Browse Items (47 total)
- Collection: Copland Teaching Apparatus
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Standard foot. A brass ruler, a foot long, inscribed 'J. Sisson London'.
Included in Observatory equipment of 1823 Marischal College Natural Philosophy Inventory (King's Archives). Value: one guinea', ' Standard foot Examined by Maskelyne ' on paper in Copland's hand sellotaped onto lid. Inscribed 'J Sisson London'.
Proportional compasses. A pair of long brass rectangles with numbers inscribed up their length, each with a long steel point at one end a short point at the other. They are screwed together with an ornate knob.
Brass with steel points, wooden box, signed ' C. Lunan '.
Table compass. A compass, eleven centimetres wide, in an octagonal wooden frame with a glass cover bordered by brass. The compass needle sits above a disc of paper printed with an anthropomorphic sun in the centre and directions and degrees around the edge.
Octagonal plane table compass. Paper card marked with compass points and in quadrantal degrees brass scale marked 0 - 360. Octagonal mahogany frame with key flap for table. Paper label underneath 'The property of the University of Aberdeen'. Embedded…
Cohering plates. Two thick brass discs about eight centimetres wide, one slightly larger than the other, with handles.
Brass cohering rings with handles. Smaller base solid brass. Larger base has solid centre 75 mm with rounded additional rim. Two plates accurately finished so that when wrung together they would cohere due to natural interatomic boding between plates…
Magdeburg hemispheres. Two dark brass hollow hemispheres which fit together, with bright brass handles projecting from the top of each hemisphere. One has a short handle, the other has a long handle with a valve.
Demonstration of the great power of air pressure. When the comparatively small hemispheres are evacuated they are very difficult to pull apart, requiring a foce exceeding 400 N. Thick-walled brass hemispheres with central rim; one handle post with 2…
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.
Wooden cube with wooden angled handles and short brass balancing arms, and stand for cube with balancing point. Circular brass disc stamped ' Univ. Abdn. Nat. Phil.'. Similar to item in 1790 catalogue of Thomas Jones(?).
Visitors' Centre caption…
Visitors' Centre caption…
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.
Device exhibiting a low friction bearing. Friction wheels on circular base with holes for pulley cord - (top of Atwood's machine). Steel axles. Three 2 mm brass stud feet. Displayed in King's visitors' centre until 1993 - 2003. "Brilliant workmanship…
Aristotle's watering pot. A small tin watering can with small holes perforated in the base.
'Aristotle’s Watering Pot' was another demonstration piece in Professor Patrick Copland’s repertoire about 200 years ago.
Tipping up the pot while holding a thumb over the air-hole above the handle, it could be filled through the spout. With the…
Tipping up the pot while holding a thumb over the air-hole above the handle, it could be filled through the spout. With the…
Metal hearts. A wooden box with five heart shaped cavities inside which are an iron, a copper, a brass and a lead heart. One is missing.
Unsigned but very similar to the specimen in the George III collection. Complete with ivory-sided compass with transparent base. Hinged box has cut-outs for five metal hearts, only four are contained in the box. Various non magnetic metals. Gold…
Chinese compass. A small rectangular wooden box with two rows of notches along its length on the top side. There is also a circular cavity with a pin in the centre on which the needle would have been. The cavity and notches have Chinese characters around them. There is a panel of wood with concentric rings and characters on it which slides out from the underside of the box; it has feet allowing it to stand in the notches.
Portable dial combines a compass whose needle is now missing, equinoctial sundial of traditional Chinese design (unseen in base), and a noon dial for telling the time of year. The equinoctial dial has shaped feet cut into to give it the correct…