Cambridge Instruments Slide-Wire Potentiometer

[Yorkie]

Thats a fine piece of old craftmanship David. Cambridge Instruments made some pretty fine equipment....regards....Alan.

Yes indeed.

Apart from the R&D, what amazes me is how many intricate components there are, both mechanical and electrical, and the many hours that must have gone into hand making each one of these instruments. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at the price when new, and I doubt that many were made. I suspect they found little application outside of academia, and I wonder how many are still gathering dust in the labs of universities. I haven’t been able to find anything out about the slide-wire potentiometer, but I have found a little about Cambridge Instruments - when the business was established or for how long it existed, from the Cambridge Museum of Technology website, which I found quite interesting:

http://www.museumoftechnology.com/cic.html

Here’s a clip:

When Cambridge University established the Science Tripos in there were no facilities for making apparatus in Cambridge. To meet their requirements for apparatus, the research and teaching staff had to manage as best they could by making their own. The workshop attached to the Department of Mechanism began to make apparatus in 1878 and soon after the Cavendish Laboratory of Physics established its own facilities. It was from this workshop that a mechanic named Robert Fulcher left to set up his own scientific instrument making business, taking advantage of the increasing demand by the University for apparatus. However his design abilities were somewhat limited and Horace Darwin, the youngest surviving son of Charles Darwin the botanist began to take an interest in the firm. Eventually in 1881 Darwin purchased the business in partnership with his friend Dew-Smith so founding the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. An example of an instrument from this period is the 1884/85 rocking microtome seen at the museum, together with a later version of the instrument of the 1950s. It was one of Darwin's successful designs that continued to be manufactured until the 1970s.

In 1968 the company was sold to George Kent and since the merger it was organised into four divisions, each being eventually separately sold off. Many ex-company employees either founded other well-known companies or gained important positions in them. William T. Pye, who had joined as foreman in 1880 left in 1898 to form the W.G. Pye Instrument Company with his son, ultimately to branch out into Pye Radio. Charles Foster, a chief draughtsman formed the Foster Instrument Company, E. I. Everett joined with Edgecombe to form Everett Edgecome Ltd, George Whipple who worked at Muswell Hill became Managing Director of E. R. Watts & Son and S.W.J.Stubbens, a foreman formed Unicam Instruments Ltd to name a few examples.

End clip.

So now we know!