C.V. Boys' integraph with case

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881 C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881 C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881 C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881 C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

C.V. Boys' integraph with case, designed c. 1881

Sir Charles Vernon Boys was a British physicist best known for his work on gravitation. Although, he didn’t recognise himself as a mathematician, Boys was also a mathematical instrument maker who invented this type of integrating machine, known as integraph in 1881. Around the same time mathematician Bruno Abdank Abakanowicz independently invented a similar device. An integraph is an instrument that can mechanically get the integral curve corresponding to a given curve, meaning the area between the curve and a given straight line, and so it can graphically solve differential equations.

Boys described his instrument in the Philosophical Magazine in 1881 envisioning it as ‘an aid to teach physics to students not familiar with the principles of integral calculus and in illustrating those principles themselves.’ However, it doesn’t seem that it was widely used for teaching. Integration is one of the two main questions in calculus, the study of anything that changes or moves. When represented in a mathematical function, the ways that the change happens have proven incredibly important in real world applications. Before computers, integraphs were particularly useful for difficult calculations and problems faced by engineers in shipbuilding, bridge and iron construction, earth transports, technical optics and ballistics.

Details

Category:
Mathematics
Object Number:
1885-7
type:
integraph
credit:
Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine

Parts

Case for C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator

Case for C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator

Case for C.V. Boys' curve drawing integrator, designed c. 1881

Materials:
wood
Object Number:
1885-7 Pt1
type:
case - container
Image ©
The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum