12.8 x 7.5 x 7.7
Carved wood (Fulcrum)
1.6 x 72 x 1.6
Wood and engraved brass (Lever)
INDEX 1788 : B.IV.97
Fulcrum ligneum cum undecim tabellis parallelepipedis.
A wooden fulcrum with eleven parallelepipedal boards.
INDEX 1788 : B.V.115
Vectis ligneus, cujus caput ex orichalco est inaurato, ad potentiarum vim definiendam.
A wooden lever, whose upper part is of gilded brass, for determining the nature of forces.
According to the 1878 inventory, this number included "a fulcrum of wood with eleven boards in the form of parallelepipedals, eight being equal." This referred to a collection of little wooden parallelepipedals that were intended to provide sets that would illustrate interesting cases of equilibrium.
None of these eleven boards exists. All that remains is the base, tastefully carved from light and dark coloured wood.
From Colégio dos Nobres, catalogue n.º 90.
Carvalho, Rómulo de, História do Gabinete de Física da Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade de Coimbra, Biblioteca Geral, Coimbra, 1978, p.234.
Linear lever
This equipment consists of a square sectioned bar of dark wood, elongated by an engraved brass handle, designed for the study of equilibrium. The brass handle that encases the end of the bar and which can be substituted by others, was a counterbalance chosen so that the bar would remain in equilibrium at the required division when no weight was suspended from it.
The bar has fifteen equal divisions, not numbered, on each of the four faces and remains in equilibrium when supported at the fourth division.
From Colégio dos Nobres, catalogue n.º 107.
Carvalho, Rómulo de, História do Gabinete de Física da Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade de Coimbra, Biblioteca Geral, Coimbra, 1978, p. 256.