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Encyclopaedia of the North East

C - Caledonian forest to Copland, Patrick

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A large printed capital letter C inside a square area of decorative scrolls, with a taxidermy capercaillie, red squirrel and crossbills, and a large wooden frame with pulleys and a small brass windmill.

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Caledonian adj 
Pertaining to ancient Caledonia, the highlands of Scotland, or to Scotland generally. 
~ Forest n 
The primeval forest of Scotland. 
The North East landscape was not always as treeless as it appears now. The predation of sheep and man in the lowlands and the activities of man, sheep and deer in the highlands have reduced the great natural Caledonian forests to a few restricted areas, the last refuge for a variety of plants and animals.

Capercaillie. A large bird with mottled grey and brown plumage, brown and white wings, and an iridescent bluish grey breast. It has a waxy red brow around each eye and a short, hooked beak. It stands on a mossy platform.

Capercailzie, Tetrao urogallus.

LEMUR:1000045

Red squirrel. Squirrel with reddish brown fur and a white belly, with long tufts on its ears. The squirrel hangs from a Perspex bar with its front legs.

Red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris.

LEMUR:1000044

Crossbills. Two taxidermy finch sized birds on Perspex perches. Both birds have large, curved beaks where the upper and lower parts cross over each other (like crossed fingers). The male has brown and orange plumage, the female brown and olive plumage.

Male (top) and female (bottom) crossbills, Loxia curvirostra.

LEMUR:1000042, 1000043

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Copland, Patrick physicist; 
b 1749 Fintray Manse,Aberdeenshire 
d 10 November 1822 Fonthill House, Aberdeen. 
Professor of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College (1775), Professor of Mathematics in Marischal College (1779). 

He enjoyed considerable local reputation as a teacher but his claim to notice lies in the pains he took to form a collection of models and other scientific apparatus suitable for a museum of Natural Philosophy. Hardly anything of the kind was known in the North of Scotland. Copeland was also among the first to extend the knowledge of science beyond academic circles by means of a popular course of natural philosophy.
WGB National Dictionary of Biography.

Pulleys. Large wooden frame, about half a metre square, suspended from which are six brass pulleys and weight systems, ranging in complexity from a single pulley with a weight to six pulleys with a single weight.

Model used by Copland to demonstrate the principles of pulleys. 

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Double windmills. Two sets of four brass vanes on an axel with a leaf spring connected to it, on a brass and wooden stand. The vanes are facing the direction of rotation on one set and are twisted away from it on the other set.

Model of windmill vanes used by Copland to illustrate air resistance. Made by Copland's assistant John King.

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A large brass wheel sitting on four smaller wheels, in a brass frame on a circular wooden stand. The smaller wheels spin at a much slower rate when the large wheel is spun.

Low friction bearing, originally part of an Atwood machine. Made by Patrick Copland.

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A wooden cube with two brass and turned wooden handles projecting diagonally backwards from the sides, and a small brass plate projecting backward from the top. The plate rests on a stand with a point. The cube balances perfectly upright.

Balancing cube demonstrating centre of gravity, made by Patrick Copland.

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C - Caledonian forest to Copland, Patrick