Science & Mathematics

The Museum's collections hold thousands of objects related to chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Instruments range from early American telescopes to lasers. Rare glassware and other artifacts from the laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, are among the scientific treasures here. A Gilbert chemistry set of about 1937 and other objects testify to the pleasures of amateur science. Artifacts also help illuminate the social and political history of biology and the roles of women and minorities in science.

The mathematics collection holds artifacts from slide rules and flash cards to code-breaking equipment. More than 1,000 models demonstrate some of the problems and principles of mathematics, and 80 abstract paintings by illustrator and cartoonist Crockett Johnson show his visual interpretations of mathematical theorems.

A paper label on this seismograph reads “Made from the Designs of Professor Ewing of Dundee, by the California Electric Works, 35 Market street, San Francisco; and recommended for use in California by Professor LeConte of Berkeley and by Professor Holden, Director of the Lick Obs
Description
A paper label on this seismograph reads “Made from the Designs of Professor Ewing of Dundee, by the California Electric Works, 35 Market street, San Francisco; and recommended for use in California by Professor LeConte of Berkeley and by Professor Holden, Director of the Lick Observatory.”
James Alfred Ewing was a young Scottish physicist/engineer who, while teaching in Tokyo in the years between 1878 and 1883, designed several seismographs. Among these was a duplex pendulum instrument that recorded the two horizontal components of earthquakes. It was, he claimed, “comparatively cheap and simple” and was “employed by many private observers in Japan.”
The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company in England began manufacturing Ewing’s several seismographs in 1886. The first examples in the United States were installed in the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and in the University of California at Berkeley. Edward Holden was then director of the former and president of the latter, and Joseph LeConte was professor of geology at Berkeley.
Enthusiastic about the new science of seismology, Holden and LeConte convinced Paul Seiler, head of an electrical apparatus supply firm in San Francisco, to manufacture duplex pendulum seismographs that would sell for $15 apiece (rather than the $75 charged by the English firm). Over a dozen examples are known to have been distributed across the country and around the world, some recording earthquakes as early as 1889. This one came to the Smithsonian in 1964, a gift of Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio.
Ref: Edward S. Holden, Handbook of the Lick Observatory (San Francisco, 1888), pp. 54-56.
Edward S. Holden and Joseph LeConte, “Use of the Ewing Duplex Seismometer” (1887), reprinted in Holden, “Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast,” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 1087 (1898).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 1880s
maker
California Electrical Works
ID Number
PH.323669
catalog number
323669
accession number
251332
In 1884, Charles Chamberland (1851-1908), a microbiologist working with Louis Pasteur in Paris, designed a filter that could remove bacteria from water. The inscriptions on this example read "F. Societe du Filtre Chamberland Systeme Pasteur. H. B.
Description
In 1884, Charles Chamberland (1851-1908), a microbiologist working with Louis Pasteur in Paris, designed a filter that could remove bacteria from water. The inscriptions on this example read "F. Societe du Filtre Chamberland Systeme Pasteur. H. B. & Cie / 58 Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Paris Choisy-le-Roi" and "Made in France / Controle."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1884
maker
H.B. & Cie.
Hautin, Boulenger and Company
ID Number
MG.M-02833
catalog number
M-02833
accession number
109831
One eyepiece barrel is marked “Docteur / Arthur Chevalier” and the other “Paris / 158 Palais Royal.” The objective lenses are 30 mm diameter. The frame is black metal. The barrels are covered with black leather.
Description
One eyepiece barrel is marked “Docteur / Arthur Chevalier” and the other “Paris / 158 Palais Royal.” The objective lenses are 30 mm diameter. The frame is black metal. The barrels are covered with black leather. A center wheel adjusts the focus.
Arthur Chevalier (1830-1874) began in business around 1860, taking charge of the optical firm begun by his grandfather, Charles Chevalier, and continued by his father, Louis Vincent Chevalier. M. Avizard bought the firm in 1881.
Ref: Arthur Chevalier, Catalogue Explicatif et Illustré des Instruments d’Optique et de Météorologie (Paris, 1860), pp. 16-20.
Paolo Brenni, “19th Century French Scientific Instrument Makers. II: The Chevalier Dynasty,” Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 39 (1993): 11–14.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860-1880
maker
Chevalier
ID Number
PH.336810
catalog number
336810
accession number
1978.2216
This engraved woodblock of an “Australian grave and carved trees” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 37 (p.76) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Pictographs of the North American Indians: a pr
Description
This engraved woodblock of an “Australian grave and carved trees” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 37 (p.76) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Pictographs of the North American Indians: a preliminary paper” in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1882-83.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
publisher
Bureau of American Ethnology
printer
Government Printing Office
author
Mallery, Garrick
block maker
J. J. & Co.
ID Number
1980.0219.1206
catalog number
1980.0219.1206
accession number
1980.0219
This is a brass instrument with center focus, and center adjustment for inter-ocular distance. The objective lenses are 40 mm diameter. The length is 29 cm (closed). Each eye tube is marked “LEVY, DREYFUS & CO / NEW YORK.” These came to the Smithsonian in 1907.
Description
This is a brass instrument with center focus, and center adjustment for inter-ocular distance. The objective lenses are 40 mm diameter. The length is 29 cm (closed). Each eye tube is marked “LEVY, DREYFUS & CO / NEW YORK.” These came to the Smithsonian in 1907. A note in the file reads: “Prussian Army Field Glass used in 1885 by the [U.S.] Geological Survey but now discarded because of the small field of view.
Levy, Dreyfus & Co. was in business in New York City in the 1890s, advertising as opticians and wholesale importers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
ID Number
PH.247931
catalog number
247931
accession number
47736
This engraved woodblock of a “Haida totem post” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 24 (p.68) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Pictographs of the North American Indians: a preliminary paper” i
Description
This engraved woodblock of a “Haida totem post” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 24 (p.68) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Pictographs of the North American Indians: a preliminary paper” in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1882-83.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
publisher
Bureau of American Ethnology
printer
Government Printing Office
author
Mallery, Garrick
block maker
J. J. & Co.
ID Number
1980.0219.1509
accession number
1980.0219
catalog number
1980.0219.1509
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 40.8 to 45.3 units.Henry A.
Description
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 40.8 to 45.3 units.
Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., produced a photographic map of the solar spectrum using concave diffraction gratings made with his own ruling engine. The first edition, published in 1886, covered the region from wave-length 3100 to 5790. The scale of these maps was much greater than the maps of Angstrom or Rutherfurd, and they showed many more spectral lines.
Ref: “Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made by Professor H. A. Rowland,” Johns Hopkins University Circular 5 (1886).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.322957.04
accession number
249200
catalog number
322957.04
Henry A. Rowland, a professor of physics at The Johns Hopkins University, designed an engine that produced diffraction gratings by ruling a large number of closely spaced lines on a metal surface.
Description
Henry A. Rowland, a professor of physics at The Johns Hopkins University, designed an engine that produced diffraction gratings by ruling a large number of closely spaced lines on a metal surface. The concave speculum metal mirrors for many of these gratings were ground and polished in John A. Brashear's shop in Pittsburgh. The mirrors were sent to Baltimore, where Theodore C. Schneider ruled them with Rowland's engine, and then returned to Pittsburgh for sale to scientists around the world.
This example was probably used by Peter Smith Michie, the Army Engineer who, in 1871, became Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy. Michie was also the first American academic to recognize Rowland’s first important scientific paper. And it was he who, in 1875, suggested that Daniel Coit Gilman, recently named founding president of The Johns Hopkins University, consider hiring Rowland to teach physics at the new university.
The inscription on this example reads “Ruled by Schneider on Rowland's engine 14438 lines per inch Johns Hopkins Univ. Feb 1884 definition good. Ruling third class.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.315760
accession number
217544
catalog number
315760
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 36.8 to 41.25 units.Henry A.
Description
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 36.8 to 41.25 units.
Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., produced a photographic map of the solar spectrum using concave diffraction gratings made with his own ruling engine. The first edition, published in 1886, covered the region from wave-length 3100 to 5790. The scale of these maps was much greater than the maps of Angstrom or Rutherfurd, and they showed many more spectral lines.
Ref: “Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made by Professor H. A. Rowland,” Johns Hopkins University Circular 5 (1886).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.322957.02
accession number
249200
catalog number
322957.02
This is one of the earliest concave metal diffraction gratings made on the ruling engine devised by Henry A. Rowland, professor of physics at The Johns Hopkins University. It measures 4 inches x 4.5 inches.
Description
This is one of the earliest concave metal diffraction gratings made on the ruling engine devised by Henry A. Rowland, professor of physics at The Johns Hopkins University. It measures 4 inches x 4.5 inches. The inscription reads "Rowland's concave grating Baltimore, May 12, 1882. 3610 lines to inch, radius 64". According to Rowland, it "was made for Professor Langley's experiments on the ultra-red portion of the spectrum, and was thus made very bright in the first spectrum. The definition seems to be very fine, notwithstanding the short focus and divides the 1474 line with ease."
At the time this grating was made, Samuel Pierpont Langley was serving as the director of the Allegheny Observatory and professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh). He apparently brought this grating to Washington in 1887 when he became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. And he apparently left it at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, an organization he established soon thereafter.
Ref: Henry A. Rowland, "Preliminary Notice of the Results accomplished in the Manufacture and Theory of Gratings for Optical Purposes," Philosophical Magazine 13 (1882): 469-474.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.316865
catalog number
316865
accession number
228767
People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism.
Description (Brief)
People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism. Natural philosophers, scientists, and instrument makers created many ingenious devices to generate electrostatic charges starting in the 1600s. These machines varied in size and technique but all involved rotary motion to generate a charge, and a means of transferring the charge to a storage device for use.
Many early electrostatic machines generated a charge by friction. In the later 19th century several designs were introduced based on induction. Electrostatic induction occurs when one charged body (such as a glass disc) causes another body (another disc) that is close but not touching to become charged. The first glass disc is said to influence the second disc so these generators came to be called influence machines.
This influence machine from the firm E. S. Ritchie & Sons, shows the design of German instrument maker Robert Voss and has two glass plates. The fixed plate has two paper sectors with foil contacts and locations for edge-mounted brushes. The rotating plate has six foil points for contacts and there is black paint leading from each contact point to the axle, although the paint may be simply for show. There are small brass brushes set amid the brass combs on the neutralizer bar, a feature of Voss machines. This unit would appear to have seen extensive use at the university given that the brushes are missing from the fixed plate and the brass contact buttons are missing from the rotating plate. Also, the paper sectors appear to have been made from the page of a text book and are probably not original to the machine. Unlike other Voss machines in the collection there is no switch on or under the base. Edward S. Ritchie (1814-1895) changed the name of his company to E. S. Ritchie & Sons in 1867 and the firm moved from Boston in 1886, so this unit probably dates from the 1870s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca. 1882
ca 1882
maker
E. S. Ritchie & Sons
ID Number
EM.323357
catalog number
323357
accession number
251562
collector/donor number
297-L
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 30.75 to 37.1 units .Henry A.
Description
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 30.75 to 37.1 units .
Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., produced a photographic map of the solar spectrum using concave diffraction gratings made with his own ruling engine. The first edition, published in 1886, covered the region from wave-length 3100 to 5790. The scale of these maps was much greater than the maps of Angstrom or Rutherfurd, and they showed many more spectral lines.
According to “Photographs of the Solar Spectrum,” American Journal of Science 31 (1886): 319, "Seven plates on heavy albumen paper are offered for sale. Six contain two strips of the spectrum, and one contains three. The price for the set is $10, or $12 if mounted on cloth."
Ref: “Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made by Professor H. A. Rowland,” Johns Hopkins University Circular 5 (1886).
Rowland, 'A Discussion of the Wavelengths of Lines in the Solar Spectrum,' American Journal of Science 33 (1887): 182-190.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.322957.01
accession number
249200
catalog number
322957.01
This concave metal grating probably belonged to Samuel Pierpont Langley, director of the Allegheny Observatory and professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh).
Description
This concave metal grating probably belonged to Samuel Pierpont Langley, director of the Allegheny Observatory and professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh). It probably came to Washington in 1887 when Langley became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
The inscription reads "plate polished and corrected by J. A. Brashear Pittsburgh, Mar. 1886 Radius 64 Ruled by Schneider on Rowland engine Johns Hopkins University April 1886 - lines to in temp-".
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
Brashear, John A.
ID Number
PH.316718
catalog number
316718
accession number
227592
Seth Chandler earned his living as an actuary but made his mark as an astronomer. His most important scientific achievement was the discovery of what became known as polar motion, the wobble of the Earth around its axis of rotation.
Description
Seth Chandler earned his living as an actuary but made his mark as an astronomer. His most important scientific achievement was the discovery of what became known as polar motion, the wobble of the Earth around its axis of rotation. He observed this phenomenon with a zenith telescope of his own design—which he called an "almucantar"—for viewing stars as they passed overhead. After the first example proved promising, he had a larger one made.
This telescope came from Chandler’s home in Vermont. It does not seem to be either of the almucantars described in his scientific papers, but it may have been part of the instrument for which he obtained a patent in 1881.
It has a cylindrical draw-tube telescope made of brass that measures 22¾ inches long when closed. The objective lens has a clear aperture of 2 inches. The tube is blackened on the inside, and has no internal diaphragms.
The lenses may have been figured by John Clacey, an optical instrument maker who worked in Cambridge, Ma., in the late 1870s, and who is credited with having made the optical elements of Chandler’s almucantars.
Ref: Seth Chandler, "Altitude Instrument," U.S. Patent 239,315 (1881).
Seth Chandler, “The Almucantar. An Investigation Made at the Observatory in 1884 and 1885,” Annals of the Harvard College Observatory 17 (1887): 1-222.
W. E. Carter and M. S. Carter, “Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr.,” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1995): 45-79.
“John Clacey—Optician,” Popular Astronomy 38 (1930): 472-477.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
ID Number
1980.0709.02
accession number
1980.0709
catalog number
1980.0709.02
People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism.
Description (Brief)
People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism. Natural philosophers, scientists, and instrument makers created many ingenious devices to generate electrostatic charges starting in the 1600s. These machines varied in size and technique but all involved rotary motion to generate a charge, and a means of transferring the charge to a storage device for use.
Many early electrostatic machines generated a charge by friction. In the later 19th century several designs were introduced based on induction. Electrostatic induction occurs when one charged body (such as a glass disc) causes another body (another disc) that is close but not touching to become charged. The first glass disc is said to influence the second disc so these generators came to be called influence machines.
James Wimshurst (1832-1903) designed a new type of influence machine in the early 1880s. Since they did not need to be pre-charged or primed in order to work, they represented a vast improvement on previous machines. This Wimshurst machine features two glass plates that rotate in opposite directions when the user turns the crank (the drive belts are missing from this unit.). Each plate has 24 wedge-shaped metallic contacts called sectors that generate the high-voltage charge and each plate is swept by a neutralizer arm that has two brass brushes. Two Leyden jars sit on opposite ends of the machine to one side of the plates and glass supports for the U-shaped combs are on the other side. The charge is collected by the combs and fed to the jars. A wire runs under the base and connects the two jars as needed. The machine was made in England by the firm Newton & Co., at 3 Fleet Street, London and imported to the U.S. by Arthur H. Thomas Co., Philadelphia.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
ID Number
EM.327656
catalog number
327656
accession number
268279
This engraved woodblock of a man walking beneath a bare tree was prepared in about 1880 by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology.Currently not on view
Description
This engraved woodblock of a man walking beneath a bare tree was prepared in about 1880 by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
publisher
Bureau of American Ethnology
printer
Government Printing Office
ID Number
1980.0219.0143
catalog number
1980.0219.0143
accession number
1980.0219
This engraved woodblock of the “Parsee Towers of Silence (interior).” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 3 on page 104 in an article by H.C.
Description
This engraved woodblock of the “Parsee Towers of Silence (interior).” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 3 on page 104 in an article by H.C. Yarrow (1871-1876) entitled “Mortuary Customs of North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80. Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) engraved the image.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1881
publisher
Bureau of American Ethnology
printer
Government Printing Office
graphic artist
Nichols, H. H.
author
Yarrow, Harry Crecy
ID Number
1980.0219.1356
catalog number
1980.0219.1356
accession number
1980.0219
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” The scale extends from 44.8 to 49.4 units.Henry A.
Description
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” The scale extends from 44.8 to 49.4 units.
Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., produced a photographic map of the solar spectrum using concave diffraction gratings made with his own ruling engine. This is a section of the first edition, published in 1886.
Ref: “Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made by Professor H. A. Rowland,” Johns Hopkins University Circular 5 (1886).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.322957.05
accession number
79596Z12
249200
catalog number
322957.05
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 37.1 to 39.85 unitsHenry A.
Description
“PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM / MADE BY PROF. H. A. ROWLAND, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.” This is from the first series, and extends from 37.1 to 39.85 units
Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., produced a photographic map of the solar spectrum using concave diffraction gratings made with his own ruling engine. The first edition, published in 1886, covered the region from wave-length 3100 to 5790. The scale of these maps was much greater than the maps of Angstrom or Rutherfurd, and they showed many more spectral lines.
Ref: “Photograph of the Normal Solar Spectrum. Made by Professor H. A. Rowland,” Johns Hopkins University Circular 5 (1886).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1886
maker
Rowland, Henry A.
ID Number
PH.322957.03
accession number
249200
catalog number
322957.03
Planes APA’ and BQB’ (where A=B=c and A’=B’=d’) are given. Then line d’c’ is the vertical projection of the intersection of the two planes while line dc is the horizontal projection of the intersection.For more details, see COLL.1986.0885 and 1986.0885.01.01.Currently not on view
Description
Planes APA’ and BQB’ (where A=B=c and A’=B’=d’) are given. Then line d’c’ is the vertical projection of the intersection of the two planes while line dc is the horizontal projection of the intersection.
For more details, see COLL.1986.0885 and 1986.0885.01.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
maker
Jullien, A.
ID Number
1986.0885.01.14
catalog number
1986.0885.01.14
accession number
1986.0885
The given planes are APA’ and BQB’. The vertical and horizontal projections of the planes meet at the points d’ and c on the vertical and horizontal planes respectively, with line of intersection of the two planes cd’, depicted by the red sting.
Description
The given planes are APA’ and BQB’. The vertical and horizontal projections of the planes meet at the points d’ and c on the vertical and horizontal planes respectively, with line of intersection of the two planes cd’, depicted by the red sting. Point n is the foot of the perpendicular from the line to the horizontal plane. The red string that runs left to right indicates the plane perpendicular to line cd’ with segments on the given planes. By rotating this perpendicular plane down to the horizontal plane, the angle between the two given planes is the angle tM2s.
For more details, see COLL.1986.0885 and 1986.0885.01.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
maker
Jullien, A.
ID Number
1986.0885.01.28
catalog number
1986.0885.01.28
accession number
1986.0885
This model of a ten-key non-printing manually operated adding machine is an open wooden box that contains a metal mechanism driven by nine keys along the front. When a key is pushed down, it pushes a lever and ultimately turns gears.
Description
This model of a ten-key non-printing manually operated adding machine is an open wooden box that contains a metal mechanism driven by nine keys along the front. When a key is pushed down, it pushes a lever and ultimately turns gears. The object is a rough model, not a production machine. A loose piece may be part of the machine.
This may be an incomplete model of the adding machine patented by David Marion Rush of Louisburg, Missouri. Rush applied for a patent July 25, 1883 and was granted it January 22, 1884. This model corresponds to the patent description of Rush’s machine as it was used to enter numbers. The mechanism for recording totals, as well as the upper cover of the instrument, is lacking.
David Marion Rush was born in 1849 in Barren County, Kentucky, and moved with his family to Polk County, Missouri, in 1852. He studied in the public schools and then, for three years beginning in 1871, at a private school in Urbana, Missouri. After teaching from 1874 to 1884, he entered the patent rights business. He received two patents of his own, one for a washing machine and the other for an adding machine. From 1886 until at least 1889, he was county collector in Wright County, Missouri.
References:
David Rush. “Adding Machine,” U.S. Patent 292256, January 22, 1884.
History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps & Dent Counties, Missouri, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889. p. 965.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
ID Number
1983.3003.056
nonaccession number
1983.3003
catalog number
1983.3003.056
This 200 mL Kjeldahl flask was made by Schott & Genossen. In 1883 Danish chemist Johan Kjeldahl (1849–1900) of the Carlsberg Laboratory published the Kjeldahl method.
Description
This 200 mL Kjeldahl flask was made by Schott & Genossen. In 1883 Danish chemist Johan Kjeldahl (1849–1900) of the Carlsberg Laboratory published the Kjeldahl method. It was the first accurate, simple, and speedy way to determine nitrogen content in organic matter.
Kjeldahl’s employer, Carlsberg Laboratory, had been originally established as a place for scientific research to perfect the process of beer making. Later, the laboratory took on a broader mission to contribute to pure research. The need for the Kjeldahl method grew from his analysis of the protein content of grains for beers at different stages—from germination to fermentation as beer wort. Analyses of nitrogen content can be used to quantify the amount of protein in a sample, and protein content of grains influences the volume of beer they produce.
The Kjeldahl method proved to have wide-ranging applications and was quickly adopted by scientists from a variety of fields. In the mid-2010s, the method (with minor modifications) was still in use for purposes ranging from analysis of protein in foods to nitrogen content in soil samples. To “Kjeldahl” a sample has become a verb in chemical parlance, considered by some the greatest honor bestowed by the chemical community.
Along with his method, Kjeldahl’s name also became attached to a piece of laboratory equipment he developed in 1888. The long-necked, round-bottomed flask was ideal for avoiding splashback when heating solutions. Splashback was a threat during the first step of the Kjeldahl method—which requires heating the sample in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Glastechnisches Laboratorium Schott und Genossen (Glass Technology Laboratory, Schott & Associates), later the Jenaer Glasswerk Schott & Gen. (Jena Glassworks, Schott & Associates), was founded in 1884 by Otto Schott (1851–1935), Ernst Abbe (1840–1905), Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), and Zeiss' son Roderick.
In 1881 Schott, a chemist from a family of glassmakers, and Abbe, a physicist with an interest in optics, formed a research partnership. Together they hoped to perfect a chemical glass formula for lenses in optical instruments like microscopes and telescopes. Their original goal was to develop glasses of high quality and purity with consistent optical properties. As their research expanded, they eventually developed the first borosilicate glasses. Their strength against chemical attack and low coefficient of thermal expansion made them better suited to the harsh circumstances of the chemical laboratory than any other glass.
Jena Glass quickly became a success among the scientific community, widely considered the best on the market until World War I.
This object is part of a collection donated by Barbara Keppel, wife of C. Robert Keppel. Robert Keppel taught at the University of Nebraska-Omaha after receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from M.I.T. The glassware in the Keppel collection covers the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sources:
Baker, Ray Stannard. Seen in Germany. Chautauqua, N. Y.: 1908. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433043165608.
Burns, D. Thorburn, and W. I. Stephen. “Kjeldahl Centenary Meeting.” Analytical Proceedings 21, no. 6 (1984): 210–20. doi:10.1039/AP9842100210.
Cauwood, J.D., and W.E.S. Turner. “The Attack of Chemical Reagents on Glass Surfaces, and a Comparison of Different Types of Chemical Glassware.” Journal of the Society of Glass Technology 1 (1917): 153–62.
Hovestadt, Heinrich. Jena Glass and Its Scientific and Industrial Applications. London, New York: Macmillan, 1902.
National Museum of American History Accession File #1985.0311
Pfaender, H. G. Schott Guide to Glass. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.
Sáez-Plaza, Purificación, Tadeusz Michałowski, María José Navas, Agustín García Asuero, and Sławomir Wybraniec. “An Overview of the Kjeldahl Method of Nitrogen Determination. Part I. Early History, Chemistry of the Procedure, and Titrimetric Finish.” Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry 43, no. 4 (2013): 178–223. doi:10.1080/10408347.2012.751786.
Sella, Andrea. 2008. “Classic Kit: Kjeldahl Flask.” Chemistry World. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2008/May/KjeldahlFlask.asp.
“University of Nebraska Omaha.” 2015. Accessed May 4. http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/chemistry/student-opportunities/scholarships.php.
Walker, Percy H. Comparative Tests of Chemical Glassware. Washington, D.C.: 1918. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086545707.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1884
maker
Jena Glasswork, Schott & Associates
ID Number
1985.0311.053
catalog number
1985.0311.053
accession number
1985.0311
This wooden model of an oblique hexagonal prism has six rectangular sides. Both ends are regular hexagons. One side is stamped at the center: 7. For information about Schroeder's models, see 1982.0795.39.Currently not on view
Description
This wooden model of an oblique hexagonal prism has six rectangular sides. Both ends are regular hexagons. One side is stamped at the center: 7. For information about Schroeder's models, see 1982.0795.39.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1889
ID Number
1982.0795.42
catalog number
1982.0795.42
accession number
1982.0795

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