Cambridge Industrial Archaeology Group launches its 2024 season with a talk on one of the major companies in Cambridge during the first half of the 20th century, the Cambridge Instrument Company, the brainchild of Horace Darwin. 

 Dr Dick Paden will cover the story of the Darwin family and the founding of Cambridge Instruments, charting how the Company evolved over nearly a century from making unique scientific instruments for Cambridge University Laboratories to becoming a world leader in the commercial development of the Stereoscan Scanning Electron Microscope in the 1960s.

 Frogs, sound ranging in WW1, magnetic mines, pilot training, power stations, medical instruments and electron microscopes are just some of the topics in this lecture about a world leading instrument- making company now remembered by name only.  

 The Cambridge Instrument Company is the subject of one of the permanent displays at Cambridge Museum of Technology and those attending the talk will be able to view it.

 Dr Paden was born in 1941 and after attending school in Hull, came up to Cambridge to read the Natural Sciences Tripos at Christ’s College. He later transferred to the Electrical Sciences Tripos when it was first offered in 1962.  His PhD focused on the dual electron gun column of the microscope created by Bill Nixon in the Engineering Dept.  He went on to forge a career in scanning electron microscopy first at Cambridge Scientific Instruments and later moving to EMI Medical and then to CamScan where he was eventually CEO and Technical Director. Since retiring in 2012 he has been a consultant on SEM work and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Microscopical Society in 2014 for contributions to Scanning Microscopy.

 The talk will take place in the Pye Building at Cambridge Museum of Technology.  Entrance on the night is via the Museum’s Cheddars Lane gate.

 There will be free light refreshments courtesy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMECHE)

TICKETS 

£5 in advance (e-ticket) | cash or card on the door

£3 (students on production of student card) | cash or card on the door

Members and Volunteers of Cambridge Museum of Technology can attend for free on production of membership/volunteer card.

 Cambridge Industrial Archaeology group organises a programme of talks on industrial heritage at Cambridge Museum of Technology.  Talks usually take place at 7.30pm on the second Monday of each month.  For further information about Cambridge Industrial Archaeology Group contact Robin Chandler    robin.chandler@btinternet.com

 Cambridge Museum of Technology is the home of Cambridge’s industrial heritage. For further information on the Museum contact Nick Plaister nick.plaister@museumoftechnology.com