Accession No

3360

Brief Description

Kelvin-type electric current balance, by James White, 1893 (c)

Origin

Glasgow; Scotland

Maker

White, James

Class

electrical

Earliest Date

1893

Latest Date

1893

Inscription Date

Material

stone (slate); metal (brass, other, aluminium); wood; plastic (ebonite); glass; paper

Dimensions

length 559mm; breadth 229mm; height 213mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Transferred from Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1986.

Inscription

‘Sir Wm. Thomson’s
Patent
ELECTRIC BALANCE
No. 229
J. WHITE, GLASGOW’ (on metal plate on base-plate)
‘224’ (on paper label on front glass (added))

Description Notes

Kelvin-type electric current balance, by James White, 1893 (c).

Slate and metal baseplate mounted on rectangular wooden base with two terminals mounted on ebonite bar underneath plate; three adjustable legs; bubble level; brass frame mounted on plate supports two pairs of fixed horizontal circular coils, one on either side; suspended balance beam supports two horizontal circular coils, one on either side, midway between and coaxial with the fixed coils; fixed scale, 4 to 50 divisions (to read current directly); aluminium scale on balanced beam, 0 to 64 divisions; aluminium pointer sliding along track on aluminium scale; clamping screw, zero adjust lever at front of instrument; rectangular glass cover with brass frame; glass top with wooden frame.

Condition: good (rear glass broken); incomplete (sliding carriage and silk thread, and box of accessories missing).

References

Events