Hidden Histories 2013

A couple of years ago we, the museum group, collectively put together a case of objects designed purely to show of the diverse range of artefacts our university holds for the exhibition Hidden Histories.  Everyone chose an object, wrote a blog post, filmed a youtube video and wrote a label.  Put together and it gave a hint of our interests and knowledge, of how objects might lead you to interesting questions, and how varied yet largely uncelebrated was the University’s history.

That was two years ago.  Now the team has changed, and our knowledge of the collections has grown.  Also, for conservation reasons and to keep people looking at the case, its time for a revamp.  As before, everyone is choosing an object and writing about it.  Research has begun.  Here is my contribution.

Batteries.

Perhaps not the most promising display item you might think, but these two, both from school classrooms in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, are pretty beautiful I think.  The first:

Image copyright DK

The Poggendorff Cell nicely shows the basic workings of a cell.  Its comprises a glass bottle and electrodes.  When working it would be filled with dilute sulphuric acid saturated with potash bichromate which for obvious reasons have been removed for display purposes.  The electrodes are made of carbon (+) and zinc (-).  It was invented by Poggendorff in 1842 and if you’ve ever made a ‘battery’ (or more accurately a cell) from a lemon or a potato then you can probably work out how it works.  When the electrodes are lowered into the acid, the positive electrode attracts ions in the acid, combines and releases electrons which are then attracted to the negative electrode and so it goes on.  The flow of electrons is electricity.

The dry cell:

Image copyright DK

Came along a little later than the Poggendorff cell but works on a similar principle except that it uses a paste instead of liquid acid.  Although this Siemens Brothers dry cell looks rather large to us, it is otherwise very similar to the ones we all have running various gadgets in our homes.

From a safety point of view, you can see, when you look at the Poggendorff battery why many people were apprehensive about allowing electricity into their homes in the early days.  The first homes to install electric lights and so on did so in the 1880s.  By the 1950s there were still homeowners who didn’t trust it preferring to use gas.  For more on this story see our Lights on at Lotherton! collaborative project with Lotherton Hall (on going) based on research by Prof. Graeme Gooday published in his book Domesticating Electricity.

 

Embedding videos

Hi all, there are now 10 videos up on the channel.  I have to thank Dom for his Facebook publicity, which saw the number of views rocket within a couple of hours; I wonder if others might also do what they can to promote them by posting links to their chosen social networking outlets?

Secondly, could I suggest that those of us with blog posts on their objects edit those posts to embed their YouTube video into the text?  It will just pull everything together and make all our material more accessible.  See mine below.

Thanks!

Michael.

Lepidoptera Collection at leeds.

Hello all, firstly thanks to Mike for setting me up so I can start blogging.

Secondly, here’s what I’ve done so far on my chosen object- a lepidoptera collection in the biology collections at leeds. I’ve found it hard to find out specifics about the object, but alot on lepidoptera in general. I’ve got my piece and an atempt at a 30 word label below. Please send feedback so I improve it.

Butterflies and moths both belong to an order called the ‘Lepidoptera’. Which is one of the most diverse groups of insects on the planet, estimates of the number of species range from a 100,000 to a quarter of a million, divided into between 125-175 families depending on who you talk too. Their diversity and notorious beauty from around the world can be clearly seen in the specimens here in Leeds because they have been obtained from many places, such as the Americas (labelled as ‘new world butterflies’ in this collection). The Lepidoptera play an enormous role in pollinating the earth’s planet population and form a vital part of the food chain.

Surprisingly there is no taxonomic difference between a butterfly and a moth, indeed it would taken expert to tell which of the species in these cases where moths and which where butterflies. Despite many generalizations, and several detailed looks by taxonomists there is no distinction that can be drawn upon, it seems some families of butterflies are closer to families of moths than they are to other species of butterfly. One of the most widely held generalizations for example is that moths are nocturnal and butterflies are not. Though this is true for the butterfly, it is not so for moths, many species are Crepuscular (active in twilight, at dawn and dusk), and of the 2,500 species of moth endemic to Britain, a hundred are active during the day, but there are only 60 species of butterfly in Britain, and so there are more species of moth flying around in the day than there are butterflies.

The origins of the names ‘butterfly’ and ‘moth’ are largely lost in time, but there are several theories surrounding them. There are two theories of the word ‘butterfly’ firstly, that it comes from the old English word ‘buterfleoge’ meaning ‘butter-coloured flies’. The second idea is that it comes from the old English ‘flutter-bys’, in parallel with an old English belief that witches took the form of butterflies to steal milk and butter.  This is doubted, even if butterflies and witches did really, really like butter (?)… How much can a butterfly carry? But it is still a nice idea.

The origins of the ‘moth’ are more mundane; there are numerous languages from which it could have originated most interestingly is from the word ‘midge’ a common term in English used up until the 16^th century to indicate larvae, usually in reference to the devouring cloth.  This leads to a great misconception of moths; that they eat clothes. Moths love to lay their eggs in dark recesses, making your wardrobe the perfect place to breed. But of the afore mentioned 2,500 species of moth in Britain only 6 of their larvae have been shown to actually eat textiles, giving the rest of them a bad name.

Whatever the origins of their names, they have always been treasured for their beauty, and more recently used in science as a model organism for ecology and genetics as they are so old (studying the change in genes over millions of years). Though this research has happened in Leeds to a limited extent, the collection here was never used for this and was probably more used for teaching in identifying butterfly species.

Label.

Moths and Butterflies are known as the ‘Lepidoptera’, their use in science is limited but are treasured for their beauty and diversity, so collections like this one are common.

Hidden Histories: Edinburgh to Leeds, via South Africa

This attractive piece from the collection of the School of Physics and Astronomy is a differential hygrometer, an instrument used for measuring the humidity of the air.  The dedication plaque on the box announces that it was presented to Charles Piazzi Smyth in 1836.  Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900) would later serve as the Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 until 1888, but at this time he was just 17 years old and working at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope as an observatory assistant.

Hygrometers were an important part of an astronomer’s tool kit as they allowed one to calculate the dew point, the temperature at which moisture condenses out of the air, leaving it clearer.  This allowed for more accurate and precise observations of stars, the light from which was otherwise distorted by refraction in the atmosphere.  This one probably worked by measuring the difference between the outside temperature, on the standard thermometer, and the temperature recorded on the u-bend thermometer.  This latter reading was attained by keeping the cloth over one of the bulbs wet; the evaporation of the moisture would lower the temperature, and the difference would allow the user to determine the relative humidity of the air by use of a set of tables.

The hygrometer was made by Adie and Sons, Edinburgh, prolific manufacturers of scientific instruments. It is likely that this instrument travelled with Piazzi Smyth to South Africa, and may have been used on his local expeditions around the area.  The two carry handles on the box suggest that it may have been intended to be portable, implying an untold story of a roving instrument used by an astronomer who frequently travelled beyond the confines of the observatory.  How it ended up in Leeds is still uncertain, but, as Piazzi Smyth lived quite close to Leeds during his retirement in Ripon, it is possible that it was either acquired by a member of staff when his possessions were auctioned off after his death, or even presented personally to the department back when it was still part of the federal Victoria University.

UPDATE: You can view the finished video on our YouTube channel here.

Hidden Histories filming

Hi all, just wanted to update everyone on the filming situation; I now have the material for 6 short videos (one to two and a half minutes in length), which I shall be assembling soon.  I have Greg on the Astbury camera, Liz on the capacitor, Dom on the seeds, Rita on the educational posters, Becky on the printing press, and myself on the hygrometer.

When Mike’s back I’ll be filming him on the Newlyn-Philips machine, and Emily will be doing her short introduction, the transcript of which she has posted below.  I will then put the pieces together, edit where necessary, and we will have 8 short videos to go up on our YouTube channel.

This should be a nice project to coincide with the installation of the exhibit in the Sadler building.  If anyone has any other objects they want to do, please let me know, because I’m hoping this can be an ongoing, on-growing part of the museum which will serve to consolidate and strengthen our online presence.

UPDATE: You can view all of these 1 minute videos on our YouTube channel here.