Reflecting galvanometer

Object summary

Title: Reflecting galvanometer
Object ID: 1985.066.002
Date made: circa 1940
Place made: United States, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Maker: Rubicon Company
Object type: Galvanometer
Major collection: Science
On view: No

Description

This galvanometer is housed in a rectangular wooden cabinet with a rectangular window on the top of the front panel. This window is made of frosted glass, and has a millimeter scale marked from 5-0-5 on the top, and from 0-10 on the bottom.

This galvanometer has a movable metal coil with an attached mirror suspended between the poles of a magnet. When a current passes through the instrument, it passes through the coil that suspends the mirror, twisting it in proportion to the interaction of the current running through the coil and the magnetic field generated by the magnet. When a light is shined on the mirror, the twisting causes the reflected light to move. The position of that reflected light on a graduated scale indicates the current running through the instrument. This instrument was used in MIT’s Electrical Engineering Department.

Labels read "MIT Elect. Eng. Dpt.", "No. 12217".