John Collins (1625–1683)
The sector on a quadrant …
London: J. M. for George Hurlock …, 1659
M.6.3

The engravings in John Collins’s work are by the instrument-maker and bookseller Henry Sutton (ca 1624–1665). A quadrant is an astronomical calculating device showing a projection of the heavens, and although Sutton’s quadrant was very similar to existing models, he was so successful in promoting it that by the end of the seventeenth century it was one of the most common astronomical instruments. Amongst the collections of the Whipple Museum for the History of Science is a quadrant that has been made by cutting out this plate from another copy of Collins’s book, pasting it onto brass and varnishing it (Wh.5831).

Collins served as unofficial secretary to the Royal Society in the 1670s and 1680s and corresponded with leading mathematicians in Britain and abroad, amongst them Sir Isaac Newton. He preserved many of their papers and these were purchased by the Library in 2000 as the Macclesfield Collection. They include the paper slide-rule and letter also included in this exhibition.