Barker's Mill
notes: label: Description
content: The Barker’s Mill is a simple hydraulic machine named for Robert Barker (d. 1745), a British physician and Fellow of the Royal Society. Much of what we know about it’s history comes from John Theophilus Desaguliers who, in the second volume of his <i>Course of Experimental Philosophy</i> (London, 1744), mentioned a “new invented Mill” introduced by Dr. Barker, adding that “I took the Doctor’s Hint, and made the following working Model of it, which I shew’d the Royal Society the Experiment of, at their last Meeting this Summer.” Desaguliers also discussed an improvement to the breast mill contrived by “the learned an ingenious Dr. [Robert] Barker, whose skill in Mechanicks as well as all Parts of Mathematicks and [Natural] Philosophy is well known.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: University of Santa Clara
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.325979
label: catalog number
content: 325979
label: accession number
content: 256489
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Barker's Mill
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 20 in x 20 in; 33.02 cm x 50.8 cm x 50.8 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; base: 4 in x 19 13/16 in x 12 9/16 in; 10.16 cm x 50.32375 cm x 31.90875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; water vessel: 17 5/8 in x 11 in x 7 1/4 in; 44.7675 cm x 27.94 cm x 18.415 cm