Worshipful Company

I wish I had a better copy of this, the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers. The WCSIM promotes the craft of scientific instrument making and the exchange of ideas and information by members and guests through meetings, visits, lectures and social events.

The members are all linked with the manufacture or use of scientific instruments. The Company advances the craft through traditional apprenticeships supervised by Liverymen, and through its educational trust fund. The fund provides grants, bursaries and scholarships at A level, undergraduate and post graduate and research fellow levels.

Don’t get all enchanted at thinking they are an ancient order of alchemists, teeming with secrets of forbidden knowledge (sorry, Forbidden Knowledge); they got their charter in 1955 and the coat of arms the next year.  They do, however, have a bunch of scholarships and such for aspiring instrument makers.  I think I always would have been happier making instruments than using them (and I have been for the last seven years), so I endorse them to all  and sundry Englishmen.  Go for it, lads.

Also, their website has lovely quotes from great scientists and saints, like " The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That’s funny…" "  and " If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”

How demonstrably true.