This analytical balance may once have belonged to George Frederick Barker (1835-1910), a physical scientist who taught at University of Pennsylvania, and who was an active member of such organization as the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. The "Becker's Sons, Rotterdam" inscription refers to an instrument firm that was in business as such by the 1880s.
Ref: Elihu Thomson, “George Frederick Barker, M.D., Sc.D., LL.D.,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 50 (1911): xiii-xxix.
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