General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

wood instrument base & user made support, parts/ glass dome/ metal mechanism & parts/ synthetic parts/ paper? scale

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

36.5 cm

Width

25.5 cm

Height

15.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Physics

Category

Demonstration & teaching equipment

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

CENCO

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Illinois

City

Chicago

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

early 20th century

Canada

This piece of equipment was used at the Chatham Collegiate Institute in Chatham, Ontario, a secondary school which was founded in 1885 and closed in 2003. In 1851 the first school was established in the village of Chatham and by the late 1870's it was called Chatham High School. In 1885 the school attained the status of a collegiate institute, enabling it to obtain larger provincial grants and by 1887 a new school building had been constructed and the CCI was considered to be one of the most outstanding secondary schools in Ontario (it was destroyed by fire in 1946). In 1940 a new building was completed & again was considered to be one of the most modern educational facilities in the province. The school was closed in 2003.

Function

An instrument used to measure electrical current and voltage, in this case to demonstrate principles of electricity in a school.

Technical

A volt-ammeter with a glass dome & a mahogany base used for demonstration purposes. This example is mounted on a user made support so that it can be placed in a vertical position (probably to facilitate classroom or lab demonstrations). It appears in Cenco's 1923 & 1936 catalogues (Refs. 2 & 3).

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Plate on base reads"CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC CO./ LABORATORY SUPPLIES/ APPARATUS CHEMICALS/ CENCO [logo]/ CHICAGO U.S.A."/ black lettering on scale reads "D.C. VOLT-AMMETER"

Missing

appears complete

Finish

brown stained & coated volt-ammeter base/ unfinished wood support/ black painted, plated & metallic metal parts/ colourless transparent glass/ white? scale

Decoration

N/A