This engraving was prepared for the fourth volume of the Encyclopaedia Londinensis (1810). It is marked “Plate VI” and “Woulfes Chemical Apparatus” and “Heny Lascelles delt” and “J. Pass Sculpt” and “London, Published as the Act directs, Feby 5, 1801. By J. Wilkes.”
Peter Woulfe (1727-1803) was an Irish chemist and mineralogist who in 1767 described a bottle suitable for distillation. By the end of the century it was widely known as Woulfe’s apparatus.
John Wilkes (1750-1810) was a London printer and bookseller whose 24-volume Encyclopaedia Londoniensis was published between about 1801 and 1828.
Ref: Peter Woulfe, “Experiments on the Distillation of Acids, Volatile Alkalies, &c., Shewing How They May Be Condensed Without Loss, and How Thereby We May Avoid Disagreeable and Noxious Fumes,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 57 (1767): 517-536.
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