Vapor diffusion pumps developed from studies made in Germany shortly before World War I. This example came from Columbia University. The inscription reads “P 2B2.” It was probably made by E. Machlett & Son, a New York City firm that advertised “High Vacuum Diffusion Pump (Pyrex glass) supplied to Columbia University and used exclusively in their physical laboratories.” Matchlett went on to say that “This form is extremely rapid and will produce the highest attainable vacua. It combines the advantages of the numerous forms of diffusion pump now in use while avoiding the disadvantages inherent in most other types.”
Ref: E. Machlett & Son, ad in Science 55 (1922): xiii.
B. B. Dayton, “The History of the Development of Diffusion Pumps,” pp. 107-113 in Paul A. Redhead, ed., Vacuum Science and Technology: Pioneers of the 20th Century (New York, 1994).
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