Little Frog: 3rd Day in Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science

It is not a very big museum but I took pictures of everything there were in it! This first picture shows you the overview of the room, there is a second one on the right and another floor upstairs.

It shows the history of different things such as microscops...

...or calculators, which was quite funny because I had no idea what the first calculator looked like.

Here some instruments of measurements.

We mainly went there because of these. The glass models of fungi in the pictures were all made by Dr. W. A. R. Dillon Weston of Cambridge University between 1936 and his death in 1953. As well as being an inventive way of showing farmers the structure of fungi that are normally only visible using a microscope, the models are themselves particularly beautiful. The Dillon Weaton models can be divided into two different types. The majority are of microsopicfungi that are a cause of disease in plants, modelled at a magnification of between 20-600 times. This type was generally made in clear, uncoloured glass and represent transparent or hyaline fungi. However, coloured glass where necessary, such as for the spores. These models stand without a base on their mycelium and are extremely fragile.

The other type of model represents larger fungi, vegetables undergoing fungal parasitism or seedling infection. Some of these models approximate the natural dimensions of the fungi, whilst others are slightly reduced in size. These are all made from opaque coloured glass and are robust than the transparent models.

Only on other collection of glass fungi models is known to exist, as part of the Blaschka collection in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

That's him, not a very good picture because of the reflection but we can see him while he is making one of them.

Dr. W. A. R. Dillon Weston spent all of his professional life in Cambridge. After obtaning his degree in Natural Sciences at St. Cathatine's College, Dr. Dillon Weston gained employment as a mycologist (an expert in the study of fungi) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Ministry Pathologists at that time were stationed at universities, where teaching and supervision of students were inculded as part of their duties.

He began making models in glass, mostly of plant disease fungi, in 1936. Simple tools were used to make the models: piers, a Bunsen burner and imported glass from Czechoslovakia. The majority were made during the early hours of the morning at his home, Howe Farm in Cambridge. However, as Dr. Dillon Weston became more enthusiastic about his hobby, he also produced some delicate pieces during summer vacations with his family to Frinton-on-Sea between 1937-1939. These fragile models then had to make a careful journey back to Cambridge by car.

Dr. Dillon Weston's model making declined during the war years, as he became progressively busier. He was appointed as Principal Plant Pathologist for the Eastern Province of the National Agricultural Advisory Service in 1946. Tragically, Dr. Dillon Weston died suddenly of a heart attack in 1953, aged only 54.

This is an actual clock which is rather odd to look at but very intersting when it changes of minutes or hours. You can actually see all the details of the mechanism.