One of the early ideas I had for The System of Nature was making a blended goniometer — the instrument that measures crystal angles. This was because Linnaeus had proposed a much less successful system for the classification of the mineral kingdom. There was a goniometer in the geology museum.
I have been working on a possible exhibition opportunity for a show about the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus. Researching Linnaeus I came across some references to his classing of minerals, fossils and crystals. In this case Linnaeus’s system was never adopted. I am thinking about combining it with the bowerbird’s classification of stones in …