Lovely Steampunk-esque Science Teaching Instruments.

Boing Boing reader Theodore Gray wrote in to say,

Much as I hate the term steampunk, I love the style, and I notice a lot of it on boingboing, so I though you might appreciate this company, Teachspin.

I saw their booth at a trade show recently and their instruments are absolutely beautiful, exactly what you'd expect of 19th century fine machining and woodworking, except they are sophisticated modern devices like NMR machines, rubidium time oscillators, and torsion balances, and you can actually buy them. I particularly like the two earth field NMR machines, "Earth's Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance" and "Earth's Field NMR Gradient/Field Coil System." Here's the optical pump, and the torsion oscillator (which looks much better in person that in that photo.)

Above, the Optical Pumping of Rubidium Gas device.

[#1 posted by nixiebunny , February 23, 2009 5:52 PM]

Want! I have a modern rubidium oscillator, but it's all encapsulated in a 3x4" metal box so I can't show people how it works.

This would really improve the looks of the Nixie clock that my Rb source drives.

Now I just have to find $n,000 to pay for the darn thing, or make my own.

[#2 posted by retrojoe , February 23, 2009 5:55 PM]

Finally someone gets it right. A useful tool that isn't adorned with random bits of clockwork and brass valves.

[#3 posted by technogeek , February 23, 2009 9:03 PM]

Not steampunk -- there's no punk in this, and little steam. It does have a wonderful purity of line, however, harkening back to when instrument builders were craftsmen rather than factory workers... and I think that's the point where it overlaps with the steampunk world.

It's certainly worth studying for anyone who does want to play in the science-fantasy model building realm which Steampunk leverages. This is what a proper Gentleman Scientist's equipment should look like when it gets past the initial prototype and is ready for presentation to society (and to The Society, and to the Patent Office).

[#4 posted by Xeni Jardin , February 23, 2009 11:35 PM]

@technogeek: that's what the "-esque" is for, bub.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , February 24, 2009 9:50 AM]

I have used this very device. Not as nice to look at when in use; you really have to cover it if you want any nice results.

[#6 posted by technogeek , February 24, 2009 4:16 PM]

#4 Xeni: Granted, but I still think it would be better to say that steampunk devices are gentleman-scientist-esque than vice versa, since that's the direction the derivation arrow actually points.

Unless someone can document that the design of these references steampunk rather than both of them referencing the same roots, I stand by my opinion.

Your milage will, of course, vary.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , February 24, 2009 8:55 PM]

I'm terribly fond of a particular sort of lingering SteamPunk technology I will genuinely feel sorry to see fall to the wayside: Heating by Steam Radiator.

I hate the way modern forced air HVAC systems circulate dust and dry out air, and like the way that steam radiators might even occasionally increase humidity in a home during the winter.

Many radiator systems in continued existance were converted from Coal to Natural Gas heating, I'm not sure I can find one instance of a steam radiator system that was built -after- coal was commonly available to those not ordering it by the train boxcar load. But recently as the early nineteenforties, for sure

[#8 posted by technogeek , February 28, 2009 8:50 PM]

#7: Steam radiator systems have generally been retrofitted with forced-hot-water systems, which have most of the same advantages and avoid most of the disadvantages. My current place is one such. That's only slightly more recent technology; it requires electric pumps but not much more than that.

(When I replaced the boiler I looked at cogeneration systems, but alas they weren't yet available in FHW-compatable form, only hot air. Oh well.)