Towards an Ontology of Pre-20th Century Scientific Instrument Types

Abstract

• This paper introduces the project Tools of Knowledge: Modelling the Scientific Instrument Trade, 1550–1914, and focuses on our ongoing development of an ontology to represent knowledge about scientific instrument types produced during this period. After a brief introduction, we discuss the background to the project and a summary of previous work related to knowledge representation of scientific instrument types, particularly in the area of Linked Open Data. We continue with an explanation of the methods used to normalize and structure our data, as well as the vocabularies used to describe relationships between terms. Our interim findings comprise our reflections on the nature of these complex relationships and their semantic representation, alongside examples of analysis that has been facilitated through application of the ontology-in-progress to the project database. To conclude, we summarize our findings so far and provide an indication of how we might expand and enhance the ontology, as well as its contribution to the wider Linked Open Data ecosystem.