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Physics Museum

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987 - Single magnetic earphone

UNK,

1637 - Demonstration CRO Tube AV43

Amalgamated Wireless Valve, Aust, Australia

This apparatus demonstrates the operation of a Cathode Ray Tube with electrostatic deflection. The construction includes a fluorescent screen. This shows the path taken by the electron flow within the tube, as the voltage on the deflection plates...

118 - Sumpner Reflecting Electrodynamometer

Robt. W. Paul, London N., England

The Sumpner reflecting electrodynamometer is the first item in the One Hundred Years  of Physics at UQ tour. It is located in Display case S16 in the middle of the back wall of Room 231. Although this instrument looks typical of electrical...

1688 - Telescope on stand

W. Wilson, London , England (1913)

An inverting telescope with crosshairs.

1927 - Famous Pitch Drop Experiment

Thomas Parnell, Brisbane, Australia (1927)

The Pitch Drop experiment is designed to demonstrate that pitch is a high viscosity fluid and not a solid. It began in 1927, when Professor Thomas Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. When the pitch...

- ITR Hourly Supervising Pendulum Master Clock

International Time Recording Co. Ltd / IBM, England (circa 1940(?))

This item is a Pendulum Master clock, made by International Business Machines in the United Kingdom around 1963. The wooden case holds the clockwork and pendulum and above the case is a connected dial. Dials such as these are called slave dials and...

2005 - Radon Laboratory

H. Webster, Australia (1930-)

Location:S18        Glass slides of radon preparation plant, and use of radon to treat cancer. In 1937, Hugh Webster, who had earned his PhD with Chadwick in Cambridge, and had almost discovered the neutron (Chadwick...

- Scientific Clocks master clock

ACElec, Australia

This electrically powered pendulum clock was made in Sydney, probably in the 1950s by the firm ACElec, to a design developed by Prouds Electric Clocks and Scientific Instruments thirty years before. The firm Scientific Clocks referred to on the dial...

296 - Ionospheric Recorder Type Y10D/70890/J28A

CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory Workshops, Australia (circa 1947)

Location:  in the large glass case S44 at the right hand end of the back wall. Built by CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory workshops to design of F.W. Wood and A.J. Higgs From 1940 Hugh Webster and Arnold Reimann were seconded to the Radiophysics...

1823 - Synchronome Master Clock

Synchronome Electrical Co of Australasia, Brisbane., Australia (circa 1955)

This clock was made in Brisbane  in 1955. The Synchronome Electrical Company of Australasia built clocks in Brisbane under licence from Frank Hope-Jones' Synchronome Company in England. They also built the clocks in the towers of South Brisbane...

1505 - Framed Bribie Island mementos

1960-1969 The Bribie array (S44) In the 1960s, ionsopheric physics research was flourishing at UQ. One of the major experiments at the  Department's  ionospheric physics field station on Bribie Island was an array of aerials running...

27 - Synchronome Master Clock

Synchronome Electrical Company of Australasia, Brisbane, Australia (circa 1958)

  Grey painted wooden case with glazed door. Lower dial with hour and minute hands and seconds bit.  Upper dial with sweep seconds hand only mounted on inside of door. Black japanned casting carries pendulum, countwheel, gravity arm and...

28 - van de Graaff Ion Accelerator Model AN200

High Voltage Engineering Corp. Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. , Usa (1950s)

  This item represents the 1970s in the '100 Years of Physics at UQ Tour'. In the 1970s, research began in several other areas besides ionospheric physics. These included theoretical astrophysics and experimental spectroscopy. Purchased...

2083 - Big G

UQ Physics Workshops,

1980-1989  Big G Laboratory measurements provide a value of the Newtonian Gravitational Constant “big G” (as opposed to “little g”, the local acceleration due to gravity) with a precision of 6 parts in 104 (6.672 ± 0.0041) x 10-11 m3kg-1 s-2....

2045 - Optical Vortices Demonstration

Australia (1990s/2015)

This demonstration of optical vortices was put together by the UQ Physics Museum. It represents a strand of optical research carried on at the UQ Physics Labs which started in the 1990's and still continues today. It consists of a small base onto...

1819 - Atom Chip for BEC Production

Dr C. Vale, Mr B. Upcroft, Physics Workshop Staff, Australia (2003)

This “atom chip” was a central part of the experiment that produced the first Bose-Einstein condensate in Australia. The “chip” consists of a silver foil mirror, mounted on an alumina substrate. The mirror foil has grooves cut into its surface which...

- The Famous Pitch Drop Experiment

Thomas Parnell,

Location: Parnell Building Foyer, directly opposite the Physics Museum. Recognised by the Guiness Book of Records as the longest running scientific experiment in the world, the Pitch Drop experiment is remembered by generations of staff and...

1791 - Laboratory Balance Type 1106

Sartorius Werke Goettingen,

1792 - Cylindrical Mirror in Metal Frame

1793 - Simple Orrery

Norman Heckenberg, Australia (1983)

Norman Heckenberg built this simple Orrery at home to show his children how solar and lunar eclipses occur. Maintenance of the inclination of the Earth's axis of rotation to the ecliptic is achieved using a Ferguson Mechanical Paradox implemented...

1794 - Three thermal detectors

Three thermopile IR detectors probably used in lecture demonstrations.

1795 - Box of Parts

Hawksley & Sons Ltd, London w.1, W. Watson & Sons, Ltd, London and C.F. Palmer,

A box of parts donated by Dr Rex Newsome. Some came from a large kymograph in the Psychology Department.

1796 - Domestic Wattmeter Demonstration

Warburton Franki, Chatswood NSW, Australia

A domestic electricity supply wattmeter is mounted with its housing removed to demonstrate its mode of operation.

1797 - Double Rheostat

Two units, each consisting of a helical coil of resistance wire with a sliding tap, ganged together.

1798 - Step-down Transformer Demonstration

Australia

Lecture demonstration transformer. Toroidal core supports primary winding, while a secondary of only three turns is supported on insulating posts and can be connected across a piece of copper or iron wire which can be rapidly heated to destruction.

1799 - Concave Metal Mirror

A concave mirror, proably for use with IR radiation, or possibly acoustical experiments.

1800 - Transmitter valve 6166A (7000)

RCA, Usa (1970)

Output valve from transmitter constructed by AWA for Channel 8, Wide Bay Television. Valve dates from 1970. The transmitter, situated on Mt Goonaneman, 60km WNW of Maryborough, was replaced by a solid state system in the 1980s and donated to UQ...

1801 - Vernier Potentiometer

Cambridge Instrument Company, England (First quarter 20th century)

A potentiometer is a system of resistors used in conjunction with a standard cell and a galvanometer for making null measurements of potential (voltage) .

26 - blank

2002 - List of Books in Museum Library

Physics Museum Book Hand-list 13.09.94 Author: | Title: -----------------------------------+------------------------------------------- Aderet, J. |Das Rotorschiff und seine physikalischen Gr...

2001 - Robert Hawthorne Slide Rule and Manual

Robert Hawthorne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

2003 - Synchronome Letter Book 1, 1902 to 1904

Copies of letters written by A.G. Jackson survive in a bound book of spirit copies. Many are quite difficult to read but Tony Roberts and Norman Heckenberg have transcribed them as best they can.         Number    ...

2012 - Synchronome Goods and Details Book

Alfred George Jackson,

An exercise book survives from the earliest days of the Synchronome Electrical Company of Australasia. It contains information about sources of supply and prices. In 2003 Robert Miles transcribed the contents.

- Cathode ray Tube 1CP1

Cossor, England

1768 - Supersensitive Panchromatic Photographic Plates

Ilford Ltd, London,

1769 - Konica EE-Matic 35mm Camera

Konica, Japan

1770 - Demonstration AC-DC Electric Motor

1771 - Valve, QBL5-3500, and socket

Philips, Other

Valve from TV transmitter

1772 - CRO Recording Camera

Used by Ionospheric Group

1773 - Attachments from Engineering Pressure Instrument

1774 - Acoustic Interferometer

1776 - Terrestrial Globe 'Revere' Modified to track Propagation Paths

Replogle and UQ Physics Workshop,

94 - Front Silvered Mirror

Front silvering removes image caused by partial reflection off front surface when back is silvered.

2043 - Galileo Telescope Replica

Norman Heckenberg, Australia (2009)

This telescope was built in 2009 by Professor Norman Heckenberg to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of the telescope to observe the surface of the Moon and discover satellites orbiting Jupiter. It is based on surviving telescopes...

- Camera Lucida

France

Wollaston pattern camera lucida made in France. The device allows simultaneous viewing of a scene and a piece of paper on a desk, so that a pencil can follow the outlines of the object being drawn. One of a  series of lenses can be placed in...

- The Radon Laboratory

In 1936 Hugh Webster was appointed to a lectureship jointly funded by UQ, the Qld Cancer Trust and the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board with the aim of setting up a plant for the production of radioactive radon gas to be used in cancer...

1809 - Bribie Island South Recreational Map

QLD Dept. of Mapping and Surveying,

1808 - National NV-M5A VHS Movie Camera

National,

1780 - Box of Resistors

1781 - Prism in Frame

1782 - Nuclear Medicine Syringes

Steriking,

1783 - Volt Ratio Box

Tinsley,

1785 - Right Angle Prism

1788 - Robot Recorder Unit

Robot. Germany, Germany

1789 - Null Voltage Test Set

H. Tinsley. London, England

1790 - LD Parallel Plate Capacitor

W.G. Pye & Co. Cambridge, England

1777 - Box of old First Year Lab. Experiments

1778 - Box of old First Year Lab. Experiments

- Glass Slides of Radon Work

Australia

Four glass projector slides of Radon Lab work. 1)  Probably shows lead container for radium sample and radon collection lines 2)  Autoradiograph from '10?g unit strength plate' 3)  Activity measurement using Siemens Momentan...

1813 - Telegraph Lineman's Galvanometer

Telegraph Works Silvertown London, England (circa 1910?)

This form of galvanometer, also known as a ‘Q and I detector’, was used as the basic diagnostic tool by telegraph linemen.  A horizontal axle carries an indicator in front of the dial and a magnetised needle inside, located between two coils....

- Drawer a2 SLIDE RULES

A normal slide rule is used to perform multiplications and divisions and find the value of functions like sine, cosine and tangent, reciprocal and exponential. Its invention goes back to the seventeenth century, but it was in the mid twentieth...

266 - Electrometer Valve

317 - Oscilloscope, Astor, Model TV-1

Electronic Industries Imports Pty Ltd,

318 - Oscilloscope, Philips, GM 5655

Philips,

336 - X-ray machine, foot

1869 - Box of microscope slides

Cenco Scientific Company,

180 - Voltage Meter

1814 - Glass Projection Slides in Cabinet

A wooden cabinet of 64 drawers for  31/4" glass projection slides. The top four rows accommodate over 2000 slides, each 82 mm (3 1/4") square. There are about 2000 slides covering a wide range of Physics related topics. They were used in...

1815 - 35 mm Projection Slides in Cabinet (1)

One thousand 35 mm slides in glass mounts. Each is numbered but there are no captions. Used in lectures.

1816 - 35 mm Projection Slides in Cabinet (2)

A collection of 35 mm slides, mainly in cardboard mounts, used in lectures in the 1970s.

1817 - Card Index Equipment Inventory

UQ Physics Department,

Wooden index card cabinet with two drawers containing index cards. One is marked 'Inst'  and contains two alphabetical runs of cards in several different formats, some dated in range 1912 to 1957. The second drawer, marked 'LECTURE EQUIPMENT...

1818 - Card index for Glass Projection Slides

A large number of index cards in an incorrect drawer. They seem to form an index for the collection of glass projection slides ID 1814. Also a bundle of 35 mm slides.

501 - Floating Sundial

unknown,

Floating sundial for southern hemisphere, probably in the lattitude of Hobart.  Missing glass dome and lever to lock card.

- List of Library Books

- Robert Hawthorne Slide Rule and Manual

John Cail, Newcastle on Tyne, England (1841)

This slide rule has been in the present owner's family since it was brought to Australia in 1851. It comprises a two foot folding boxwood rule with a brass hinge, marked in inches and provided with tables of useful constants. There is as well a...
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