The Instrument Room is a room in Teylers Museum which houses a part of the museum's Cabinet of Physics: a collection of scientific instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries. The instruments in the collection were used for research as well as for educational public demonstrations. Most of them are demonstration models that illustrate various aspects of electricity, acoustics, light, magnetism, thermodynamics, and weights and measures. The rest are high-quality precision instruments that were used for research.
Originally all of the museum's collections were housed in the Oval Room from 1784. The electricity instrument demonstrations tended to make a lot of noise and distracted the readers of the books in the gallery, and after the mineralogical cabinet was built for the center of the room, demonstrations there became more difficult and a new demonstration and lecture room was built on the north side (today the Print room). This new room shared its purpose with the art gallery but as the number of instrument cabinets increased, was felt to be too dark, leading to the creation of a separate painting gallery in 1838. The current instrument room was built as part of an 1880-1885 extension of the museum, designed to have daylight from both sides for better viewing of the experiments. It is located between the Fossil Room II and the Oval Room.
Though Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was a patron of the arts and sciences, he was not a member of the Natuur- en Sterrekundig Collegie, a science society in Haarlem that was founded in the Patientiestraat in 1775. The popularity of the study of science and the ideals of the Dutch enlightenment were such that after his death however, when Martin van Marum joined the young Teylers Stichting, this proved quickly to become the emphasis of the society in the years to come. Teylers Museum was not alone. The society Oefening door Wetenschappen was also started in Haarlem in 1798 and lasted until 1892. It was Haarlem's reputation for the study of science that attracted Van Marum to settle there. When he became director of the collection of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen in 1778 and later, also of Teylers in 1784, he used the funds of both institutions to purchase expensive instruments and even whole scientific collections from personal estates. He started before he even worked there with a proposal to build his large elektriseermachine that forms the center attraction of the instrument room. Van Marum was not only the curator of the cabinet, he gave public laboratorium lectures from 1777 to 1803 on physics and geology. The number of demonstration models in the collection is directly related to his and his successors' need for demonstration models in Teylers lectures. Van Marum collected 350 demonstration models and set a precedent as lecturer-demonstrator for curators who came after him. Today there are over a thousand in the collection altogether.
The centerpiece of the Instrument Room is the large electrostatic generator built by John Cuthbertson in 1784. This apparatus is the largest flat-plate electrostatic generator of the world and the oldest piece in the room itself, which is filled mostly with items from the 19th century. Surrounding this centerpiece are 10 numbered cabinets filled with instruments accompanied by numbered cards that can be cross-referenced to a guide located in the room.
Name | Year | Maker | Image |
---|---|---|---|
Chronometer | Andreas Hohwü | ||
Sound analyser with 8 resonator balls | 1860s | Rudolph Koenig | |
Synthesizer | 1865 | after Hermann von Helmholtz by Koenig | |
Synthesizer after Helmholtz | 1865 | after Helmholtz by Koenig | |
Wire cable display case | Guglielmo Marconi | ||
Cabinet I: thermometry heat conduction | |||
Cabinet I | |||
Cabinet II - measuring instruments (lower shelf) | |||
Polytrope | G.E. Sire | ||
Cabinet III: electricity | |||
Cabinet III | |||
Cabinet III | |||
Cabinet III | |||
Cabinet III | |||
Cabinet III | |||
absolute electrometer | 1883 | Thomson by Breguet | |
Conductors (isolated with glass) to demonstrate the strength of electric charges don't depend on sphere size | 1840 | ||
small cylinder electrostatic generator | 1856 | Jean Claude Eugène Péclet | |
1860 spark measurer and 1865 discharger for spectroscope | 1860-5 | ||
gold leaf electrometer | 1866 | ||
induction machine | 1888 | James Wimshurst | |
electroscope | 1912 | Franz S. Exner | |
spark duration demonstrator | 1859 | ||
electroscope | 1870 | ||
discharge points | 1890 | ||
The small electricity machine developed by Martin van Marum as a student | Gerhard Kuyper | ||
Cabinet IV: Telegraphy | |||
commutator for Telegraph | 1865 | ||
contact breaker | 1865 | ||
philips lightbulbs | |||
Wireless telegraphy receiver | 1897 | Guglielmo Marconi | |
Cabinet V: geomagnetics and Geissler | |||
Gas discharge tube with holder by Ducretet and Lejeune | 1862 | Heinrich Geißler | |
Universal geomagnetic instrument | 1877 | after Moritz Meyerstein & Henry Barrow | |
X-ray tube | 1930 | ||
Cabinet VII: optics | |||
reading telescopes | 1865 | Carl August von Steinheil | |
uranium glass objects 1861 and photometer 1870 | 1861-1870 | ||
Cabinet VIII: acoustics | |||
Cabinet VIII - sound | |||
Cabinet VIII - sound | |||
Cabinet VIII - sound | |||
Cabinet IX - sound | |||
Cabinet IX - sound | |||
Cabinet IX | |||
Graphophone by Columbia Phonograph Company | 1897 | CBC | |
Three almost identical telephone sets after Bell end of 19th century | c.1880 | Alexander Graham Bell | |
Cabinet X: Heat, carbon arc lamps | |||
Cabinet X | |||
galvanometer | Leopoldo Nobili | ||
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Teylers Museum is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval Room (1784), which was built behind the house of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702–1778), the so-called Fundatiehuis. Pieter Teyler was a wealthy cloth merchant and banker of Scottish descent, who bequeathed his fortune for the advancement of religion, art, and science. He was a Mennonite and follower of the Scottish Enlightenment.
The Teylershofje is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands with 24 houses.
Martin(us) van Marum was a Dutch physician, inventor, scientist and teacher, who studied medicine and philosophy in Groningen. Van Marum introduced modern chemistry in the Netherlands after the theories of Lavoisier, and several scientific applications for general use. He became famous for his demonstrations with instruments, most notable the Large electricity machine, to show statical electricity and chemical experiments while curator for the Teylers Museum.
Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million florins to the pursuit of religion, arts and science in his hometown, that led to the formation of Teyler's Museum. This was not the value of his entire estate. He also founded Teylers Hofje in his name, and made important donations to individuals in the Mennonite community.
The Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the sciences in the country. The society has been housed in its present location, called Hodshon Huis, since 1841. Nearby the society is the Teylers Museum, a closely related museum of natural history founded in 1784. In 2002, the society was awarded the predicate "Royal" when it celebrated 250 years of science studies.
Wybrand Hendriks was a Dutch painter, primarily known for his portraits, and the concierge of the Teylers Museum.
The Oval Room in the Teylers Museum was the first part of the museum that was opened in 1784. It could be entered through the garden of the fundatiehuis, the former home of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. The building has an oval shape built around its centerpiece, a mineralogical cabinet. The Oval Room consists of two floors; the ground floor with its display cabinets and a gallery of books that connects to the Teylers Library. On top of the room, on the roof, the astronomical observatory used to be a landmark that could be seen for miles along the river Spaarne. The gallery and observatory are longer accessible to the public, though the gallery can be seen from the ground floor.
Vincent Jansz. van der Vinne, was a Dutch 18th century painter and the great-grandson of Vincent van der Vinne.
The Fundatiehuis is the former family home of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst on the Damstraat 21 in Haarlem, Netherlands. After his death it became the seat of the Teylers Stichting and through its front door, visitors could reach the Oval room.
The Teylers Stichting is a Dutch foundation founded with the heritage of the Dutch 18th century cloth merchant and banker Pieter Teyler van der Hulst to support the people in need and encourage worship, science and art.
Jacobus Barnaart was a Dutch merchant and one of the five first directors of the Teylers Stichting.
The Teylers astronomical observatory is an astronomical observatory built in 1784 on the roof of the Oval Room of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem.
Teylers Tweede Genootschap, also known as the Wetenschappelijk Genootschap is one of the two societies founded within the Teylers Stichting with the purpose to promote and award prizes for research. They were the result of the testament of the Dutch 18th-century merchant Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. The Second Society is focused on art and science, while the First Society is focused on theology.
Volkert Simon Maarten van der Willigen, sometimes referred to as Volcardus Simon Martinus van der Willigen, was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and professor.
John Cuthbertson was an English instrument maker and inventor that lived from 1768 until roughly 1796 in Amsterdam.
The Eerste Schilderijenzaal, or Painting Gallery I, is one of two art gallery rooms in Teylers Museum and is the oldest art gallery for contemporary Dutch art in the Netherlands. It was built onto the back of Teylers Oval Room in 1838. It was the young museum's first exhibition space for paintings and could be entered through the Oval Room, which was itself located behind the Fundatiehuis, the former home of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst.
The large electrostatic generator is a large handcrafted electromechanical instrument designed by Martin van Marum and built by John Cuthbertson in 1784 for the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, where it forms the centerpiece of the instrument room. The concept of an electrostatic generator was new, and the battery (array) of leiden jars was the largest ever built. The two glass disks of the triboelectric generator are 1.65 meters in diameter, and the machine is capable of generating a potential of 330,000 volts.
The Fossil room II is one of two paleontological display rooms in Teylers Museum. The Fossil room II was built in 1885 as an extension of the first Fossil room I, under the direction of the architect Ad van der Steur Jr.
The Teylers Coin and Medal Room, or Numismatisch Kabinet, is a small display room in Teylers Museum that was designed in 1888 and furnished with special display cabinets in 1889.