That was two years ago.  Now the team has changed, and our knowledge of the collections has grown.  Also, for conservation reasons and to keep people looking at the case, its time for a revamp.  As before, everyone is choosing an object and writing about it.  Research has begun.  Here is my contribution.

Batteries.

Perhaps not the most promising display item you might think, but these two, both from school classrooms in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, are pretty beautiful I think.  The first:

Image copyright DK

The Poggendorff Cell nicely shows the basic workings of a cell.  Its comprises a glass bottle and electrodes.  When working it would be filled with dilute sulphuric acid saturated with potash bichromate which for obvious reasons have been removed for display purposes.  The electrodes are made of carbon (+) and zinc (-).  It was invented by Poggendorff in 1842 and if you’ve ever made a ‘battery’ (or more accurately a cell) from a lemon or a potato then you can probably work out how it works.  When the electrodes are lowered into the acid, the positive electrode attracts ions in the acid, combines and releases electrons which are then attracted to the negative electrode and so it goes on.  The flow of electrons is electricity.

The dry cell:

Image copyright DK

Came along a little later than the Poggendorff cell but works on a similar principle except that it uses a paste instead of liquid acid.  Although this Siemens Brothers dry cell looks rather large to us, it is otherwise very similar to the ones we all have running various gadgets in our homes.

From a safety point of view, you can see, when you look at the Poggendorff battery why many people were apprehensive about allowing electricity into their homes in the early days.  The first homes to install electric lights and so on did so in the 1880s.  By the 1950s there were still homeowners who didn’t trust it preferring to use gas.  For more on this story see our Lights on at Lotherton! collaborative project with Lotherton Hall (on going) based on research by Prof. Graeme Gooday published in his book Domesticating Electricity.

More interesting still, a short article in the Review of Reviews (1890) reveals that Leeds may have been quite pioneering in its uptake of the magic lantern for use in lectures. The article, entitled ‘How to Utilise the Magic Lantern; Some Valuable Hints for to Teachers’, cites ‘The Optical Lantern as an Aid to Teaching’ by C.H. Bothamley, which gives details about the use of the lantern in classrooms at the Yorkshire College, now the University of Leeds. Bothamley refers to Professor Miall (then Professor of Biology), who promoted the use of the magic lantern for teaching students, and was able to demonstrate its successful use even in day-lit rooms. According to this article, “In the Yorkshire College almost every department has its lantern”, used to illustrate lectures on a range of “widely different subjects”. The educational slides in the Museum’s collection are representative of this variety, covering a wide range of topics, including the sciences, engineering, history, art, architecture, industries, geography and travel.

The optical lantern was of particular value to subjects such as biology and engineering because lectures on these subjects were highly dependent on illustrations. Furthermore, in science lectures, small specimens could be easily viewed by a large audience if they were projected using a lantern. Microscope attachments meant that even micro-organisms and microscopic structures could be seen. For example, in the Department of Textile Industries at the Yorkshire College, lanterns were used to display micro-photographs of fibres. Some specially designed scientific lanterns featured an open space in front of the condenser, so that live scientific experiments could be conducted and projected. There was also a second optical system that projected light upwards before projecting it forwards. This allowed specimens in flat dishes to be projected. Special ‘tank slides’ were used for displays requiring liquids, such as crystallised solutions, or to show creatures like tadpoles swimming in water.

The aforementioned Review of Reviews article states that “The example of Leeds has been followed on a smaller scale, but with very gratifying results, in several High Schools in the district” (Review of Reviews, 1890, p404). However, it is unclear if these examples are indicative of the wider use of lanterns in teaching primary and secondary level education. While the use of the magic lantern in school was much written about in education journals of the late nineteenth century, Elizabeth Foster has cited an article in The Teachers’ Aid that highlights “the lack of progress which was made in realising in schools the full potential of photography and projection”. Reasons given for this lack of progress include the conservatism of the teaching profession, the unwillingness of publishers and photographic firms to engage with the school market and the reluctance of teachers to embark on the necessary learning associated with the technology.

Nevertheless, the museum’s collection does contain some slides and equipment that once belonged to local secondary schools. The Carpenter & Westley astronomical slides, which were the subject of the ‘Shedding Light’ post, were used at Bradford Grammar School to teach pupils about planets and the solar system, and the Newton & Co. rack and pinion slides may have been used for similar purposes. These have now been digitised (see below) and we hope to eventually make them available throught the University’s Digital Library repository.

This post is adapted from an excerpt of the now completed magic lantern and slides object history files by Kiara White and Liz Stainforth.

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 museum, the University art gallery, from chemistry, physics, engineering, the Astbury Centre, SPEME (School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering), and School of Design – to advise, run workshops and give lectures.  The library digitised parts of their collection and brought us a touch screen kiosk on which visitors could view these images.  We worked with ACE (Access and Community Engagement) to ensure our events tied in with the Leeds Festival of Science.  We worked with the University’s communications team to find ways to promote this and future Bragg events through the media.  We worked with the University’s X-ray crystallographers and external picture libraries to add pictures to our publicity material.  And we worked with the University designers to produce leaflets and banners. We were helped out on the day by some wonderful STEM ambassadors and our own museum volunteers.  The physics department too was incredibly helpful, lending us their Bragg objects for the day and bringing them over to the Centenary gallery for us.

The end result (so far) was an enjoyable day of lectures (now all available on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/user/hpsmuseumleeds) and family friendly workshops and activities.  Unfortunately there were blizzards on the 23rd March, but nonetheless, we still had around 80 visitors, all of whom told us in person or stated on their feedback forms that they’d had a good day.

There will be another chance to see and join in on some of the workshops and activities from this day at the Leeds City Museum on 12 July 2013.  Other Bragg events coming up include a musical, a plaque unveiling, and a public lecture.  For detail see: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/info/125160/bragg_centenary_2013 Thanks to everyone who has and will be involved.

They were a very nice group, all interested and well informed, and tolerant of the enormous amount of walking required on a visit to a museum with displays scattered across a large campus.  After the visit I sent them evaluation forms to fill in, and this is what they told us:

Only 1 in this group of 13 had heard of the museum before. All claimed to have enjoyed their visit and would recommend the museum to others. In terms of the length of the tour (approx 2 hours), 9 thought it ‘just right’, 1 thought it too long, another too short. 2 gave no answer.

On our tour we visited, in the following order:

1. The museum’s store

2. The Earth and Environment Case

3. The Biology foyer displays

4. The Dentistry corridor

5. Bragg in Physics

6. Hidden Histories case

Sadly the Gillinson Room was in use all the time they were with us, so couldn’t feature in the tour.  Of the places they visited, the store rated highest (8 votes) as people’s favourite, followed by the Braggs (5 votes), then Hidden Histories (3 votes), Biology and Dentistry tied (1 vote each), and sadly Earth and Environment came last (0 votes).

When asked to name their least favourite, many tactically declined to answer.  Of those who did, the store, biology, dentistry and hidden histories all tied with 2 votes each.

Perhaps the most revealing question was when they were asked what, if anything they had learnt from the visit.  A resounding 10 people put some variation on the statement that they had not previously known about the Braggs, their Nobel Prize or that it had all happened at Leeds.  The other main theme to come out of these answers was that there were more hidden treasure in the University than they realised.  Specifically, they wrote:

‘There is much more to the University than I thought.’

‘How many fascinating and relevant historical artefacts each department is able to put on display.’

‘That you have quite a lot of artefacts displayed in various areas.  Put them together where possible.’ [Same person also added 'I did not know Bragg had a Nobel Prize.  More needs to be done to advertise this fact'.]

‘How much is ‘hidden’ from the general public and how much more could be enjoyed by more.’

When asked if the visited had prompted them to visit the website, 4 said yes, 8 said no.  Of those 8, 1 qualified it by saying ‘not yet’, 2 more said they did not have a computer.

When asked if any additional material would be of interest to them, 5 expressed an interest in a short booklet on the history of the University (this was an idea that was suggested by one of the group while on the tour), none were interested in a downloadable podcast, but 11 wanted a leaflet detailing highlights of the collection and where to find them.

The final question asked if they had visited any other part of the university after the tour.  At the end of the tour I pointed out where they could find ULITA, the M&S Archive, and the Newlyn-Philips machine, I also directed them to the Art Gallery and the cafe.  Only one had stayed on, and only to go to the cafe.  Of the rest, 5 expressed an intention of coming back at a later date, one specifically to see ULITA, another for the M&S Archive and the rest for a general visit. 4 others just said no.  3 said nothing.

In conclusion, I think the visit went very well, it seemed fairly well pitched for the audience and the ratings for different sites give a guide as to where the tour could be cut for shorter tours.  There also seems to be a strong suggestion that we are moving in the right direction – their interest in Bragg suggests our year of centenary events is well chosen, similarly, their interest in the leaflet indicates this too will have a ready audience.

The course itself focused on the maintenance of collections within glass jars. We found it incredibly interesting to learn that there is no standardised way of doing this because there is no perfect single preservative, sealant or container for preservation. Specimens deteriorate and do so for any number of reasons.  However, we were also reminded of the key rule of conservation of any specimen or object: follow the methods and materials originally used to make/prepare the specimen as best as possible, which is very difficult to do because all jars appear at first glance to look the same and few historical specimens have accompanying records.

Interestingly, many specimens prepared by John Hunter in the eighteenth century were the most stable and best preserved undoubtedly due to his skill in preparation. He used glass jars, which he covered with pigs’ bladders and layers of tin and lead as a sealant. This type of sealant was later replaced with a substance called ‘pitch’, consisting of asphalt and gutta-percha, while glass remains a common material for jars, alongside newer materials such as acrylic.

The course was incredibly useful and the new knowledge and skills we now possess will be invaluable in developing a plan for Leeds’ wet specimen collection. We hope to procure funding to allow us to purchase the necessary preservation equipment but also to enable us to develop our own conservation training programme for volunteers of the Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. The benefit of such collections for medicine is clear: specimens are a greater aid to understanding the form of the body than any other type of source. Even with technology capable of producing high quality three dimensional images, there is no substitute for ‘the real thing’. So, while public audiences often find such specimens fascinatingly macabre, medical students take the knowledge acquired from their study and apply it to their everyday and future practice. Collections like this then make a considerable contribution to medical science today and it is therefore vital that they are preserved for future generations. With suitable care and attention, the collection at Leeds might prove to be as useful to medical students as the one at Hunterian Museum.

Claire Jones

We focussed on our History of Medicine workshops, but other recent exciting activities have used objects selected from across our diverse collections. We are also working on enhancing the History of Medicine workshop, by researching specific cases of patients who underwent amputations in Leeds during the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, and developing realistic props.

I’m a Fine Art student who has begun to work with some of the items in the Museum’s Store Room. The above images (hopefully… I have never written a blog before so I have no idea where the images will actually end up!) are some of the original sketches I did of various medical tools. I then, through the use of a lot of tracing paper, began to repeat the images…

Introduction: Science without heroes
For some time now historians of science have been moving away from the old traditional heroic stories of elite progressive science. However, the media, including museum displays, have taken a while to catch up. One of the reasons for this is undoubtedly that it is the heroic, progressive stories that seem most easily to lend themselves to an uncomplicated and dramatic narrative. Where do you put your focus, where do you direct your audiences’ sympathies if not toward the supposed creator or discoverer of the scientific idea you want to explain? Well, one technique historians of science have increasingly begun to use is to direct attention away from the practitioner and towards the audience, and that is what we’ve tried to do here. This is not to lose the drama of the race narrative, but rather to replace it with a new drama, that of the everyday. These are objects not reserved for the inspired genius, but used, sometimes on a daily basis, by people like us. They allow us to use the experience of our own lives to evaluate how things have changed.

Case 1: Teachers and Pupils
Using teaching apparatus we look at some of the different ways in which young people – both in the schoolroom and in certain homes – were first introduced to science. By examining this type of material we can begin to unpick what, at certain moments in history, were considered the key lessons in science, what constituted science and how that was seen to relate to other subjects. How did these lessons change? What does that tell us about the changing definition of science?

Layers taken from a Victorian object lesson box
This box contains samples of various materials each selected to inspire a lesson on several different topics. A child might learn the history of the East India Company from a tea leaf, for example. They might also learn some botany and economics in that same lesson as well as how to observe.

Samples from our Biblical Herbarium
Religion formed the core of many lessons in the Victorian schoolroom and in no object is this more explicit than in the Biblical Herbarium. Like the object lesson box, each sample could lead to a range of subjects. However every object here is mentioned in the Bible, ensuring religion featured in every lesson.

Textbooks
Here we have a number of textbooks from the late 1800s offering suggestions to teachers on how to teach an object lesson. In one, the writer gives a long list of suggested questions, in another the writer gives a summary, per object, of topics to cover and facts to convey.
Case 2: Medics and patients
What made the medics using this apparatus and the patients receiving treatment believe it would work? Were the reasons the same for both audiences? In this case we see some objects that continue to be used in much the same form to the present day. We also see material that today seems comical but at the time was thought to save lives. Would anyone from the 1850s have been able to guess which would be which do you think?

Obstetric forceps, Weiss, London, c. 1880
The use of obstetric forceps dates back to at least the 1600s when most births took place in the home. Midwives adopted forceps to aid safe delivery during difficult births. By the end of the 1800s, obstetricians could choose from a hundred different forceps designs as births moved from the home into the hospital.

Tobacco Resuscitation Kit, maker unknown, c. 1850
This kit was designed for reviving a “temporary lapse of animation” and was recommended by the Royal Humane Society during the late 1700s. Kits were kept by the side of rivers and reservoirs in case of drowning. Users pumped tobacco smoke into the drown victim’s mouth or rectum with bellows. This kit was owned by Thomas Scattergood, first Dean of the Medical School at Yorkshire College.

Artificial teeth, bottom denture, c. 1895
Oil of Clove
Many dentures came in velvet lined and leather coated boxes allowing customers to carry them when not wearing them. Dentures could be very uncomfortable to wear. Oil of clove had long been a common aid for tooth ache by the late 1800s.

Advertisement for artificial teeth, Mallinson & Mansley, Bradford, 1895
Dentistry was big business in the 1800s. Those who lost their teeth through ill health or poor diet looked to the many retailers to provide them with manufactured replacements. Mallinson & Mansley was a popular retailer of artificial teeth in Bradford in the late 1800s. It sold sets of dentures made from ivory or from human teeth.
Case 3: Professors and students
Collections of microscope slides can prove hard to interpret or find interesting. However, uncovering their social and cultural context can load the artefact with meanings. It throws light on the nature of student life in the Department of Biology, and on the role of the Professor. More broadly it offers insights into the complexion of natural science at the start of the Twentieth Century. The collection of slides that form the centrepiece of this display belonged to Muriel (Molly) Dymond. Molly read for a degree in Biology during the 1920s and became a Research Assistant and Assistant Demonstrator in the Department of Zoology after she graduated in 1925. She studied under Professor Garstang. After she married, Molly left paid employment and instead directed her scientific energies toward raising and educating her children. Molly died in 1996 but her son John remembers her fascination with botany and her abilities as a botanical illustrator as being defining influences behind becoming a biologist himself.

Biology Department 1904
Taken twenty years before Molly’s attendance, this image illustrates the scale of teaching that took place. It also gives us a glimpse of those involved and the equipment used. At the time microscopes, like the ones shown, were beginning to provide new research opportunities within biology and were fully established for everyday work when Molly attended.

Microscope Slides by Muriel (Molly) Dymond and Photograph of her on Graduation Day
Made by Molly Dymond (pictured) during her time as a student in the Zoology Department run by Garstang, these microscope slides depict a variety of specimens. Like students then and now, Molly would have produced these slides as a result of her practical laboratory work.
Slides – Biology Collection, BIO:0101

Personal Collection of Professor Richard Baker FRS

A photograph of Garstang and various students during field trip to Robin Hood’s Bay 1929-1930
Garstang established a marine station at Robin Hood’s Bay allowing students such as Molly to gather specimens to study under microscopes and experience science outside of the lab. At this time practices within the natural sciences were moving away from active field work and towards laboratory based studies.

A photograph of Garstang at Robin Hood’s Bay in 1932.
Professor Walter Garstang was already a well respected marine embryologist when he came to Leeds University. He established extensive laboratory based breeding programs and field based environmental surveys while here. In overseeing the development of biometric and genetic research approaches he assured the Department of Biology’s role as a scientific centre in the 1900s.

Copy of Garstang’s The Student Opera with signatures of participants, including Molly Dymond and Garstang’s daughter.

Although Garstang was a leading marine embryologist he also understood the importance of the social development of his students. This play, adapted by him, featured Molly and one of Garstang’s own daughters. Another of Garstang’s interests was in writing verse, often comical, concerning zoological subjects. He believed that these served among other things as an entertaining aide memoire for his students.
Case 4: Travelling lecturers and their audiences
Travelling lecturers were people who perhaps had been to university, or were former teachers, or instrument makers who from around the late 1700s onwards, were able to make a living travelling around the country giving public lectures. For the lecturers, the incentive must in part have been the need to earn a living, in part to use the skills they’d trained for, but what was it that prompted the public to attend?

Hand-painted Astronomical Slides, Carpenter & Westley, c.1850
These slides cover some of the basic principles commonly demonstrated in public astronomical lectures in Britain up until the mid-1800s, when the subjects shown on slides became more complex and involved. Originally owned by a travelling lecturer (probably), these slides were later used at Bradford Grammar School to teach pupils about planets and the solar system.
History of Education Collection, ScAp/A1

Un Autre Monde by J.J. Grandville, Paris: H. Fournier, 1844
Astronomy was a popular topic for public lectures during the late 1700s and 1800s. Lectures were delivered in lay language and used non-scientific representations (such as the signs of the zodiac). Astronomy also featured in popular contemporary literature, as exemplified here in the work of the French illustrator and caricaturist J.J. Grandville.
Special Collections, Illustrated Books Collection F-2 GRA

Outline of Five Lectures on Astronomy, and of an Introductory Lecture, Sheffield: J. Montgomery, [1823]
These lecture notes would have accompanied magic lantern slides similar to those on display here. The notes describe a lecture to be “delivered in the lecture room, Milk-street, Sheffield.”
Special Collections, Pamphlets Brotherton Collection Yorkshire H-She-5.6 GOO

Case 5: Public Information
Our collections contain a number of public information posters from the mid-1900s telling ‘the public’ everything from what time their children should go to bed, to how often they should change their underwear, but who exactly did they envisage as ‘the public’? Did they mean everyone? Was it all down to class? Or gender?

‘Keep it covered’ public information poster, c.1950s
During the 1900s posters like this one were popular as a method of disseminating health and safety messages to the public. The use of bright colours and playful images makes them eye-catching and memorable.
HoEd/0323

‘Coughs and sneezes spread diseases’ public information poster, c.1950s
Part of a series concerning the spread of germs, this poster features the famous phrase ‘coughs and sneezes spread diseases’. Catchy slogans are commonly used tools for communicating messages and influencing behaviour. First introduced during WW2, this phrase was reintroduced in 2007 by the Department of Health.
HoEd/0309

‘Rules of Health’ public information poster, c.1940s-50s
This poster comes from the Ministry of Health’s ‘Seven Rules of Health’ series. Offering guidance on aspects of life including food, sleep, clothing, exercise and even leisure time, this series gives an insight into how varied public information posters were. Like many such posters, the focus was on prevention. It was hoped that encouraging a healthier lifestyle would limit the cost of the recently established National Health Service.
HoEd/0332
Case 6: Mental Health
Mental health covers a wide range of conditions and yet so often gets lumped together as a single entity. Here in our collections we can see evidence of the very different ways treatment for mental health could be experienced by the patient. From physical restraints to electric cures for nervous conditions, we catch a glimpse of just how broad that range was.

The Newly Invented Improved Electric Magneto Machine for Nervous Diseases, 1885
This machine was used as a home treatment for conditions such as headaches, toothache or neuralgia (pain caused by nerve pathways). The leads were applied to the area affected and the handle turned, generating an electric current. This produced an electric shock in the patient which was thought to cure them.

Restraints
Restraints such as these fingerless gloves were used in Victorian insane asylums to prevent patients hurting themselves or others. They were often used to control particularly violent or uncooperative patients so that the attendants could treat or feed them safely.

Asylum Reports
These reports are from a number of asylums that were based in the local area. The West Riding Lunatic Asylum, which once held over 1,500 patients, led the way in the scientific study and treatment of mental illness. It was overseen by a committee of local people, who met up regularly to monitor the asylum’s activities. They documented finances, construction work, new regulations and the health of the patients in these quarterly reports.
Case 7: Electricity
Sometimes an idea in science truly inspires and many people in many different areas find ways of using it. The traditional history of science story of electricity is to tell of Volta and Galvani, and of Maxwell and Edison but none of those stories really show how their work was experienced and manipulated outside the elite world of science. Here in this case we look at some of the disparate uses electricity has been put to, often by unnamed, certainly uncelebrated inventors and practitioners.
Advertisements for home lighting
Up until as late as the mid-1900s it was not unusual to find the odd home still using by gas lighting. Electric lighting in the home first became possible in the 1880s but it took a long time to convince the public. Advertisers for both gas and electricity shamelessly played on people’s fears for the safety of their competitors’ products.

Dry Cell, Siemen Brothers, 1890
Poggendorff’s Bichromatic Cell, 1890
Batteries like these were much larger and potentially more dangerous in the 1890s than they are today. This glass cell, the Poggendorff’s Bichromatic Cell, would have been filled with acid.

Physics crystal set
Crystal sets are a very simple form of radio receiver, first developed before World War One. With the advent of broadcast radio in the mid-1920s, home-made crystal sets became popular. They were cheap and easy to make, required no external power source, and had great potential for experimentation.
Phys/1008

Material from psychology
While we tend to think of electricity as an example of applied physics, other disciplines were quick to catch on, manipulate and apply. In psychology for example, electricity was used in a variety of devices from those used to test reaction times to supposed cures for nervous disorders.

Tri-unial magic lantern, Source: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

It was an illuminating start to the New Year for us. Continuing the project to find out more about our magic lantern and slide collections, we recently paid a visit to the National Media Museum in Bradford. After booking an appointment at the Insight Collections & Research Centre there, we were able to look at magic lanterns from Museum’s extensive collection, which included both British and European examples, as well as biunial and even triunial lanterns. These large professional models (see picture) would have been used in professional theatre shows, as the ability to quickly switch between lenses enabled the lanternist to move between slides seamlessly or to produce fading and dissolving effects. We also saw some of the biggest slides ever produced, constructed for lanterns at the Royal Polytechnic Institute in London, which had some of the most famous lantern shows in England during the nineteenth century. Sadly, the lanterns for these slides were probably destroyed so they can no longer be projected.

Newton & Co Catalogue of Lantern Slides

However, while incredibly interesting, these objects are slightly tangential to our project. We went principally to find out if there were any catalogues, company information or research sources relating to our lanterns, particularly the Riley Brothers model, c. 1913 and a lantern by Newton & Co., c. 1905. The library at Insight holds various books on the history of magic lanterns, and so it is worth a visit for anyone wishing to do research in this area. And we did find further information relating to Newton & Co. lanterns, and the use of them in classroom teaching, which is interesting considering our lanterns’ background as part of the History of Education collection. As for the Riley Brothers, although they were a Bradford-based company, there was surprisingly little information relating to them at the museum, although we did learn that they were predominantly a distribution company. As such, Riley Brothers didn’t produce their own lanterns but would often add their logo to models manufactured by other companies. Perhaps this, in part, accounts for the lack of information available from catalogues and contemporary sources.

Most of the lanterns and slides held by the National Media Museum were donated by the Kodak Museum which was located in Harrow, London, between 1927 and 1985. While about 500 of the rarest or most fascinating slides – such as hand-painted mechanical slipping slides – are well-catalogued, this is not the case with the vast majority of the collection. They hold an estimated 10,000 slides which have not been catalogued by the Kodak Museum or the National Media Museum. Furthermore, it seems as though this is the case with most slide collections. Therefore, although the inventory we have been creating is basic, by the time we have completed it ours may be amongst the better documented collections in the country!

We were slightly disappointed to find no lantern slides on display in the main galleries. As we discussed with the Collections Manager Toni Booth, displaying lantern slides is of course dependent on having the right lighting, which is difficult to balance with conservation. But it has been done, and the possibilities for exhibiting slides from our collection is an avenue of research we would like to be pursued in the future.

By Liz Stainforth and Kiara White