Instrument

Browse exhibit items by material type

	Galileo Telescope replica ( ) The optics, leather and gold tooling of the telescope suggest how scientific instruments were crafted with a combination of engineering expertise and bookbinding arts. Galileo’s telescope included two lenses, an ocular lens near the eye, and an objective lens at the far end of the tube.
	Giuseppe Campani Microscope replica This is a replica of a microscope that is very much like one of the microscopes Galileo might have created. Indeed, it was once believed to have been made by Galileo, but is now attributed to Campani.
	Antonio van Leeuwenhoek Microscope replica (2015) The Boerhaave Museum holds several of Leeuwenhoek’s original microscopes, from which this replica was created.
0	Tellurian, Trippensee Planetarium Company (1908-1920)
0	The Hevelius Sextant
0	Inclined plane instrument Mitchell, Ron (2015)
0	Culpeper Microscopes (40 cm, 30 cm)
0	Kepler's Universe Mitchell, Ron
1	Sundial replica (2015) A sundial consists of a gnomon, which casts the Sun’s shadow, and a dial on which the shadow indicates the time. This simple portable sundial features a gnomon that can be adjusted according to one’s latitude. Sundials have ranged in size from pocket-dials to monumental architecture.
1	Polyhedral Sundial replica This is a replica of an original polyhedral sundial created by Stefano Buonsignori in Florence in 1587, held in the Museo Galileo in Florence.
2	Galileo Compass replica Galileo’s engineering compass employed scales of his own innovative design, useful for an astonishing variety of calculations in the field.
5	Galileo Thermoscope replica, National Weather Center Galileo’s thermoscope, ancestor to the thermometer: Galileo pioneered scientific investigations with the thermoscope along with his two Paduan friends, Giovanni Sagredo and Santorio Santorio.
5	Nocturnal Dial replica (2006) Nocturnal dials tell time by the stars. This instrument replicates an original nocturnal dial created by Girolano della Volpaia in Florence in 1569, held in the Museo Galileo in Florence.
6	Demonstration Slide Rule The slide rule is based on logarithms. With a slide rule, one may quickly and reliably calculate to a precision of about 3 digits. Until the pocket calculator became available in the mid-1970‘s, slide rules were in constant use by scientists and engineers.
6	Galileo Thermoscope replica, Bizzell Memorial Library Galileo’s thermoscope, ancestor to the thermometer: Galileo pioneered scientific investigations with the thermoscope along with his two Paduan friends, Giovanni Sagredo and Santorio Santorio.
6	Complex Armillary Sphere replica An armillary sphere is a spherical astrolabe, showing the great circles in their unflattened orientation: The great circle of the ecliptic (the path of the Sun) is marked off in degrees of celestial longitude and in the 12 signs of the Zodiac.
7	Astrolabe replica (2015) The astrolabe, one of the fundamental instruments for observational astronomy, consists of three major parts: the mater, the underlying disk; the climate, a removable disk adjusted for latitude; and the rete, a ring marked with star positions.
8	Apple Computer (1984) The original 256K Macintosh computer was the first consumer-marketed personal computer to support mouse input and a windows-based graphical user interface.
9	Galileo Thermoscope replica, Bird Health Sciences Library Galileo’s thermoscope, developed in the context of pneumatic engineering, was an ancestor to the thermometer. Galileo pioneered scientific investigations with the thermoscope along with his two Paduan friends, Giovanni Sagredo and Santorio Santorio.
9	Abacus model The abacus, an ancient calculating machine, is still in use around the world. Counters consisting of pebbles in the sand, beads on a wire or knots on a string are shifted back and forth on each level to represent different quantities, such as units and tens.
11	Sextant replica An astronomer might use a sextant or quadrant to measure the distance between a planet and a notable bright star, or the altitude of a star above the horizon.
13	Delamarche Orrery An orrery, also called a planetarium, shows the choreography of planets as they dance with coordinated precision around the Sun. From antiquity, geocentric (Earth-centered) models of the moving planets were constructed, such as the Antikythera device and large mechanical clocks.