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Vintage Scientific Apparatus Designs

Engravings of antique scientific devices, showcasing early mechanical inventions for experimentation in physics and engineering.

Cross-section of Edison's lamp-black (carbon) button telephone transmitter (microphone). Wood engraving c1891.
Cross-section of Edison's lamp-black (carbon) button telephone transmitter (microphone). Wood engraving c1891.
234 assets in this story
1746-28999308
Engraving depicting a gyroscope, a device consisting of a wheel or disc mounted so that it can spin rapidly about an axis which is itself free to alter in direction. Dated 19th Century
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Inventor motor not specified. Engineer Börje Carlstedt. Probably the first on the dishwasher electro-helios. >>
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The Maxim Repeating Cannon. Old 19th century engraved illustration from La Nature 1886
1746-111339061
Walker's flying car, and his drawing of the attitude of the Condor when rising with its prey, when it would need maximum lift. From The Mechanics' Magazine, London, 1877
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S61-01600 (11 March 1961) --- This is the G2498 Little Joe 5A mission preparedness chart.
1746-28982564
Engraving of a Mooring Anchor, a device used to connect a vessel to the bed of the body of water to prevent a craft from drifting away. Dated 19th Century
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Skiopticon image from the Department of Photography at the Royal Institute of Technology. Use by Professor Helmer Bäckström as lecture material. Bäckström was Sweden's first professor in photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1948-1958. Lens from Goerz Damor.For more info See: Bäckström, Helmer. Photographic manual. Nature and Culture. Stockholm. 1942. p. 130.
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Small air rifle for children. Old 19th century engraved illustration from La Nature 1886
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Engraving depicting an Edison incandescent electric light bulbs in a mirror fitting. Shown at the International Electric Exhibition at the Crystal Palace.
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Bau von Refraktoren in Nizza. Veröffentlichung der Meyers Enzyklopädie. Refractor construction in Nice. Publication of the Meyers encyclopedia, Vol. 7, Leipzig, Germany, 1910. LicenseRF Copyright: xZoonar.com/SergeyxKohlx 23189380
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Galand sportsman revolver, France, illustration from L'Illustration, Journal Universel, No 1381, Volume LIV, August 14, 1869.
1746-2065
Clepsydra (water clock) indicating hours and chiming., From Utriusque cosmi...historia, by Robert Fludd (Oppenheim, 1617-1619) Engraving
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Circle by the Reverend Francis Woollaston, English astronomer 1731-1815. Copperplate engraving by Wilson Lowry after a drawing by J. Farey Jr. from Abraham Rees' Cyclopedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London, 1820.
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Pravaz syringe
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Illustration depicting Mance's field heliograph. Dated 19th Century
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Engraving depicting Geddes' turnip sowing machine. This machine made a simultaneous two-row sowing of seed and distribution of bone meal. Dated 19th Century
1899-67416928
French inventor Henri Giffard (born 1825) invented the injector and the Giffard dirigible, an airship that was powered by a steam engine and weighed more than 400 pounds. The illustration pictured here dates to the 1870s and shows an injector. Injectors make pumps unnecessary. A steam injector, as invented by Giffard, is typically used to deliver cold water to a boiler against its own pressure by using its own live or exhaust steam and thereby replacing any mechanical pump. The letters designate the following: A (steam from boiler), B (needle valve), C (needle valve handle), D (steam and water combine), E (water feed), F (combining cone), G (delivery nozzle and cone), H (delivery chmaber and pipe), K (check vlave), L (overflow).
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Engraving showing a prosthethic arm by French barber and surgeon Ambroise Par頨c. 1510 1590) or one of his contemporaries Date: 1887
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Plan and Sections of the Life-boats adopted by the Royal National Life-boat Institution, designed by James Peake, Esq..., 1858. 'In figs, 1 and 2, the elevation and deck-plans, the general exterior form of the boat is shown...The dotted lines of fig. 1 show the position and dimensions of the air-chambers...and of the relieving-tubes. In fig. 2, A represents the deck, B the relieving-tubes...C the side air-cases, D the end air-chambers. In fig. 3, the exterior form of transverse sections...is shown. Fig. 4 represents a midship transverse section - A being sections of the side air-cases, B the r
1746-19679091
Warm medicinal bath by being connected to a furnace. From A Description of New Philosophical Furnaceheateds, London, 1651, by Rudolph Glauber, translated by John French.
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Sectional view of Alleretti's ice safe. Dated 19th century
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Newspaper cutting on the Atomic Bomb. The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.
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Diagram illustrating the effect of refraction. Dated 19th Century
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An engraving depicting a wine press. From Noël Antoine la Pluche 1735
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'Gunnery - Section Through Turret Showing Hydraulic Gear Inflexible Type', 1898. Artist: W & AK Johnston.
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An engraving depicting the method of constructing elliptical arches. Dated 18th century
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Skiopticon image from the Department of Photography at the Royal Institute of Technology. Use by Professor Helmer Bäckström as lecture material. Bäckström was Sweden's first professor in photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1948-1958.Kromoscope. Apparatus for direct viewing of three-color diapositive according to additive method. Diapositive is illuminated through the colored light filters and combined optically by means of semi-transparent mirrors. This type of photograph is to be regarded as the first color images. However, they were not fixed and could only be bereacted through the appliance. The chromoscope history: The first practical breakthrough to consider color photography invented in 1891 by Fredrich Ives (1856-1937), in Philadelphia. Three negative, one in each primer (green, red blue) on a single plate. The diapositive was made directly from the plate and was viewed in an apparatus as Ives called "the photo chromoscope".
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S63-12019 (1963) --- Artist concept for Gemini parasail deployment showing re-entry, drogue chute deployment, and stages of parasail deployment.
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Engraving of a Trotman's anchor, a device used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent a craft from drifting away. Dated 19th Century
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This 1905 illustration shows Symingtons steamboat from 1801. William Symington(17641831) was a Scottish engineer and inventor, and the builder of the first practicalsteamboat, theCharlotte Dundas, which was first sailed in 1803.
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Universal or geoscopic clock by Paul de Beaux, from Leipzig, Germany. Old 19th century engraved illustration from La Ilustración Artística 1882
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Skiopticon image from the Department of Photography at the Royal Institute of Technology. Use by Professor Helmer Bäckström as lecture material. Bäckström was Sweden's first professor in photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1948-1958.Ballard procedure. The surface layer of the cylinder is a galvanically fitted, peelable copper film.For more info See: Bäckström, Helmer. Photographic manual. Other revised edition. Nature and Culture. Stockholm. 1948. p. 1580.
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Adam's Patent Revolver Date: circa. 19th Century
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Plastic of participation in the Local Shooting Competition from the Sports Pneumatic Pistol of the Swiss Strzelec Association Huguenin Frères & Co