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Description: | The collection has resulted from the collection of material that has been in use in the University of Aberdeen, primarily for the purpose of teaching and research and was brought together by a distinguished line of past Professors of Natural Philosophy. Included among these are Patrick Copland, William Knight, James Clerk Maxwell, Charles Niven FRS, Nobel Prize winning GP Thomson FRS and RV Jones FRS. The earliest material dates from the mid 18th century and the most recent material from the 21st century. As a result of its continuity the collection provides an important material record which Aberdeen University Senior Lecturer Dr B Marsden describes as "charting the change in practical and popular scientific culture". The collection holds a few hundred items found in the field of teaching and research in the subject of Heat, including well over 100 different glass thermometers of varying range, sensitivity and calibration. An example of Leslie's Differential thermometer is featured in Dr Neil Arnott's best-selling 'Elements of Physics: or Natural Philosophy General and Medical' published in 1827. Arnott was a distinguished graduate from Marischal College. This early model is a fine example of a Differential thermometer which is known to be "considerably more sensitive that the normal thermometer"(Reid, 2004). The collection contains a wide variety of thermometers, calorimeters and other pieces related to heat, from heat conduction to the properties of stream under pressure and the liquefaction of gases. The Natural Philosophy collection is supported by a webpage which includes links to articles related to the collection, information pages for selected items and documentation for an exhibition 'Precisely' which featured the connections between the museum collection and Natural Philosophy and documentation held in the University's Special libraries and Archives.
Access to the collection is restricted and all enquiries should be sent to Dr J Reid, the Honorary Curator. Information compiled in consultation with the Honorary Curator.
Super collection: Natural Philosophy Collection.
Objects: Dial thermometer; thermopile; precision thermometers; Regnault's calorimeter; pulse glass; alcohol thermometer; Leslie's differential thermometer; hot-tube holders; Muschenbroek-type pyrometer; parallel thermometers calibrated in Celsius, Fahrenheit and degrees Kelvin; Test-tube holder; manometer; milk thermometer; balance; Digital thermometer; mercury manometer; Regnault's calorimeter; thermal conduction demonstration; precision thermometer; electronic thermometer; electronic flue gas analyser; silvered vacuum cup; matchbox; thermal conductivity apparatus; Thompson's calorimeter; Joules apparatus for evaluating the mechanical equivalent of heat, with electrical counter; pyrometer; S. Gravesande's ball and ring; Watt's steam engine model ; boiling point thermometer; Roland Wild's Solid fuel calorimeter; A variety of meteorological thermometers; Cailletet's liquefier. | Subjects: | History of Science. | Temporal: | 1780 - 1980 | Source: | University of Aberdeen | Address: | King's College,
AB24 3FX | Identifier: | ABDNP:CLD06 | Relation: | ABDUA:CLD00 | Go to resource |
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