Precipitating Jar

Description (Brief):

This object is a precipitation jar made by Whitall Tatum Company.

Description (Brief)

Precipitation reactions occur when the mixture of two solutions results in the formation of a solid, known as the precipitate. Precipitating jars are designed to facilitate the separation of the precipitate from the liquid. Their shape is similar to a beaker, but with the top of the vessel being narrower than the bottom. The sloping sides of the jar encourage the precipitate to settle at the bottom. In contrast, a traditional beaker’s vertical sides typically must be washed to collect all of the precipitate.

Description (Brief)

Whitall Tatum Company was among the first American glass companies to manufacture chemical glassware, starting as early as the late 1870s. Based in Millville, New Jersey, the company’s factory produced chemical and other glassware for over 150 years, finally closing its doors in 1999.

Description (Brief)

Whitall Tatum donated this object to the Museum in 1921, at the request of Charles Whitebread, assistant curator in the Division of Medicine. Whitebread planned to use the object as a part of an exhibit to illustrate pharmaceutical methods used in the manufacture of medicine. He hoped to “illustrate some of the operations to which crude drugs are subjected to get them into a form suitable for administration.” The methods he planned to display included: vaporization, distillation, sublimation, comminution, desiccation, sifting, levigation, precipitation, dialysis, expression, percolation, solution, lotion or displacement washing, decantation, collation or straining, filtration, and separation of immiscible liquids.

Description (Brief)

Sources:

Description (Brief)

Crookes, William, J. Traill Taylor, William Blanchard Bolton, and Thomas Bedding. The British Journal of Photography. H. Greenwood, 1895.

Description (Brief)

Harrison, Charles. Cumberland County, New Jersey: 265 Years of History. The History Press, 2013.

Description (Brief)

National Museum of American History Accession File #67053

Description (Brief)

Remington, Joseph Price. The Practice of Pharmacy. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1917.

Description (Brief)

Rosenfeld, Louis. Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry. CRC Press, 1999.

Description (Brief)

Whitall Tatum & Company. “Whitall Tatum & Co. Glass Ware,” 1879.

Date Made: ca 1921

Maker: Whitall Tatum Company

Location: Currently not on view

Subject: Science & Scientific Instruments

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Medicine, Science Under Glass, Science & Mathematics

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Whitall Tatum Company

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: MG.M-01269Catalog Number: M-01269Accession Number: 67053

Object Name: precipitating jar

Physical Description: glass (overall material)Measurements: overall: 9 1/2 in x 5 1/4 in; 24.13 cm x 13.335 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-6f1a-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_728712

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