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McCulloch's mariner's compass. A large compass consisting of a wide ring of card printed with directions and a degree scale, covered with glass and fixed on a steel strip screwed to a conical projection underneath. The compass is on a brass gimbal mount in a wooden box.
McCulloch's patent compass in oak box without lid. Card marked in degrees, in quadrants . Embedded brass disc inside box ' Univ. Abdn. Nat. Phil. ' In single gimbals. Patent No 1663 (1788). One of only a few in museums throughout the world.
Azimuth compass. A compass with a rotatable ring-shaped brass frame around it mounted on a heavy brass stand. The frame is marked with degree scales. Four removable rectangular plates of brass, each with a rectangular hole, a slit and three small circular holes in them, project vertically from the frame equidistant from one another.
Azimuth compass in wooden box with lid and lock and key . Brass scales. 4 sights are detachable - 2 fit on rotating compass ring and 2 on meridional line. Each sight has a slit and a cross wire one above the other. Box has inset disc ' Univ. Abdn.…
Arnold's compensated escapement model. A large brass and iron contraption, on a wooden base, consisting of a wheel with two arcs of metal terminating in brass balls around the outside, on an axel with another smaller brass wheel. Underneath is another axel with a toothed wheel and a small wooden barrel on it. An irregularly bent strip of metal curls over the top axel.
Arnold's compensated escapement - demonstration of his patent No. 1328. A brass escapement on a wooden base.
Clock movement. A small brass contraption consisting of wheels, cogs, plates, and a spring.
Spring clock and movement for demonstrating the reduction of sound in vacuum; pounds 6.6.0. Brass. Some form of 'scale' behind escapement wheel, part of an old compass dial, although no pointer evident. Fancy key, handle heart-shaped and engraved on…
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…