Accession No

2012

Brief Description

phoneidoscope, by Tisley & Co., circa 1878

Origin

172 Brompton Road; London SW; England

Maker

Tisley & Co

Class

sound; optical; physics

Earliest Date

1878

Latest Date

1878

Inscription Date

Material

wood; metal (oxidised brass, brass, steel); paper; cloth

Dimensions

side of box 155mm; height of box 84mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

Transferred from Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 1974.

Inscription

‘THE
PHONEIDOSCOPE
Or Instrument for observing the
COLOURED FIGURES
Reflected from LIQUID FILMS under the action of
SONOROUS VIBRATIONS.
.
Manufactured and Sold Wholesale and Retail by
S.C. TISLEY & Co.,
172, Brompton Road,
London. S.W.’ (outside of box lid)

Description Notes

Wooden base with oxidised brass L-shaped tube mounted on bracket with paper diaphragm (split) fixed in brass ring. Also two cloth-covered tubes, one with turned wooden mouthpiece. Further wooden tube.
Handwritten note in lid of box reading ‘Invented by Sedley Taylor, M.A., Trinity College, about 1878. This was his specimen. He read a paper on it to the Physical Society about that date.
This copy was lent for inspection by the Admiralty, at their request, in 1915.
19 October 1920.’

The history file contains a letter from the University Librarian to Sir Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory, offering the instrument to the laboratory.

Condition: fair; complete

References

Events