weights and pulleys demonstration
Date1765
Inventory Number0008
ClassificationWeights and Pulleys
Subject
Maker
Benjamin Martin
1704 - 1782
Cultural Region
Place of Origin
Dimensions82.5 x 55.5 x 39.6 cm (32 1/2 x 21 7/8 x 15 9/16 in.)
Material
Bibliography
DescriptionA mahogany frame with turned finials on top of columns and four bracket feet is designed like fine furniture of the day. There are places for 16 brass hooks on which to suspend various combinations of weights and pulleys.
There are 15 solid weights of different sizes and masses. There are also two hollow weights filled with thin brass slide-on weights.
Two spare brass pulleys are catalogued as 1998-1-0259 and 1998-1-0260.
There are 15 solid weights of different sizes and masses. There are also two hollow weights filled with thin brass slide-on weights.
Two spare brass pulleys are catalogued as 1998-1-0259 and 1998-1-0260.
In Collection(s)
Signedon double block and tackle: B Martin London
FunctionThis instrument was designed to demonstrate the mechanical advantage that may be obtained with various arrangements of pulleys to lift or support weights and heavy loads.
ProvenanceJefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University; transferred to CHSI April 1948.
Historical AttributesBenjamin Martin shipped this "Compleat Sett of Mechanicall Pullies with a Large square Frame in Mahogany, & brass hooks for hanging the Pullies on" to Harvard College on 28 September 1765. It cost £16.16.0.
Harvard professors used this apparatus to teach mechanics until the early 20th century, when class sizes and class rooms grew too large for everyone to see the small weights and pulleys.
Benjamin Martin
Date: circa 1765
Object number: 0075
Central Scientific Company
Date: circa 1929
Object number: 1998-1-1848
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
Benjamin Dearborn
Date: circa 1835
Object number: 1998-1-0038b
Empire Laboratory Supply Company, Inc.
Date: 1917-1939
Object number: 1996-1-0217
Baker & Sons
Date: late 19th-early 20th Century
Accessories: fittted box; weights
Object number: 3817
See also/See also
