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Own a Little Bit of Berkeley Physics History

Posted by chrisd on from the slide-rulers-rule dept.

Five foot slide rules? Brass and Wood balances? Bakelite Metering Equipment. This and more are up on the block as a result of UC Berkeley's physics department wanting to clear out old gear (they need the room). The San Francisco Chronicle has a story about auction. Apparantly, about 20 items will be auctioned in a "test the waters" sales this Sunday, and the balance of the 1000 pieces will be sold July 28th...

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Woohoo! by Raul654 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When they start selling the stuff owned and used by the nobel prize owners, then I'll pull out my wallet

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    To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
    --E.C. Stanton
  2. cool antiques by gripdamage · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I sure prefer science-related antiques to crumbly old chairs, tables, lamps, etc. When cleaning out my great-grandparents' home after they both had died we discovered some cool wooden globes. Even one of those solar system model thingamajigs, with wooden planets and iron gears, where you turn the handle and the planets spin and rotate around the sun, the moons orbit the planets, etc.

    The chairs, tables, lamps, etc. went to goodwill. My parent's kept the solar system.

  3. Re:They just throw it out here by muon1183 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm a Berkeley student and working at the labs here for the summer, and we do in fact throw most of the stuff out. However, things have to be accounted for before being discarded. However, the really old stuff is still sitting around. In fact, there's a really old particle accelerator sitting in one of the hallways in the physics building. I'm not sure if it still works, and it's dusty as hell, but it's pretty neat looking.

    This .sig now open source

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    There's no sig like SIGSEG
  4. Interesting by RaboKrabekian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Aside from nostalgic Berkley physics major alumni, a great idea would be for some udnerfunded school districts to pick up some of this stuff. I'm not a physics teacher, but I'd imagine a good quantity of it would be great for the high school level.

    --
    "Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
  5. Additional Coverage by dragons_flight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Contra Costa Times

    UCB Campus News

    I'm a UCB physics grad student. The primary motivation for the sale isn't to make money or make room for new gear. They actually have to do it because the part of the physics building is scheduled for a seismic retrofit, and the temporary building can't accommodate all the old stuff in the attics.

    Some material will be kept for display and for gifts to retiring faculty.