Harris Your Place: Foucault’s Pendulum
The Foucault Pendulum is a firm fan-favourite at The Harris, and we can’t wait for the pendulum to return in Spring 2025! In this video, our Programme and Collections Manager, James, discusses the history of the pendulum experiment and where you can expect to see Foucault’s Pendulum when our newly renovated building reopens.
Read the full transcript below:
One of the visitor favourites at the Harris is the Foucault’s Pendulum, which was installed in 1909 by George J. Gibbs, who was the Honorary Curator of Preston Observatory. And it’s a pendulum that swings in one plane whilst the Earth essentially rotates underneath it. And it was first devised by Leon Foucault, who set up a pendulum experiment in Paris, and then ours as I say, came in 1909, a little bit later than that.
The bob is about 13 1/2 kilograms in weight, and the wire obviously goes from ceiling to floor in the Harris, so it’s about 35 meters. And there was a period of time when there wasn’t a pendulum in the Harris, but it was reinstated in 1992 for the Guild, and we’re really excited to bring it back into the Harris when we reopen.
The Pendulum has moved to the centre of the space, and it’s going to make use of the beautiful floor in the Harris, which is like a compass rose. So it will drop from the centre of the ceiling to the centre of the floor, and have a beautiful new base, and then it will swing continuously, getting a small magnetic impulse as it passes over just to overcome the friction. And then all of our visitors will be able to see this wonderful animated centrepiece in the new Harris.
It’s going to be like a thread that connects all of the interpretive schemes. So our interpretation schemes in the building are stories in the central space on the ground floor, will be about the Harris. On the first floor, they’ll be about Preston, and on the second floor, they’ll be about connections to the wider world. So this Pendulum will literally be a thread that runs through all of those, a really centring, animated, moving centrepiece that will make you think about being in the Harris, being in Preston, and being on Planet Earth.
Harris Your Place
Harris Your Place is a £16 million project set to restore and reimagine the Harris for 21st-century audiences as a cultural learning space. The aim of this project is to protect the building and the architecture for future generations whilst enhancing accessibility options and positioning the Harris as a community hub for Preston and Lancashire.
Harris Your Place is made possible with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund; Towns Fund; Preston City Council; Lancashire County Council; the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal; DCMS; Arts Council England, public donations and a wide range of Trusts and Foundations.
The capital project is more than simply preserving this much-loved building; Harris wants to ensure that it remains a vibrant heart of the community. A place where people want to spend their time.
