Gravity Pendulum

Description:

Along with gravimeters and torsion balances, pendulums can be used to measure gravitational force. The period oscillation of the pendulum can be used to measure gravitational acceleration, and in turn used in prospecting for natural resources. Different types of underground resources have different densities, increasing or decreasing gravitational attraction that can be detected by pendulums.

This is one of two similar instruments that the Humble Oil & Refining Co. purchased in 1931, and used to determine the force of gravity near Houston, Texas. It is a photographic recording instrument with four invariable pendulums of the sort that the Austrian military officer, Robert von Sterneck, designed in the 1880s. Carl Bamberg offered instruments of this sort, with "price by arrangement" for some 20 years, and Askania Werke continued the tradition.

Ref: Notes prepared by D.H. Gardner, August 19, 1959, in NMAH accession file.

Carl Bamberg, Preis-Verzeichnis. No. XI. Wissenschaftliche Instrumente (1904), pp. 50-52.

M. Haid, "Neues Pendelstativ," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde 16 (1896): 193-196.

Date Made: ca 1931

Maker: Askania

Place Made: Germany: Berlin

See more items in: Work and Industry: Agriculture and Natural Resources, Natural Resources, Measuring & Mapping

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Humble Oil and Refining Company

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: AG.MHI-P-7681Catalog Number: MHI-P-7681Accession Number: 230370

Object Name: pendulum, recording

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-e8f6-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_872812

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