LONDON — A rare astronomy tool that helped medieval scientists
tell time will remain in Britain after the British Museum
scrambled to come up with the money to buy it. The brass device,
called an astrolabe quadrant, had been sold at auction last
year, and the museum was outbid. But money from the National
Heritage Memorial fund, The Art Fund and the British Museum
Friends helped the museum purchase it recently for $700,000.
"The quadrant will be a very important addition to our medieval
collection as an object which can explain the sophistication of
science in the Middle Ages and the transfer of knowledge between
Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities," deputy director of
the British Museum Andrew Burnett said in a statement Thursday.
The 14th-century device, which is shape of a quadrant, or
quarter of a circle, was designed to be portable and has a
radius of 3 inches (77 millimeters). The instrument was used to
calculate the height of the sun. With that information, a
scientist could determine the time, da