Atwood-type gravity machine
Datecirca 1804
Inventory Number0077a
ClassificationAtwood's Machine
Subject
Maker
W. & S. Jones
fl. 1791 - 1859
Cultural Region
Place of Origin
Place of Use
Dimensions194 x 97 x 97 cm (76 3/8 x 38 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.)
Material
Bibliography
DescriptionA tall mahogany column is supported by a cross-braced mahogany base with wooden leveling screws (level(s) appears to be missing). An open mahogany platform is fitted with two brass wheel-bearings on conical pivots to which weights on silk thread were attached to. The axle of this wheel set rests on two pairs of friction wheels to prevent the loss of motion, which would happen if the axle was fixed directly to the brass support frame.
This platform is removable and it stands on a bracket screwed to the top of the column. (A long vertical scale, on which a small box could slide down to a fixed stage, is missing from this example.) A clock mechanism that reads seconds is fixed to the column (see description for #0071b).
To complete this machine, a pendulum and weights would have been used with the clock, but the originals have also been lost.
(One weight was found in September 2010, and is now numbered 0077c).
This platform is removable and it stands on a bracket screwed to the top of the column. (A long vertical scale, on which a small box could slide down to a fixed stage, is missing from this example.) A clock mechanism that reads seconds is fixed to the column (see description for #0071b).
To complete this machine, a pendulum and weights would have been used with the clock, but the originals have also been lost.
(One weight was found in September 2010, and is now numbered 0077c).
In Collection(s)
Signedon outer surface of each pivot: W & S Jones fecerunt 30 Holborn London
FunctionAtwood's machine was used to demonstrate the laws of uniformly accelerated motion for falling bodies.
Historical AttributesThis machine was ordered by Harvard in April 1799, and was only received in 1804. W. & S. Jones described it thus: "Atwood's Apparatus for demonstrating the laws of accelerated Motion packed in a Mahogany Case." In the firm's 1822 catalogue, the machine was described similarly, and it cost £25 4 0.
W. & S. Jones
Date: circa 1804
Object number: 0077d
W. & S. Jones
Date: circa 1804
Object number: 0077b
John Cuthbertson
Date: 1770-1815
Accessories: brown storage box, descriptive tag, thin strip of paper in box with the inscription "lucernal microscope" in David P. Wheatland's handwriting (which refers to figs. 47-48 and 51 in this series), page from the book "Old Science and Medicine" with a photographic copy of the first print from this series, entitled "The Large Electric Machine at Haarlem."
Object number: 1998-1-1087
French
Date: circa 1880
Accessories: protecting case with glass window
Object number: DW0095
Synchronome Company, Ltd
Date: circa 1929
Object number: 1998-1-0187b
William Bond and Son
Date: circa 1867
Object number: 2005-1-0092
Martin J. Buerger
Date: 1941-1944
Accessories: film holder (a); metal screen (b); small rectangular metal counterweight (c)
Object number: 1996-1-0185
Ballou Manufacturing Company
Date: 1880-1890
Object number: 1997-1-0515
American
Date: 1870-1920
Accessories: circular disk weight (1998-1-0208)
Object number: 1996-1-0418
See also/See also
