This electrometer came from the U.S. Weather Bureau and, according to a paper in the box, was in use in 1905. The "Gunther & Tegetmeyer, Braunschweig 1652" inscription refers to a precision instrument firm that showed an electrometer of this sort at the International Exhibition held in St. Louis in 1904, terming it an “Aluminum-leaf Electroscope (Exner form) with internal amber insulation, mirror scale and sodium drying apparatus, according to Elster and Geitel (Physikal. Zeitschr. 4, p. 397, 1902).” Julius Elster and Hans Geitel were physicists who taught in gymnasiums in Wolfenbüttel, a town south of Braunschweig.
Ref: German Educational Exhibition, Scientific Instruments (Berlin, 1904), p. 37.
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