CLEVELAND – The antique scientific and technical instruments auction at Gray’s Auctioneers on Sept. 9 features 246 lots of highly collectible instruments, a large collection of which is being sold to benefit the Case Western Reserve University’s Dayton Miller Scholarship Fund. Absentee and Internet live bidding is provided by LiveAuctioneers.com, where the auction catalog is now available.
Highlights include a dazzling array of instruments rarely seen outside museums. Lot 72 is a Wheatstone bridge (above) used in the late 19th century used to measure unknown electrical resistance. Lot 1 is a Tesla coil, one of 40 built by G.B. Schneeberger. This Tesla coil (below) is said to deliver an entertaining 40-inch electrical streamer.
Lot 4 is a Holtz-Toepler electrostatic generator built by Central Scientific of Chicago late 19th or early 20th century. It was used in early X-ray photography.
Lot 16 is a quadrant electrometer, an early instrument that measures an electrical charge.
There are several lots pertaining to early electronic communications including lot 95 a telegraph pen register with tape roll. By the end of the 19th century, pen registers were widely used to record pulsed electrical signals, eventually being used to record the phone numbers dialed from a particular location.
The auction features a large collection of telescopes, microscopes and spectroscopes including Lot 121, a large spectroscope used to measure the properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
While all of the lots in the auction have historical significance for the dedicated collector more casual collectors will be intrigued by the design and decorative aspects of the collection. The proceeds will benefit the Dayton Miller Scholarship Fund named in honor of Dayton Clarence Miller, the discoverer of ether drift, and will provide scholarship funds to students in the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University.
For more information contact Serena Harragin of Gray’s Auctioneers at 216-226-3300.