Scientific Instruments (Pre 1950'ish)

Capn Jack wrote in post #19082842
Very interesting!

Thanks Capn Jack. It was the principal form of theatre of war signalling between 1860 - 1920’ish when it was not possible to run wires. In my much younger years there was an old chap in my village who was a signal officer in the Boar War and he used to tell me stories about using the heliograph in the Transvaal. As always, I now wish I had listened more intently.

Fitzroy's Mercury fishing ports barometer.
In the interests of life at sea and collecting weather data, Vice Admiral Fitzroy had this type of barometer supplied to all the major fishing and shipping ports around the UK.
A few remaining ones are often found on public display, often in the vicinity of the Harbour Master's office of fishing ports.

An interesting link to Fitzroy -
https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/Robert_FitzRoy

Photo from Ray.Petri's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (1009506)

another interesting device Ray
He had a colourful career before succumbing like some before him.Quite sad.

Inventions that had a significant impact on the lives of others.

Beautiful piece of antiquity

avondale87 wrote in post #19098607
another interesting device Ray
He had a colourful career before succumbing like some before him.Quite sad.

Inventions that had a significant impact on the lives of others.

Beautiful piece of antiquity

Thanks Richard. I’ll post another one of his design later.
I often try and imagine what it must be like to be on a small ship like the Beagle for a few years at a time - and for the family waiting at home.

The Fitzroy Polytechnic. Victorian era. c1880.
For forecasting the weather.
The scale and forecasting plates are porcelain.
The storm tube on the lower left of the case. Under certain weather conditions crystals appear in the liquid. Note of caution - do not rely on it if you about fly your 737 to other end of the planet.

That's also equally enthralling Ray
Certainly built interesting designs into their devices. Works of art.

agree on those tiny boats facing the elements.
We had our own explorers from yonder shores - Bass & Flinders and others.
But the tiny sloop Norfolk must have been an awesome and at times fearsome experience when facing the elements.
I saw the replica of the Norfolk and to imagine that out in the wildest of wilds doesn't bear thinking of.

There was a reenactment of his historic circumnavigation of Tasmania a few years ago.

Ray.Petri wrote in post #19081662
At the front of the lamp-house is a vented, liquid filled condenser.

It sounds from discussions in some of the other threads that the new R5 could do with one of those.

avondale87 wrote in post #19099491
That's also equally enthralling Ray
Certainly built interesting designs into their devices. Works of art.

agree on those tiny boats facing the elements.
We had our own explorers from yonder shores - Bass & Flinders and others.
But the tiny sloop Norfolk must have been an awesome and at times fearsome experience when facing the elements.
I saw the replica of the Norfolk and to imagine that out in the wildest of wilds doesn't bear thinking of.

There was a reenactment of his historic circumnavigation of Tasmania a few years ago.

Bass and Flinders and his compass compensation magnets led me to look up Kelvin’s balls, and so on.

Well looking at one interesting link leads to another and I end up spending an hour or two reading history.

Pippan wrote in post #19099553
It sounds from discussions in some of the other threads that the new R5 could do with one of those.

Well, yes, looks like it may have a problem. I was thinking of going out and getting an R5 but I think I might just wait. With the bad publicity the price might get a bit more sensible. I don’t do a lot of video and I certainly won’t be able to handle 8k. 1080 will do me, I only take short clips. But I like the idea of lots more megapixels and some of it’s other specifications. I will have to think about it, but I dunno. I think they might be launching a 7D3 or equivalent soon and I’d be brassed off if they did. I just wish Canon had stuffed GPS in it. Very essential today.
If I get an R5 I will get a WW2 red fire bucket and styrup pump to go with it.

Such things of beauty. Now we treasure plastic.

Ray I love the inscription on the "Words of wisdom"
No 6: aching changes...
My body acts like that. I don't need a barometer

greyswan wrote in post #19099766
Such things of beauty. Now we treasure plastic.

Agreed, take the old plate cameras as an example - nothing but wood, canvas for the bellows and glass for the lens held in a brass cylinder. The new cameras, Specially developed plastic, special glass, microchips with all sorts of rare metals. But as the world moves on most of us seem happy to be dragged along with the flow. And don't forget, today's Canon R5 will be in tomorrows museum or in a collectors display cabinet. Another example is the pocket calculator of the 1970s.

avondale87 wrote in post #19099804
Ray I love the inscription on the "Words of wisdom"
No 6: aching changes...
My body acts like that. I don't need a barometer

Got any good jokes Richard? Perhaps you can tell me - Do mercury barometers actually work in your part of the globe, or does the mercury run out of the tube when they pass the equator? Maybe that's the reason they have to be shipped without the mercury - Eh!

Ray.Petri wrote in post #19099927
Got any good jokes Richard? Perhaps you can tell me - Do mercury barometers actually work in your part of the globe, or does the mercury run out of the tube when they pass the equator? Maybe that's the reason they have to be shipped without the mercury - Eh!

Well Ray. Seeing you asked.
You do realise the barometer works the opposite way down here!
Just like water down a plug hole.
We do things differently here. But we do drive on the same side of the road, amongst other common ideologies.
Not forgetting left hand threads so they don't come undone with earth's rotation

avondale87 wrote in post #19100000
Well Ray. Seeing you asked.
You do realise the barometer works the opposite way down here!
Just like water down a plug hole.
We do things differently here. But we do drive on the same side of the road, amongst other common ideologies.
Not forgetting left hand threads so they don't come undone with earth's rotation

Thank you Richard, I just knew I could rely on you to explain away a few myths we believe.

Simple Magnetometer. c1900-1960. Baird and Tatlock of London.
A typical school or college instrument used for magnetic experiments and demonstrations.
Examples and illustrations are to be found in nearly all the old college physics books.

Except the plastic parts won't stand the test of time even as much as wood. I doubt we'll see much except the metal innards in a hundred years.

Having said that, I have a little solar calculator that I found in the street in the late nineties that still works today.

greyswan wrote in post #19101273
Except the plastic parts won't stand the test of time even as much as wood. I doubt we'll see much except the metal innards in a hundred years.

Having said that, I have a little solar calculator that I found in the street in the late nineties that still works today.

Hi greyswan. Electronic calculators became available to the man in the street in the early 1970s at an exorbitant price.

Here is a Sharp PC-1246 from 1983. 2K RAM and 18K ROM. This one is not solar powered.
5.5in x 2.75in (14cm x 7cm)

It is programmed in BASIC language and working as new and has hardly ever been used. It was supplied with a thick, printed instruction book.