PhD student Victoria Fisher, left, and curator Erich Weidenhammer are pictured in a storage room for the University of Toronto's Scientific Instruments Collection at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. (Tamar Harris/Toronto Star)
  • PhD student Victoria Fisher, left, and curator Erich Weidenhammer are pictured in a storage room for the University of Toronto's Scientific Instruments Collection at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. (Tamar Harris/Toronto Star)
  • The Helmholtz Synthesizer, an object in the University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection, is pictured at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. The synthesizer was a "prestige purchase" for the University of Toronto in the late 1800s, Fisher said.
  • An EEG machine from 1938 in the University of Toronto's Scientific Instruments Collection is pictured at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. The machine has signs of wear and tear, and was an early version of the instrument used to take readings of the electrical activity of the brain.
  • An ammeter in the University of Toronto's Scientific Instruments Collection is pictured at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. An ammeter measures the current in a circuit. This device was recalibrated — likely meaning the device's face was redrawn — in 1893 at the University of Toronto.
  • PhD student Victoria Fisher holds an organ pipe in the University of Toronto's Scientific Instruments Collection in McLennan Physical Laboratories, an object she calls the "gem" of the collection. "It was all to do with an aspect of physics in this era which was very popular; people were interested in sound, basically," Fisher said. "So these are ways of investigating sound."
  • A stereoscope and cards showing skin diseases, part of the University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection, are pictured at McLennan Physical Laboratories on Nov. 14, 2017. Looking through the stereoscope allows one to view the skin diseases closely. The cards were donated to the Medical Alumni Association collection and then passed along to the Fisher Rare Books Library. The Scientific Instruments Collection is borrowing the objects for a student outreach project with high school students.

Historical artifacts organized into digital catalogue by U of T researchers

Researchers are asking members of the public to reach out if they have historical scientific instruments related to the University of Toronto

Historical scientific instruments and artifacts stored at the University of Toronto are coming to light in an ever-growing digital catalogue that includes objects such as an EEG machine.

The catalogue is composed of “important pieces of evidence” in the history of science, curator Erich Weidenhammer said.

There are around 800 to 1,000 objects in the online catalogue, which has been under development since 2009 and is supported by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST). Entries include a description of the object, contextual information and a photo.

“While we have this wonderful collection, people can’t access it, people can’t see it,” said Victoria Fisher, a PhD student at the IHPST.

“So the catalogue allows us to reach outside of the university, as well as within the university community, to allow access for research, access for general interest and for outreach and for people learning about the history of the objects and the history of the university.”

Just like you could examine a text in an archive to understand something, you could look at the collection’s three-dimensional objects and ascertain information, Weidenhammer said.

“I think at a practical level, you could take any one of these objects here and if you were to look at it deeply, that would open up to a whole field of research,” Weidenhammer said. “The technologies of the time, exactly what phenomenon people were exploring and the ideas that were embedded into the work they were doing.”

The purpose of the catalogue is to organize scientific instruments into a virtual and organized catalogue.

Those instruments include an EEG machine manufactured in 1938.

“It’s so funny, because we had this for years,” Weidenhammer said. “And we ignored it, for the most part, because we didn’t really know what it was and it was quite ugly.”

The EEG machine was certainly not the first in the world, but it could be one of the first in Canada.

“And that’s part of the great story of the stuff; some of the stuff that doesn’t look like anything and is actually in danger of being thrown away because people think this is just junk, but actually it’s not,” Fisher said of the wooden box enclosing thick black wires with a roll of beige paper mounted on top.

“It’s part of the history of technology and science in Canada. We’re very lucky, I think, to have this one.”

Some of the instruments have been rescued “literally from the garbage,” Fisher said.

Other objects are collected from decommissioned or remodelled offices, laboratories or spaces.

“Now that we’re here, we can gather that stuff,” Weidenhammer said. “Whereas before, it would have just been binned.”

If you have historical scientific instruments or artifacts related to the University of Toronto, contact the researchers.

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