Browse Items (54 total)

In this machine a fixed plate of glass has two metallic foil sectors glued onto it. The slightly-larger rotating plate has six foil dots with raised studs glued to it; the foil sectors are large enough so that two of the studs are opposite each…

These glass spheres were used to contain gases such as iodine, bromine, and hypo-nitrous acid in order to study their light-absorption properties, i.e. their absorption spectra. Light shown on the cell passed through the glass and was absorbed by the…

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Many pieces of demonstration equipment must be rotated to show a desired effect. A Rotator is a device with a crank that can rapidly rotate a small horizontal platform about an axis. Other pieces of equipment, like Newton’s Color Wheel, attached to…

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An ammeter is a device for measuring electric current. The analog ammeter is constructed so as to pass only a small (but known) fraction of the current to be measured through the meter movement that deflects the needle. This allows a very sensitive…

Lightning is the ultimate arc lamp, and so Benjamin Franklin's 1752 experiment of drawing electricity from the clouds and jumping a spark is perhaps the first arc lamp. In 1801 Humphry Davy observed the brilliant spark obtained when the connection…

This is a device used to demonstrate the effect of atmospheric pressure. A glass vessel with openings at the bottom and top has its large top opening covered by a piece of animal bladder that is tied to seal it around its edges. As air is pumped from…

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This early relative of the slide rule has a cylinder 4 in. in diameter and 18 in. long that rotates and slides in and out between the array of twenty equally-spaced parallel bars. The bars have a scale with numbers spaced logarithmically, as on a…

A current balance measures the force of repulsion between two wires, each carrying an electric current. An upper wire is fixed in place, and the wire directly below it is free to move. The currents are adjusted so that the electrical attractive force…

NOT YET LOCATED. When two wires made of different metals are connected to make a loop, and the two junctions between the wires are held at different temperatures, a voltage is produced and electrical current can be detected with a sensitive current…

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In the nineteenth century almost all power supplies were direct current (DC). In order to step voltage up or down, the direct current had to be converted to alternating current (AC), stepped using transformers, and then converted back to DC. The…
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