The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: geography, technology and instruments of exploration, Fraser MacDonald and Charles W. J. Withers; Equipping expeditionary astronomers: Nevil Maskelyne and the development of 'precision exploration', Rebekah Higgitt; Instrumenting order: longitude, seamen and astronomers, 1770-1805, Eoin Phillips; North by northwest? Experimental instruments and instruments of experiment, Richard Dunn; Weather instruments all at sea: meteorology and the Royal Navy in the nineteenth century, Simon Naylor; Objects of exploration: expanding the horizons of maritime history, Claire Warrior and John McAleer; Instruments of exploration in National Museums Scotland, A.D. Morrison-Low; 'Instruments in the hands of others': the life and liveliness of instruments of British geographical exploration, c.1860-c.1930, Eugene Rae, Catherine Souch and Charles W.J. Withers; Seismic instruments, geographical perspectives, Deborah Jean Warner; Aerial photography in geography and exploration, Peter Collier; Uncovering camouflage: the technology of location and the craft of erasure, Isla Forsyth; Instruments of science and war: Frank Malina and the object of rocketry, Fraser MacDonald; UK radar (dis)integration in the 1960s: linesman/mediator radar development and the calculus of nuclear deterrence, Graham Spinardi; Index.