Our Coat of Arms
Sir Isaac Newton and Michael Faraday support the shield on which are found pyramidical cubes in the form of an optical illusion and above that, the head of Minerva. This Roman goddess had many qualities attributed to her including wisdom and knowledge. She presided over the arts in her temple which was used as a meeting place for the guilds of craftsmen. The reproduction was taken from a bust in the British Museum which was found near Rome and which is dated around the 1st or 2nd Century AD.
The figure of Faraday, holding his famed induction coil and robed in the gown of a Doctor of Civil Law of Oxford University is reproduced from the statue by Robert Foley that stands in the Royal Institution. The figure of Isaac Newton is taken from his statue in the Ante-Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is depicted in his robes of a Cambridge MA and holding his telescope.
Click the image to see it in more detail.
Our motto
The motto Sine Nobis Scientia Languet – Knowledge cannot flourish without us – reflects the fundamental role the craft has played in the achievement of science over the past centuries and will, it is expected, prove to be an inspiration in the years to come.
The Grant of Arms by the College of Arms was completed on 10 December 1956.