Wheatstone Physics Apparatus

[Duncan Luddite]

Not sure where else to post this, but I just came across an interesting short video of one of Wheatstone's other creations that can produce Lissajous figures (like a mechanical oscilloscope from the 1800's). I know it's not concertinas, but I think it's interesting to see a bit of the breadth of Wheatstone's genius. If it is too left field the moderators can delete it

 

 

Edited October 11, 2025 by Duncan Luddite

[Tiposx]

That is so cool!

I hope it doesn't get deleted.

[Roger Hare]

Neat! I remember sweating over an experiment with Wheatsone's Bridge as an undergrad in 1968/9. Very, very clever man...

[Chris Ghent]

Funnily, the Wheatstone Bridge was not his work, he was the man who made it famous. 

 

On another note a Lissajous figure is very familiar in Australia because it is the emblem of the public broadcaster.

[Ken_Coles]

On 10/11/2025 at 5:53 AM, Tiposx said:

That is so cool!

I hope it doesn't get deleted.

???

Nothing inappropriate here. OTOH if our local tech-heads want to have a long technical discussion about resistor bridges or Lissajous figures, they should go to longtechnicaldiscussions dot net. 😎

 

Ken

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

That is completely fascinating - The way the weights are adjusted on the tuning forks especially. I have never seen any of these devices, so seemingly simple but able to produce such fascinating effects. 

[Stephen Chambers]

There's a fascinating book about how 19th century scientists and inventors, including Charles Wheatstone, set up a Victorian internet - using the electric telegraph to communicate with one another in real-time.

The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers by Tom Standage, 1998.

 

 

[Duncan Luddite]

On 10/11/2025 at 10:12 PM, Chris Ghent said:

Funnily, the Wheatstone Bridge was not his work, he was the man who made it famous. 

 

On another note a Lissajous figure is very familiar in Australia because it is the emblem of the public broadcaster.

Oh, Yes I was waiting for the ABC logo to pop up, but the shutter speed broke up the line. On watching again, it appeared very briefly, early in the second apparatus demonstration, though the shutter speed brakes it up a bit.

Edited October 13, 2025 by Duncan Luddite
Add ABC logo for non-Aussies :)

[Roger Hare]

8 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

There's a fascinating book about how 19th century scientists and inventors, including Charles Wheatstone, set up a Victorian internet - using the electric telegraph to communicate with one another in real-time, etc...

Thanks for that! I'll try and track that one down.

 

Once upon a time I had a full biography of Wheatstone - part of my small collection of bios of eminent physicists, but I gave them to a charity shop many years ago - more fool me!

 

10 minutes later: Oh, goody! Seems to be available here.

Edited October 13, 2025 by Roger Hare