Duboscq-Soleil Saccharimeter

Duboscq-Soleil Saccharimeter

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Description
Jean Baptiste François Soleil, a leading optical instrument maker in Paris, invented the saccharimeter in 1845, described it to the Académie des Sciences, and received a gold medal from the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale. This new instrument was a form of polariscope that determined the saccharine strength (or purity) of a sugar solution by measuring the extent to which that solution rotated the plane of polarization of polarized light passing through it.
The inscription on this example reads "SACCHARIMETER-SOLEIL J. Duboscq, rue de l’Odeon 35 a Paris" and "No. 133." Jules Duboscq was an instrument maker who apprenticed with Soleil, married his daughter, and assumed control of the scientific side of the business following Soleil’s retirement in 1849. The address is that of the Soleil shop where Duboscq remained until the early 1860s.
This saccharimeter used a Nicol prism to polarize the light and a pair of quartz wedges to analyze it. A linear scale developed by the French chemist Clerget (missing in this example) indicated the optical rotation of the liquid in the observation tube. The vertical cylinder in the tube held a thermometer.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
Saccharimeter
date made
1850-1859
maker
Duboscq, Jules
place made
France: Île-de-France, Paris
Physical Description
iron (overall material)
brass (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 16 3/4 in x 16 1/2 in x 8 in; 42.545 cm x 41.91 cm x 20.32 cm
overall: 19 5/8 in x 8 3/4 in x 8 in; 49.8475 cm x 22.225 cm x 20.32 cm
ID Number
PH.327501
catalog number
327501
accession number
266156
subject
Optics
Sugar
France
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
Saccharimeters
Measuring & Mapping
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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