Analytical balance marked “A. RŰPRECHT WIEN” at the base of the column. A trade label in the case reads, in part: “ALB. RŰPRECHT. . . Mechanische Atelier für Präcisionwagen und Gewichte” with evidence of awards ranging from a diploma in 1873 to a gold medal from the Vienna exhibition of 1890.
The Smithsonian Institution bought this balance for Edward W. Morley, a chemist at Adelbert College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Morley used it to measure the atomic weight of oxygen, and returned it to the Smithsonian after completing this work.
Ref: Edward W. Morley, “On the Densities of Oxygen and Hydrogen and on the Ratio of their Atomic Weights,” Smithsonian Institution Contribution to Knowledge 29 (1895).
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