Category Archives: Departments

Bragg Day

Posted on April 17, 2013 by

Saturday 23rd March 2013 was Bragg day at the University of Leeds. In preparation for this day of activities and lectures we brought together academics with an interest in X-ray crystallography from across the University – from history of science, our … Continue reading →

Posted in Astbury, Bragg, Chemistry, Conferences/Workshops, Exhibitions, Library, Objects, Physics, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Material Culture in Chemistry conference

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

On Saturday 8th December 2012 I went along to this conference held at the Science Museum in London and organised by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry in an attempt to find out a little about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry, Conferences/Workshops, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Astronomical Slides

Posted on December 13, 2012 by

Further research into the museum’s hand-painted astronomy slides (c.1850) reveals that they were almost certainly made by the British optical and scientific instrument makers, Carpenter & Westley. These images of Carpenter & Westley slides on an online auction site match … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences/Workshops, Exhibitions, Physics | 1 Comment

In Our Time features Crystallography

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

Ahead of the Bragg Centenary next year, to commemorate the Nobel Prize winning work carried out by father and son team Bragg, another Bragg, Melvyn, featured the history of crystallography as the theme for today’s episode of In Our Time (Thursday, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bragg, Physics | 1 Comment

Seeing the light – Lord Kelvin’s mirror galvanometer

Posted on November 5, 2012 by

Amongst the many objects the museum has inherited from the old History of Education Museum collections are over thirty galvanometers, instruments used for detecting and measuring electrical current. Galvanometers work on the principle, first discovered by the Danish physicist Hans … Continue reading →

Posted in Objects, Physics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Shedding Light on the Museum’s Lantern and Slide Collections

Posted on October 31, 2012 by

As followers of the blog will know, for the last few months Kiara and I have been researching the museum’s collection of magic lanterns and slides, with support and advice from Claire and Mark. The first stage of the project … Continue reading →

Posted in Departments, Objects | 1 Comment

Wax Models Project

Posted on October 3, 2011 by

As promised, here is our main event for this term.  Please do volunteer, the idea is that it should work a bit like Hidden Histories in that everyone involved kind of specialises in their chosen object, with the end result … Continue reading →

Posted in Bio-medical sciences, Museological, Objects | Leave a comment

History of Education Books

Posted on July 14, 2011 by

Well done everyone involved in Hidden Histories, it looks brilliant and so do the videos! While I appreciate the summer isn’t the best time to get everyone together, I thought it might be nice to have some museum activity going … Continue reading →

Posted in Library, Store Room, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hidden Histories: Everything flows…

Posted on July 6, 2011 by

Now, I know the Hidden Histories display has already gone up, but I’m still going to do a couple of posts on the objects I chose to put in there. Well done everyone involved, by the way: it looks fantastic. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, MONIAC, Hidden Histories | 2 Comments

Hidden Histories: Edinburgh to Leeds, via South Africa

Posted on June 17, 2011 by

This attractive piece from the collection of the School of Physics and Astronomy is a differential hygrometer, an instrument used for measuring the humidity of the air.  The dedication plaque on the box announces that it was presented to Charles … Continue reading →

Posted in Physics, Objects, Hidden Histories | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment