A history‐of‐physics laboratory

DURING THE PAST FEW years we have been developing, at Columbia and Barnard Colleges, a somewhat unorthodox vehicle for teaching physics, a combination laboratory and library designated a History of Physics laboratory. In it some of the experiments that have played a major role in the development of physics, for example those of James Joule, Heinrich Hertz, Michael Faraday and Charles Coulomb, are being reconstructed, with proper attention to their significant historical features. The methods and materials used in these experiments are essentially those used originally. We want to provide students with an opportunity to repeat these experiments and to appreciate the significance of each in its own historical context.