Accession No

6574

Brief Description

piece of custom laboratory apparatus, including reversing switch and lamp, designed and used by Andrew Huxley in muscle fibre physiological research, English, c. 1958

Origin

England; Cambridge [see notes]

Maker

Huxley, Andrew and Taylor, R. E. [designers] Cook, Ron H. [maker, attributed - technician who worked in physiology lab in this era]

Class

physiology; laboratory apparatus

Earliest Date

1953

Latest Date

1958

Inscription Date

Material

wood (pine); metal (aluminium; brass; steel; copper); plastic; paint

Dimensions

300mm wide x 265mm deep x 230mm tall

Special Collection

Andrew Huxley Collection

Provenance

Transferred from the Trinity College Library, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, in 03/2014. Donated by the family of Andrew Huxley to the Library of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, in 2012.

Inscription

[on dial:]
AMPERES
Fe
F.Ltd.
F G 1953
MOVING IRON
Type V3103
No. A. 59921
25-100
272
[On switch:]
BATTERY
AM
REF. No. 10F646

Description Notes

Piece of custom laboratory apparatus, including reversing switch and lamp, designed and used by Andrew Huxley in muscle fibre physiological research, English, c. 1958

Custom-made piece of research apparatus, from the surviving collection of instrumentation bequeathed by Andrew Huxley.

Square pine base with two connected, apparently custom-made components attached on top, a reversing switch + power supply/measurement unit on the left and a ribbon filament lamp on the right. Presumed to derive from Huxley and R. E. Taylor’s research into local activity of striated muscle fibres [see ‘Object reading’].

On the left of the pine base is an aluminium box with a sloped front, apparently some sort of power supply/measurement unit. In centre of the sloped front is a black plastic circular moving-pointer dial, with semi-circular scale reading from 0 to 35, graduated in units of 1. Above the scale it reads “AMPERES” and below it reads: “Fe; F.Ltd.; F G 1953; MOVING IRON; Type V3103; No. A. 59921; 25-100; 272”. Clear plastic face on dial. Metal moving pointer. On top of aluminium box is a large forward-back centrally-hinged power supply switch, with plastic handle, brass arms, and brass slots in back and forward positions for completing two different circuits when in contact with brass arms. On left side of aluminium box is an up-down switch below a plastic embossed label that reads “R.OUT”. On back of aluminium box is two sets of thumb-screw electrical connectors, each pair having one black and one blue plastic thumb-turn. Top pair has a plastic embossed label that reads “BATTERY”; bottom pair has a plastic embossed label that reads “A.C.”. On right side of aluminium box is one pair of thumb-screw electrical connectors, with plastic embossed label that reads “LAMP”. A red wire and a blue wire run from these connectors to the lamp apparatus on the right of the pine base.

The lamp apparatus consists of a ribbon filament lamp bulb inside a black-painted metal tube, with a condensing lens window on its front. The tube has a black metal cap screwed onto its top, and is screwed at its base onto a metal stage that pivots at its front and is secured to the pine base at its rear by a thumb-turn screw on a vertical screw thread. Turning the thumb screw thus enables the lamp to be tilted forward up to about 20 degrees.

Condition: Good / fair, complete.

References

Events