The Physics Museum of Coimbra University - brief approach

Dr Ermelinda R. Antunes

The Physics Museum is located at Largo Marquês de Pombal in a building constructed c.1773-1777 in the place were it was before the Colégio de Jesus. Nowadays this Museum houses an unrivalled collection of scientific and didactic instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries. The patrimony consists exclusively of instruments used in the Physics Cabinet of the University of Coimbra since its origin in 1772.

Thanks to its unique characteristics, this collection of instruments is among the most notable and rare in the world. The instruments from the eighteenth century, which equipped one of the most complete Cabinets for the experimental study of Physics, are nowadays considered true art pieces. The instruments from the nineteenth century, in turn, are well representative of the evolution of Experimental Physics along that century.

Part of these instruments are publicly exhibited in two large rooms, which keep their characteristics since the accommodation of the Physics Cabinet. One of the rooms is a recreation of a Physics Cabinet of the second half of eighteenth century. In the other room, instruments from the nineteenth century, mainly from the first quarter, complete the exhibition.

Petersburg Time: the exhibition of different timekeepers, devoted to the new system in Russia, introduced 300 years ago

Tatiana Moisseeva

The exhibition At the Crossroads of the Millenniums: St. Petersburg’s Time, arranged by the Lomonosov Museum and the Centre of St. Petersburg Arts (AVIT), is divided into two parts. The first was an exhibition of different timekeepers of the 16th - 20th centuries, shown for the first time both as instruments and as pieces of art. This was opened in January - February 2000. Also exhibited were calendars and books. The participants of this exhibition were the Lomonosov Museum, Central Naval Museum, Russian Ethnological Museum, Memorial Suvorov Museum and modern watchmakers.

Soon after the new system of measuring time, based on the European one, was introduced on 1 January 1700, the word ‘hour’ became the unit of time, while before in Moscow the word had simply meant ‘time’. The ‘minute’ appeared in 1705 and the ‘second’ in 1720. The first civilian Russian calendar published in 1709 in Moscow was the ‘Brusov calendar’, named after its publisher J.V. Brus. In the exhibition were ‘Brusov calendars’ dated 1755, 1763, and a mechanical calendar of Alexander I, made in France.

Watches appeared in Russian life in the reign of Peter the Great, first in St. Petersburg, which was the centre of innovations. At first timekeepers of various constructions were imported from abroad; later on, after the founding of the Admiralty, the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts, they were made locally. Mechanical clocks were rare in Russia in the early 18th century. They were expensive and, as pieces of applied art, highly decorative; the exhibition displayed both imported German-made clocks and also Russian examples. Only in the 1860s were the first Russian chronometers and naval clocks made in St. Petersburg. Before the appearance of chronometers sand glasses were mainly used in fleet. Even at the present time sand glasses are used in daily life. Several naval sand glasses and those belonging to Mendeleev were exhibited.

Several sundials were also exhibited. Many surviving early dials were imported from England, Germany and France. Thanks to Peter the Great sundials began to be made in Russia: the first known local maker was John Bradlee invited from England by Peter the Great in 1710. In the middle of the 18th century the workshops of the Admiralty and the Academy of Sciences became the centres for the production of scientific instruments, including sundials made by the famous academic maker Nikolai Chijov.

Now the second part of the project is being prepared. We propose to open the exhibition in the tower of the Kunstkammer at the end of December. It will explore the social and technological impact of time keeping on Russian life from the early 18th century to the present. The project is supported by the Open Society Institute. The catalogue will be in Russian and English.

The development of the Manchester Science Gallery

Miss Frances Yeo

The paper will look at the rationale behind the development of a new science gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Discussions began in 1997 to develop the new gallery, which would build on the success of the current science gallery, Measuring Up! The Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund supported the development of the Museum’s main building, where the ideal space was created for the new science gallery.

The paper will look at the progress to date. This comprises research into areas of current and historical scientific activity in Manchester; a seminar, held in November where outside experts were consulted on the gallery content; audience research to answer some questions raised during the seminar.

The paper will then discuss areas of Manchester science to be covered in the gallery, and how these topics will be dealt with. It will look at the four areas of the gallery: introductory area; historical Manchester science; current Manchester science; conclusion. It will also look at the collections the gallery will contain, some already held at the Museum, and some to be acquired over the coming months.

The paper will conclude by looking at the future development of the project. This will include; continued research, particularly into areas of current Manchester science; a contemporary collecting project looking at scientists at work in different environments in Manchester; audience research to test story ideas for the gallery.