Every year, the Scientific Instrument Commission holds an annual Symposium in a locale with significant historical collections. This year the XXXII Scientific Instrument Symposium will take place in Manchester, United Kingdom, as part of the 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.

The primary theme of this year’s Symposium takes inspiration from the congress theme, ‘Knowledge at Work,’ but with a focus on the ‘Trade and Transfer of Scientific Instruments.’ To put knowledge to work, instruments—and the knowledge they embody or generate—frequently change hands. This transfer could be between individuals, manufacturers, retailers, institutions, countries, Europe and the Americas, or other pairings.

Other paper topics have also been welcomed in this Symposium (as is the practice of the Scientific Instrument Commission). These broadly concern the history of scientific instruments; the preservation, conservation, or documentation of collections of instruments; or their use within the wider disciplines related to scientific heritage, material culture, and the production of knowledge. These papers are clustered together in thematic sessions.