ATTENTION: Weekend Assignment Editors

26 July 2002
Contact: Virginia Rapp, UC Berkeley Department of Physics
(510) 643-2317

WHAT:
Hundreds of antique scientific instruments from the attic of the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Physics are going on the auction block this weekend.

These items, which include voltmeters, galvanometers, traveling microscopes and other testing and demonstration devices - many of them beautifully crafted of brass or Bakelite, with heavy-duty wooden cases - satisfy a demand for mechanical things in this electronic age, according to the auctioneers. The physics department will use the proceeds to buy new equipment for its undergraduate teaching laboratory.

WHEN:
A preview will be held Saturday, July 27, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
On Sunday, July 28, a preview is at 9 a..m., the auction begins at 10 a.m.

WHERE:
Harvey Clars Auction Gallery, 5644 Telegraph Ave., Oakland.

BACKGROUND:
A list and photographs of the scientific equipment for sale is at http://www.harveyclar.com/. An auction held in late June of 15 items from the same attic of UC Berkeley's LeConte Hall confirmed that science buffs can be serious collectors, too. That sale brought in a total of $3,240. The top sellers were an oversized demonstration slide rule ($450) and a Beckers Sons cased balance ($600).

For more background on this story, see https://newsarchive.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/06/27_physics.html