Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9811
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    Experimental equipment to test electrical conductivity in a vacuum

    Date
    1785
    Creator
    William Morgan (1750 - 1833, British) , Actuary
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 235mm
    width (painting): 186mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Plate 9 figures 1-2 from the paper “Electrical experiments made in order to ascertain the non-conducting power of a perfect vacuum”, by William Morgan, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.75 (1785), pp.272-278.

    Figure 1 shows a 15-inch mercury gauge partially coated with tin foil, emptied of air and inverted into a mercury cistern. A wire is visible within this reservoir, through which an electrical current was passed but without light or discharge in the vacuum gauge. Figure 2 shows a method of making mercurial gauges by Mr Brook of Norwich.

    Inscribed in pencil above and verso with publication details. Not signed.
    Associated place
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