Nice try, but the Ferguson in question was surely much later. The dial illustrated in Cousins looks twentieth century. More Massey Ferguson than James Ferguson. In fact, it looks like the prototype, minus the dolphins, for Chris Daniel's dial at Greenwich.
The MHS's online register of Scientific Instruments at http://www.isin.org/index.htm lists other another dial by Ferguson in the Science Museum. It is Inventory 1951-302. Are the first four digits the date? The dial Tony asks about is 1922-104. So, my guess is that Ferguson was working in the first half of the twentieth century. The dial was made by Messrs J H Steward, Ltd., 406 Strand. They also made compasses, barometers and optical instruments since Victorian times. They were also at 54 Cornhill, 65/6 Strand and 456/7 West Strand, so clearly prospered. The James Ferguson who Patrick found also has orreries and dials in the Science Museum. Regards Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Powers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Tony Moss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Patrick Powers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Sundial Mailing List" <sundial@uni-koeln.de> Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:27 PM Subject: Ferguson dial > Message text written by Tony Moss > >What do we know about Ferguson?< > > James Ferguson (1710 - 1776) > James Ferguson was born in the parish of Rothiemay, > in Banffshire, the son of a peasant farmer. It's an > interesting comment on the value that we in the NE > have placed on education over the centuries that his > father living 300 years ago in an isolated country > cottage in this part of Scotland could both read and > write. James Ferguson was what is known as selftaught > or, as he liked to say, 'taught by God'. He had > negligible formal schooling but did receive informal > instruction from some of the local educated men. > Later he had guidance from his own friends, amongst > whom was one of the 18th century's most able > mathematicians, Colin Maclaurin, who had by then > moved from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. [The Scottish > National Portrait Gallery has a copy of a drawing of > Maclaurin made by Ferguson]. > College, Aberdeen > > For this and more see: > > http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~nph126/article/starsne.pdf (page three) > > Is this your man? > > Patrick > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
