George III's guinea and feather' apparatus

Made:
1761 in London and Fleet Street
maker:
George Adams
Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761 Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761 Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761 Parts of the apparatus for guinea and feather experiment

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Apparatus for the 'Guinea and feather' experiment, 1761
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Parts of the apparatus for guinea and feather experiment
King's College, London| Enquiries to Science Museum, London
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Apparatus for guinea and feather experiment. Consisting of a glass cylinder with brass release device, second glass cylinder with brass rim, two mahogany supporting rods with wooden fly nuts and four brass keys, mahogany stand with three legs, made by George Adams, Fleet Street, London, 1761.

This apparatus was made for King George III in 1761 by George Adams, very soon after he ascended the throne in 1760. It was part of Adams' pneumatics lectures and was intended to be used with the air pump.It allowed the demonstrator to explain the effects of a vaccum on falling objects. The apparatus consists of a glass barrel with a brass release device. The air was pumped out of the glass tube so that there was no resistance to a falling object. A feather and a golden guinea coin were then released simultaneously, and seen to fall at the same rate.

Details

Category:
King George III
Object Number:
1927-1308
Materials:
brass (copper, zinc alloy), glass, mahogany (wood) and wood (unidentified)
type:
demonstration equipment
credit:
King's College, London

Parts