Adventures with historical physics apparatus

摘要

The past is always with us, not only the physics history that we revere and try to put into our classroom presentations. Two hundred years of teaching natural philosophy (physics) have left us a significant amount of physics history in the form of early apparatus. In this article, I will tell stories about how I have become involved in the study of early physics apparatus. Because of my website on Historical Physics Teaching Apparatus, I have fielded a series of queries since the year 2000: I have inherited this apparatus, what is it and how much is it worth? My students turned up this interesting piece of apparatus and think that they might use it in an experiment—what is it and tell me how it can be put into the curriculum?