Professor Pippard with Foucault Pendulum mechanism, 1988

Professor Pippard with Foucault Pendulum mechanism, 1988. Made in the workshops of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, Kent, this Foucault Pendulum has been demonstrating the Earth's rotation at the Science Museum in London since 1988. Unlike its predecessor, this pendulum runs continually, so avoiding the need to re-swing the pendulum each hour. In this 1988 view, its designer Professor Brian Pippard is shown standing next to the moveable scale, which indicates time against the angle rotated. Gently raising and lowering the pendulum pivot, using a motor in conjunction with a sensor, keeps the pendulum in motion. Known as 'parametric amplification', it uses the same principle which keeps a child's swing in motion. ©SSPL/Science Museum