Natural Philosophy Collection

• Description of the collection
• Subject coverage
• The strengths of the collection

Description of the collection

Our collection is one of the most diverse collections of historical scientific instruments in any British University, and one of the most extensive, covering 250 years of the evolution of this genre.

Physically, the collection encompasses a wide range of apparatus, from the simplest demonstration pieces to state-of-the-art research equipment, with no uniformity in size, shape or constructional materials.

The collection is estimated to be around 2500 items, though a significant number of items include accessories and there are undoubtedly many more than 2500 objects.

The smallest items are individual components, like microscope objectives and slides; several of the largest items weight over a tonne, such as the electron microscope on display in the foyer of the Fraser Noble Building, an unusual X-ray generator of the 1950s with a demountable X-ray tube and a pioneering reciprocal space explorer for X-ray structural crystallographic work.

In addition to the scientific instruments, there is a significant amount of accompanying documentation in terms of instrument manuals, student experiment instructions, illustrative photographs of equipment and related matters, glass-plate slides and negatives produced for teaching and research, instrument catalogues, books and pamphlets relating to scientific equipment, purchase receipts and assorted relevant material.

Subject coverage

About 50 pieces, or fragments of pieces, can be associated with an 1822 inventory of Marischal College equipment, and further contemporary items are assumed to come from King's College. These cover subjects such as Astronomy, Electrostatics & Magnetism, Mechanics, Optics, Pneumatics and Hydraulics, Surveying and Navigation.

The collection follows the diversification and specialisation of Natural Philosophy in the 19th century, with particularly significant examples in Optics and its applications, Acoustics, Meteorology, Current Electricity and its measurement, and its public application at the end of the century in the fields of lighting and power.

The 20th century component of the collection is one of its major strengths. Some themes covered are X-rays and their application in medicine and crystallography, electronic instruments, electrical measurements and the evolution of electrical components, the expanding use of the electromagnetic spectrum, measuring radioactivity, measuring properties of materials and the development of precision instrumentation, the evolution of computational machines, optical equipment, changing techniques in teaching physics. Special topics include superconductivity, liquid helium, electron diffraction, science and the second world war, seismology, atmospheric research, the growth of synthetic crystals, surveying and mechanical measurement.

The strengths of the collection

Diversity: diversity of subject matter, diversity of objects, diversity of areas of relevance.

Quality: The collection is, of course, almost all used material but, particularly for the 20th century items, we have been able to select items of quality from a much larger pool.

Rarity: In the context of artefacts in general, historic scientific instruments are a rare commodity. Most of the collection consists of specialist equipment, some made as 'one-offs', much of the rest made in small numbers. Survival of similar pieces is not common and it would be very difficult to replace most of the collection. Within the collection, it is not difficult to find items by international makers that are not duplicated in any known collection.

Novelty in context: Even for the 18th and 19th century material where there is an overlap in subject with collections in the other Scottish universities, there is very little duplication of items in the Aberdeen collection with those elsewhere. In the 20th century, this applies a fortiori, for the collection necessarily represents a selection from a very large pool.

Depth: Within the subjects covered, the depth of the collection allows themes to be developed over a long time span.

Coherence: For the most part, the collection represents the activity of one subject in the University over a period of two-and-a-half centuries. This gives it a coherence of context that no national collection or acquisition by a private collector can match.

Continuity: The continuity of material from the clearly historical to the present day is an aspect that even national museums find hard to match. In fact the 20th century equipment, which a great many institutions have thrown out, is a particularly important part of this collection and is arguably better in some respects than that in our National collection.

Association: Natural Philosophy has been prosecuted at Aberdeen by a line of professors of distinction. Internationally famous have been Professor James Clerk Maxwell, Nobel Prize winning Professor G. P. Thomson and Professor R. V. Jones; men of national reputation, Professors Patrick Copland, Charles Niven, FRS, Sir John Carroll and the meteorologist George Aubourne Clark, and many others of local note. The apparatus they have used provides substantial, important and tangible evidence of their activities.

Specific Location: Aberdeen is a particularly appropriate location for a collection of physical demonstration equipment. The 18th century Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, Patrick Copland, was an educational innovator who introduced into universities the extensive use of demonstration equipment in the teaching of his subject. The trend became world-wide and lasted for almost 200 years before dying out in very recent times. One of the last great exponents of the technique was Professor R V Jones. The practice at Aberdeen has covered the alpha to omega of a very important stage of University education in science.

General location: A collection of scientific equipment at a University is exceptionally well-placed in that there is present on-site a wide range of expertise on the historical context of its use and the technical specifications of its performance. A historic university such as Aberdeen can also provide an unmatched library of relevant historic literature. No national or regional museum, or collection founded by a benefactor can match this accompanying resource.