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One of the vintage balances up
for sale. Photo by Harvey Clars
Hundreds of antique scientific instruments go on the block July
27-28
25
July 2002
By Bonnie Azab Powell, Public Affairs
BERKELEY - Got a passion for potentiometers? Do antique
balances make you lose your equilibrium?
Grab your auction paddle. Vintage equipment from UC Berkeley's
physics department will be up for sale this weekend, July 27-28,
at the Harvey Clars Auction
Gallery in Oakland. More than 150 different lots of voltmeters,
galvanometers, traveling microscopes and other testing and demonstration
devices — most of them beautifully crafted of brass or
Bakelite, with heavy-duty wooden cases — will pass under
the gavel.
A late June auction of 15 items unearthed
from LeConte Hall's attic confirmed that science buffs can
be serious collectors, too. The preview sale brought in $3,240
total, with the top sellers an oversized demonstration slide
rule ($450) and a Beckers Sons cased balance ($600) like the
one above. The physics department will use the proceeds from
the auctions to buy new equipment for its undergraduate laboratory.
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