Teachers and students used this magnetic balance in Winchester College in Hampshire, England during the 20th century to demonstrate practical physics such as the magnetic attraction between two bodies.

Magnetic balances like this were known as ‘Hibbert’s Magnetic Balance’ named after its inventor William Hibbert of the Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1890s. The apparatus featured in physics textbooks in the 1950s. The device’s value in teaching science is also apparent by the fact that it was manufactured by W. G. Pye & Co. The company was founded by William George Pye, a former workshop superintendent at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and his wife Annie Eliza Pye in 1896 primarily for the making of scientific instruments for teaching purposes. Its instruments were soon sought after in great demand from centres of learning and research all around the world.

Teachers and students used this magnetic balance in Winchester College in Hampshire, England during the 20th century to demonstrate practical physics such as the magnetic attraction between two bodies.

Magnetic balances like this were known as ‘Hibbert’s Magnetic Balance’ named after its inventor William Hibbert of the Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1890s. The apparatus featured in physics textbooks in the 1950s. The device’s value in teaching science is also apparent by the fact that it was manufactured by W. G. Pye & Co. The company was founded by William George Pye, a former workshop superintendent at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and his wife Annie Eliza Pye in 1896 primarily for the making of scientific instruments for teaching purposes. Its instruments were soon sought after in great demand from centres of learning and research all around the world.