Fate of Felons; The Brave New World; The Invention of the Octant; The Mid-Century Years; Then the Revolution. Illustrations.