Second Law of Motion Apparatus
date: label: date made
content: around 1900
name: label: maker
content: Welch Scientific Company
notes: label: Description
content: Alfred Payson Gage (1836-1903) opened America’s first high school physics laboratory, at the Boston English High School, in 1880. He also wrote textbooks that were widely used, and designed simple instruments suitable for students. This Second Law of Motion apparatus was among those instruments. It has a spring hammer that propels one ball and releases another at the same instant. Both balls reach the floor at the same time, although one follows a parabolic arc while the other falls straight down.
label: Description
content: A tag on the base of this example reads “Welch Scientific Apparatus / W. M. Welch Mfg. Co. Chicago.”
label: Description
content: Ref: Ziegler Electric Co., <i>Priced and Illustrated Catalogue No. 8, of Physical Apparatus and Supplies</i> (Boston, 1896), p. 30.
label: Description
content: Central Scientific Co., <i>Physical and Chemical Apparatus</i> (Chicago, 1909), p. 71.
label: Description
content: Steven Turner, “The Reluctant Instrument Maker: A. P. Gage and the Introduction of the Student Laboratory,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 18 (2005): 40-61.
label: Description
content: Rufus P. Williams, “Alfred Payson Gage,” <i>School Science</i> 3 (May 1903): 49-52.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: D. C. Public Schools
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.326954
label: catalog number
content: 326954
label: accession number
content: 264801
objectType: label: Object Name
content: motion apparatus
label: Object Name
content: second law of motion apparatus
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 5/16 in x 9 1/2 in x 2 11/16 in; 8.41375 cm x 24.13 cm x 6.82625 cm