Michael Butterfield

Butterfield semicircular instrument

Michael Butterfield (* 1635 ; † May 28, 1724 in Paris ) was an English manufacturer of scientific instruments operating in Paris.

Life

Since around 1663 in Paris, he ran a workshop for precision instruments under the name Aux Armes d'Angleterre. The workshop was initially located in the Faubourg Saint-Germain district on rue Neuve-des-Fossés (1678), then on the Quai de l'Horloge (1691).

Butterfield built surveying instruments, among other things, but was mainly known for his portable horizontal sundials with compass and octagonal dial. In 1680, under the direction of Jean-Dominique Cassini , he realized a planisphere for the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.

On the side, Butterfield built up an extensive and valuable collection of magnetic iron stones .

Peter the Great visited the workshop in 1717 and ordered a large number of gold-plated copper clocks.

After Butterfield's death, his student Jean Langlois continued the business until at least 1730.

Selection of works

Sundial (Butterfield type), Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Semicircular instrument (graphometer), Metropolitan Museum of Art
Astronomical Quadrant with tripod, Science Museum London
Drawing instruments, reduction circles, NIST Museum Gaithersburg
Proportional Circle , Victoria and Albert Museum London

literature

Anthony Turner: Mathematical instrument-making in early modern Paris. In Robert Fox & Anthony Turner: Luxury Trades and Consumerism in Ancien Regime Paris . Aldershot: 1998, pp. 78-83, 95-96.
Patrick Rocca & Francoise Launay: Michel Butterfield (...), the Parisian Apprentice of Jean Choizy. In: Scientific Instrument Society Bulletin No. 136, March 2018, pp. 14-19.

Web links

Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO): Butterfield, Michael
Literature by and about Michael Butterfield in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Butterfield, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English instrument maker
DATE OF BIRTH	1635
DATE OF DEATH	May 28, 1724
Place of death	Paris

[1] Martin Lister's Travels in France , in: John Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1809, Vol. IV, p. 26.

[2] Mercure français, June 1724, p. 1183.