Monash University > Engineering > ECSE > Museum

MUSEUM DISPLAYS

from the

Graham Beard Memorial Collection

Acquired through the generous donation by Mr and Mrs Beard in memory of their son Graham Beard who was a student in the Department.

The collection and the displays

Inventory
Appendix to Inventory listing additional information on items (6.8Mb)

The Graham Beard collection has been built up over the last 20 years by acquisition and construction of a number of items which are significant for their history, application and rarity in the areas of learning covered by the Department. They include measuring instruments, electrostatic and other machines, electronic and other devices used in radio, telecommunications and audio fields as well as many machines and models bought or constructed to aid effective teaching and historical awareness among students. The museum items may be classified as:

Devices associated with early developments in electricity
Electronic and other devices used in radio, communications and audio applications
Meters and other measuring devices
Precision measuring devices and standards

This pamphlet is a brief introduction to some of the displays from the collection to arouse interest and curiosity and is not a catalogue of either the display or the collection. A short list of references is given at the end for the interested reader to obtain further information. All items are on display in Buildings 35 and 72 which house part of the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering.

Devices associated with early developments in electricity

(located at eastern end, Bldg. 35 between ground and 1st floors)

The Glass plate machine was one of the early generators (similar to those of Dr Inganhousz in 1746 and Jesse Ramsden in 1768) used to produce electric charges more reliably and in larger quantities than could be done by rubbing glass with silk or other pairs of materials. The gold leaf electroscope is reputed to be the very first scientific measuring device for static electricity. It measures the amount of electric charge placed on the terminal at the top as indicated by the amount of opening of the gold leaves. The Leyden Jar (1745) was constructed in the city of Leyden in Holland and was used to store electricity on the two electrical conductors (one on the inside and the other on the outside) of the insulating glass jar. This was one of the first examples of what we now call a capacitor. Various other devices for carrying static charges and discharging charged bodies are also on display.

Electronic and other devices used in radio, communications and audio applications

(located at eastern end, Bldg. 35 between ground & first floor and between 1st & 2nd floor)

A number of representative electronic 'valves' or 'tubes' (American) capable of handling power levels from a few watts to 40,000 W (Federal F-124A power triode used in the Radio Australia transmitter at Shepparton) are on display as are many radios and loudspeakers.

Meters and other measuring devices

(located at eastern end, Bldg. 35 on the ground floor and in the Circuits & Systems Lab, 1st floor)

The development of electrical science is critically dependent upon and accompanied by advances in electrical measuring devices such as meters. The departmental collection includes commercial instruments (local and imported) spanning a period of about 100 years. The staff in the Department have also constructed several large scale working models of instruments as teaching aids. These large meter models are on display in the Circuits and Systems Laboratory, room 103, Building 35.

Precision measuring devices and standards

(located at eastern end, Bldg. 35 on the ground floor & between ground and 1st floor)

The smooth functioning of a technologically advanced society can only be sustained by a uniform set of units; standards to physically represent those units and precise methods of comparing the national (and international) standards with the weights and measures used in commerce and industry, and at home.

The base units (in The International System of Units called SI) are the meter, the kilogram, the second, the ampere (for electric current), the kelvin (for temperature), the mole (for the amount of substance) and the candela for luminous intensity. The derived units relevant to electrical engineering include capacitance, resistance, inductance etc. Australia's National Standards Laboratory maintains standards of the base units and many of the derived units. When the standards of derived units are defined directly in terms of the standards of the base units, they are called absolute standards and require measurements of the highest precision.

Professor Douglas Lampard (1927-1994) the Foundation Professor and Chairman of this Department was involved in the development of the absolute standard of capacitance while he was at the CSIRO in Sydney before coming to Monash University. The Lampard-Thompson Calculable Capacitor (also called Thompson-Lampard capacitor) (model on display) developed by the two named people as well as others in CSIRO was a unique contribution to the science of electrical measurements adapted by the rest of the world as the best absolute standard of capacitance and is used in most national laboratories all over the world. Even today, over 40 years later, the Australian National Standards Laboratory leads the world in research in this area.

Kelvin's Current Balance (not an absolute standard but a very accurate and precise device of great importance in the history of current measurement) is also on display. It was developed in the 1880's and is a method of literally 'weighing' the current by comparing the torque produced on a pair of current carrying coils with that produced by gravity on an adjustable mass.