Browse Items (54 total)

The name derives from the Greek word “to cheat”. The essential component of this device is a glass disk upon which are arranged figures radially, representing a moving object in successive positions. On turning the disk, and projecting a light beam…

This device demonstrates “Newton’s Rings,” colorful interference fringes caused by a thin air layer first discussed by Isaac Newton in a communication to the Royal Society in December 1675, and presented an expanded account in his book "Optics"…

NOT YET LOCATED. The description below is not for these exact items. It belongs to a very similar item, which might nonetheless be helpful to the viewer. This cardboard aid for astronomy students was published by Henry Whitall, 512 Arch Street,…

NOT YET LOCATED. The effects of electricity on the body can be traced back to 1745 when Pieter van Musschenbroek, testing out the one of the first Leiden jars, stated that "I felt myself struck in my arms, shoulders, and breast. I lost my breath, and…

The Magdeburg hemispheres are a pair of large copper hemispheres with mating rims. When the rims were sealed with grease and the air was pumped out through the valve below the lower hemisphere, the lowered pressure within the sphere made it very…

These light bulbs were manufactured around 1905. They can be dated by the construction of the filament.  To learn more about antique light bulbs, visit this link to the  SCHENECTADY MUSEUM.

The Leyden jar is the earliest form of the condenser or capacitor. The jar allowed the electric charge produced by an electrostatic machine (for instance) to be accumulated and stored for future use. The first jars were made independently in 1745 by…

Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Kohlrausch (1840-1910) was a professor of physics at Göttingen, Zürich, Würtzburg, Strasbourg and Berlin during his career. He wrote a widely-used book on methods of experimental physics, and developed improved measurement…

Kaleidoscopes operate on the principle of multiple reflection, where several mirrors are attached together. There are three rectangular lengthwise mirrors. Setting the mirrors at a 45 degree angle creates eight duplicate images of the objects, six at…

This apparatus is listed in the 1885 catalogue of Jules Duboscq of Paris as the “Grand Circle of MM. Jamin et Sénnarmont.” It was designed for the study of the laws of polarized light reflected from crystalline substances, from liquids and from…