Mordechai Semach Aboab (1707 - 1775)

Field(s) of interest: Scientific instruments
Gender: male

1707
Died: Amsterdam, 1775

Biography:
Mordechai Semah Aboab was a scientific instrument maker and retailer in Amsterdam, in 1735 on the Herengracht, in 1742 in the Muiderstraat. He made and sold a wide range of instruments, including compasses, sundials, microscopes, drawing instruments, mechanical demonstration apparatus. Aboab assisted with lectures given by D.G. Fahrenheit (1686-1737) in Amsterdam. In 1737 he was the auctioneer of Fahrenheit’s estate. An azimuth compass signed by Aboab and Benjamin Ayres is preserved.His own cabinet of scientific instruments was auctioned in Amsterdam, in 1756.

Collections: Museum Boerhaave, Leiden (pedometer, signed 'Deze werden vercogt bij Mordechay Semah Aboab tot Amsterdam'; a microscope [according to the hand-written manual sold and manufactured by Aboab]; proportional dividers signed: MORDY SEMAH ABOAB EN BENJN AYRES AMSTERDAM); Science Museum, London (a compass signed by both Aboab and Ayres).


Occupations:
retailer and instrument maker: 1725 - 1742 (Amsterdam)

Sources:
[Ebeling, E.], Naamlijst en korte beschrijving van wis- en natuurkundige werktuigen, bij één verzameld door mr. E. Ebeling (Amsterdam 1789).

Zuidervaart, H.J., Van 'Konstgenoten' en hemelse fenomenen. Nederlandse sterrenkunde in de achttiende eeuw (Rotterdam 1999).

Rooseboom, M., Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der instrumentmakerskunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden (Leiden 1950).

Kuile, S. ter & W.FJ. Mörzer Bruyns, Amsterdamse kompasmakers ca.1580-ca.1850. (Amsterdam 1999).

Leopold, J.H., 'Some notes on Benjamin Ayres', in: R.G.W. Anderson (e.a.), Making Instruments Count: Essays on Historical Scientific Instruments presented to Gerard L'Estrange Turner (Aldershot 1993), 395-402.