Physics Museum Collection

The Physics Museum was established in 1986, opening on 1st May, as part of the centenary celebrations of the appointment of William Henry Bragg to the Elder Chair of Physics at the University of Adelaide in 1886. Bragg’s grandson Dr Stephen Bragg opened the Museum, which was then located on the Ground Floor (G16 and G30) of the Physics Building on the North Terrace Campus of the University of Adelaide.

The Museum was established to allow interpretation of the various teaching and research activities within the Department of Physics University of Adelaide since its inception. Important to this was the display of the finely crafted equipment and apparatus, some of which were developed and/or constructed at the University of Adelaide. Over its long history the Department of Physics used, designed, developed and made numerous pieces of equipment. Items include equipment (laboratory, electrical), instruments, measuring devices, photographs, newspaper clippings, caricatures.

The Collection includes experimental designs and prototypes, as well as educational tools. Documents and photographs relating to staff and students of the Department are also included.

A number of the objects in the collection are of particular historical significance. These include an X-Ray tube made in 1896 for W.H. Bragg (Professor 1885-1908) by his laboratory assistant, A.L. Rogers, only months after the news of Roentgens discovery of X-Rays was reported in the local press; fragments of paper tape on which are recorded some of the first messages transmitted by wireless telegraphy in South Australia by Professor Bragg and Sir Charles Todd in 1899; a Quartz Beam Microbalance made by Sir Kerr Grant (Professor 1911-1948) in collaboration with B.D. Steele, University of Melbourne, 1908; an apparatus used for the determination of the surface tension of Mercury by R.S. Burdon in 1932, designed by M.L.E. Oliphant and constructed of fused silica; original, and possibly unique, sound recordings on wire of Sir Harry Mersey, recorded in 1949.