Groups and Locations

The Physics Museum of the University of Coimbra in Portugal houses a collection of scientific and didactic instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist 'exclusively of instruments used in the Physics Cabinet of the University of Coimbra since its origin in 1772' and are 'among the most notable and rare in the world'. Many of the instruments, especially those from the eighteenth century, 'are nowadays considered true art pieces' while the items from the nineteenth century represent the 'evolution of Experimental Physics along that century'. This website includes the ability to browse the online catalogue and view 150 instruments through pictures, schemes, texts and animations. There is a Virtual Museum that contains a set of Virtual Reality movies enabling visitors to pan around the Museum exhibition rooms and to virtually interact with selected Museum instruments. There is a Digital Library on the History of Physics under development on the site to put 18th century books online. The first work available is Pierre van Mussenbroek's 'Cours de Physique Experimentale et Mathematique' in 3 volumes. This is a developing site, to which further resrouces will be added. It may be viewed in Portugese or English.