E229
Illustrations of Basic
Laboratory Equipment
October 2006
Strictly Confidential
Circulate to members and associates only
As with all CLEAPSS materials, members and associates are free to copy all or part of this
material for use in their own establishments.
CLEAPSS
Brunel University
Uxbridge
UB8 3PH
Tel: 01895 251496
Fax: 01895 814372
E-mail: science@cleapss.org.uk
Web site: www.cleapss.org.uk
© CLEAPSS® 2006
E229 Illustrations of Basic Laboratory Equipment
Introduction
CLEAPSS publications contain a large number of illustrations, some of which could be
useful in the production of teaching materials in schools. Because the impact of posters and
displays depends upon the quality with which they are reproduced, this publication has
been released in digital form. Member schools can therefore print out copies directly using a
suitable computer and printer, rather than relying on photocopying which will often
degrade the quality of the original printout.
This collection of illustrations was developed in response to enquiries from member schools
having a particular need for materials to support the teaching of science to pupils with
learning difficulties. They recognised that some pupils needed visual reminders of items of
basic laboratory equipment and the symbols used to represent them in conventional texts.
However, there are numerous uses for such ‘clipart’ in mainstream situations.
Many of the illustrations have been taken from existing materials, enhanced and added to in
order to produce a portfolio that includes most common items of laboratory equipment used
in teaching science. It is intended that the illustrations could be used as A4-sized posters, as
labels for storage units and occasionally for inclusion in pupils’ written accounts of their
work. This implies that the illustrations need to be sized for these different purposes. The
materials have been incorporated into a ‘Word for Windows’ file, since many schools have
access to this word-processing software, and pictures can be easily scaled without losing
quality in this application.
Scaling and modifying the materials
For those without much experience of scaling pictures in ‘Word’ the following steps are all
that are required.

Place the cursor over the picture area that you wish to scale and click once with the left
mouse button. A frame with 8 ‘handles’ will appear around the image.

Move the cursor to one of the corners of the picture, when it will change in appearance
from
to
.

Press and hold the left mouse button while dragging the corner to make the picture the
size that you require. Do not use any of the other ‘handles’ unless you wish to change
the proportions of the image!

Text can be altered by highlighting it and then changing the font size appropriately.
Contents
(NB. These are only thumbnails of the images and do not represent the quality of the images on page 6
onwards; they should not be used as the source of the material that you require.)
Labels for chemicals bottle
Section 1.
Three-dimensional drawings
Balance
Beaker
Boiling tube
Boss
Burette
Bunsen burner
Chemical (liquid)
Chemical (solid)
t
i
Clamp
Clamp stand
Conical flask
Evaporating basin
Flat-bottom flask
Funnel
Gauze
Hanging weights
Kettle
Measuring cylinder
Microscope
Pestle and mortar
Pipe-clay triangle
Pulley
Round-bottom flask
Safety goggles
Safety spectacles
Safety visor
Scalpel
Scissors
Stopwatch
Test tube
Test tube rack
Thermometer
Tongs
Tripod
Volumetric flask
Wash bottle
Water bath
Section 2.
Symbolic representations of some items
Balance
Beaker
Boiling tube
Bunsen burner
Bunsen burner
Labels for Chemical (solid) image
These can be cut out and used to customise the Chemical (solid) image.
Clamp stand
Conical flask
Evaporating basin
Flat-bottom flask
Funnel
Gauze
Measuring cylinder
Round-bottom flask
Test tube
Test tube rack
Thermometer
Tripod