Barlow's wheel
Datecirca 1850
Inventory Number1997-1-1067
ClassificationBarlow's wheel
Subject
Maker
American
Cultural Region
Dimensions24.7 × 2.7 × 24.8 cm (9 3/4 × 1 1/16 × 9 3/4 in.)
Material
DescriptionThis is the spur wheel from a Barlow's wheel demonstration.
The sheet metal is cut into 18 spokes with a star in the middle. The tips of the spokes are corroded from being dipped into a mercury trough. The spur wheel is attached to a wooden board with an eye screw attached to the top. The spur wheel rotates with its spokes descending below the board, when the board is held up by the eye screw.
It is shop built.
The sheet metal is cut into 18 spokes with a star in the middle. The tips of the spokes are corroded from being dipped into a mercury trough. The spur wheel is attached to a wooden board with an eye screw attached to the top. The spur wheel rotates with its spokes descending below the board, when the board is held up by the eye screw.
It is shop built.
Signedunsigned
Curatorial Remarksfound with various glass instruments
French
Date: circa 1880
Accessories: protecting case with glass window
Object number: DW0095
Thomas de Colmar
Date: circa 1850
Object number: DW0295
Sylvania
Date: late 19th-early 20th Century
Accessories: brown cardboard box, with handwritten note, "345 on 35"
Object number: RS0369
Walter Balcke
Date: 1952-1964
Accessories: mahogany case; two circular protractors; clear plexiglass rule with serated edge
Object number: 1990-5-0028
Walter Balcke
Date: 1952-1964
Accessories: mahogany box; cardboard instruction card
Object number: 1997-1-1601
Benjamin Martin
Date: circa 1766
Accessories: rope cord belt
glass globe
conducting pad
in folder: photographs, page containing description, history, and discussion of design, note from Ebenezer Gay regarding conservation work, excerpt from David Pingree Wheatland and I. Bernard Cohen, A Catalogue of Some Early Scientific Instruments at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1949), woodcut with picture of instrument from B. Martin, Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy (1759): 139.
X-ray images of parts of the machine can be found in C1-A7.
Object number: 0013
