Cambridge, a Science Historian’s Paradise

I had the good fortune to visit Cambridge, UK, which is filled with scientific treasures. The crown jewel is the Whipple Museum, which is run by the University of Cambridge. Here’s a few photos of what I found in only a few hours – I’m sure there’s more!

Look at all these scientific discoveries!

Sundials and other shiny things

Lots of sundials all over town! Unfortunately on the day I visited all the colleges were closed for exams, so I couldn’t get into Queens to see their one which is meant to be (even more) awesome. Next time…

This is an entrance into Gonville and Caius College

A closer look at the top. It has six sides. (trust me to pick a cloudy day)

This is the Corpus Chronophage Clock. It’s super cool. Look closely and you can see the hour, minute and seconds are shown with lights.

The Whipple Museum

This is why I visited Cambridge; to come here. It’s not a huge museum, but oh my does it have some amazing exhibits.

Back staffs, which were used to determine Sun angles

Look at the rete on this one, it has a bird on it!

Armillary Spheres. Sun-centered Copernican one on the left, Earth-centered Ptolomaic one on the right.

Portable scope for determining equatorial measurements

Astronomical Spectroscope, which splits light using six different prisms to see an object’s composition

I’d never even heard of one of these before; a Dipleidoscope which determines true noon within 10 seconds

This giant wooden telescope was built by William Herschel

Oh, and they have Charles Darwin’s microscope

So there you have it, some of the finest scientific treasure. There’s a lot more in the museum; they had an exhibit about Physics and Glass which I haven’t even touched on here, but was really interesting. There’s a lot more optical stuff in the second hall; telescopes and microscopes and more. It’s really well worth a visit. https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/