Theobald Smith (1859-1934), an epidemiologist then working at the Bureau of Animal Industry, introduced this type of glass tube for studying fermentation and gas production in 1893.
Ref: Theobald Smith, “Fermentation Tube with Special Reference to Anaerobiosis and Gas Production among Bacteria,” Wilder Quarter Century Book (Ithaca, N.Y., 1893): 187-233.
Eimer & Amend, Revised and Enlarged Catalogue of Bacteriological Apparatus (New York, 1907), p. 101.
Arthur H. Thomas, Laboratory Apparatus and Reagents (Philadelphia, 1914), p. 209.
Hans Zinsser, “Biographical Memoir of Theobald Smith,” Reviews of Infectious Diseases 9 (1987): 636-654.
Theobald Smith (1859-1934), an epidemiologist then working at the Bureau of Animal Industry, introduced this type of glass tube for studying fermentation and gas production in 1893. This example has no foot.
Ref: Theobald Smith, “Fermentation Tube with Special Reference to Anaerobiosis and Gas Production among Bacteria,” Wilder Quarter Century Book (Ithaca, N.Y., 1893): 187-233.
Eimer & Amend, Revised and Enlarged Catalogue of Bacteriological Apparatus (New York, 1907), p. 101.
Arthur H. Thomas, Laboratory Apparatus and Reagents (Philadelphia, 1914), p. 209.
Hans Zinsser, “Biographical Memoir of Theobald Smith,” Reviews of Infectious Diseases 9 (1987): 636-654.
Theobald Smith (1859-1934), an epidemiologist then working at the Bureau of Animal Industry, introduced this type of glass tube for studying fermentation and gas production in 1893.
Ref: Theobald Smith, “Fermentation Tube with Special Reference to Anaerobiosis and Gas Production among Bacteria,” Wilder Quarter Century Book (Ithaca, N.Y., 1893): 187-233.
Eimer & Amend, Revised and Enlarged Catalogue of Bacteriological Apparatus (New York, 1907), p. 101.
Arthur H. Thomas, Laboratory Apparatus and Reagents (Philadelphia, 1914), p. 209.
Hans Zinsser, “Biographical Memoir of Theobald Smith,” Reviews of Infectious Diseases 9 (1987): 636-654.
Calcimine Brush with natural bristles, and “CAFFRY / SET IN RUBBER” and “LEST WE FORGET” inscriptions on the wooden handle. Calcimine is an inexpensive water-based mixture of chalk and glue.
This is the steam pressure vessel used by Leo H. Baekeland, the chemist and inventor, to produce commercial quantities of the first totally synthetic plastic, Bakelite. It was produced by reacting phenol and formaldehyde under pressure at high temperatures. The product was a thermosetting resin which proved to be an extremely versatile substance, readily moldable and quite strong when combined with fillers such as cellulose.
The Bakelizer was used around 1909, and dubbed "Old Faithful" by its early operators. Made of iron alloys and still in usable condition, it's about 35 inches wide, 40 inches deep, and nearly 72 inches tall.
An inscription cast into the door of the Bakelizer reads "H. W. DOPP CO. BUFFALO N.Y. / USA." H. William Dopp (1824-1888) was a German machinist who immigrated to the U.S. in 1849 and, in 1878, established the H. William Dopp & Son firm in Buffalo, N.Y. William H. Dopp, Jr. (b. 1853) continued the firm.
Analytical balance with a 6-inch aluminum beam, and a “CHRISTIAN BECKER, INC. / NEW YORK” inscription on the ivory scale. A paper tag in the drawer identifies this as a Model No. 15, packed in 1919. Trade literature terms it a “high-grade analytical balance at a moderate price” which “meets all ordinary needs of analytical work” and which cost $110. It was probably sold by Arthur H. Thomas Co., in Philadelphia
Patent model for Alexander Angus Croll, “Gas Meter,” U.S. Patent 9,591 (Feb. 22, 1853).
A. A. Croll (1811-1887) was a British engineer and social reformer who spent most of his life in London, designed several dry gas meters, and ran a gas meter factory. He submitted this model with one of his U.S. patent applications.
Ref: Alexander Angus Croll, “On the Construction and Use of Gas Meters,” Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 4 (1845): 211-218.
“Alexander Angus Croll,” Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 90 (1887): 446-449.
The “No. 14 Thomson's Patent” inscription on this electrometer refers to William Thomson (1824-1907), the British mathematical physicist who invented the quadrant electrometer in 1853 and introduced several improvements over the course of the next seventeen years. This example is of the form unveiled in 1870. Since it was found in the Smithsonian “Castle,” it was probably acquired by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as the founding Secretary of the Institution.
Ref: William Thomson, “Report of Electrometers and Electrostatic Measurements,” in Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism (London, 1872), pp. 260-309.
Matthew Trainer, “The Patents of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin),” World Patent Information 26 (2004): 311-317.
George Green and John T. Lloyd, Kelvin’s Instruments and the Kelvin Museum (Glasgow, 1970).
Samuel H. Moffett was a Virginia state senator who, in 1877, proposed that every liquor dealer and saloon keeper in the state use a Moffett Register (aka Moffett Bell Punch) to keep track of sales. The tax on these sales would go towards paying the interest on the public debt.
This example, which which came to the Smithsonian in 1899, has six dials reading from ten to one million, and a black case marked “ALCOHOLIC / LIQUORS." The donor termed it a "Relic of the days when Virginia changed her convivialness for the privilege of recording their drinking capacity."
Ref: Samuel H. Moffett and Otis Dean, “Improvement in Alarm-registers for Use in Bar-rooms, etc.,” U.S. Patent 194,951 (Sept. 4, 1877).
Patent model for Elihu Thomson and William H. Greene, “Improvement in the Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid,” U.S. Patent 143202 (July 23, 1873).
Elihu Thomson (1853-1937) was a prolific inventor who was involved in the founding of many electrical enterprises in the United States, Great Britain, and France. William H. Greene (d. 1918) was a Philadelphia physician with a strong interest in science. Working together, the two young men developed an improvement in the manufacture of sulphuric acid.
There are two sets of bright lines in the flame spectrum of potassium, one in the violet and one in the red (which are easier to see). A cobalt blue filter blocks the red/orange region, thus making the violet lines more clearly visible.
Ref: Charles E. White, “The Blue Glass Filter in the Flame Test for Potassium,” Journal of Chemical Education (Oct. 1944): 501.
The “CHESTERMAN’S PATENT / SHEFFIELD” inscription on this brass button refers to James Chesterman (1795–1867), an English metal worker who developed and manufactured steel tapes that remained virtually unchanged for over 50 years. Chesterman also received several British patents: for a method of using a spring to rewind measuring tapes; for a woven cloth tape that incorporated strands of wire; and for a process for heat-treating long strips of steel.
Henry Heil (1854-1919) was born in Germany, moved to the United States in 1872, graduated from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and established the Henry Heil Chemical Co. in 1882. Heil Scientific, as the firm was later known, donated this sieve to the Smithsonian in 1959. It has a wooden frame and brass wire screen.
The Freas gas generator was designed by Thomas B. Freas (1868-1928), a professor at the Kent Chemical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. According to advertisements, it was an “effective, cleanly, economical method of obtaining any gas desired for use.” Freas also developed an oven suitable for chemical and biological experiments.
Ref: Central Scientific Co., Physical and Chemical Apparatus (Chicago, 1909), p. 312.
This unusually precise mercury-in-glass thermometer measured temperatures over a very small range, especially near the melting and freezing points of substances. Ernest Otto Beckmann, a physical chemist who worked with Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, described the form in 1888.
This example has a long cylindrical bulb at the bottom, an s-shaped tube with auxiliary bulb at the top, and a porcelain plate carrying a scale that ranges from -.04 to +1.1 degrees Centigrade and that is graduated to 0.002 degrees. The back of the plate is marked “Centigrade” and “Thermometer n. Beckmann.” The whole is enclosed in a cylindrical glass tube with brass cap.
This thermometer was used at the Johns Hopkins University, perhaps by Harry C. Jones, a chemist who received his PhD from Hopkins in 1892, spent two years working in the laboratories of Ostwald and other important European chemists, and then returned to Hopkins to teach physical chemistry. It may have been made by F. O. R. Goetze, a Leipzig firm that specialized in thermometers of this sort.
Ref.: Wilhelm Ostwald, Manual of Physico-Chemical Measurements (London, 1894), pp. 180-182.
Harry C. Jones, The Elements of Physical Chemistry 4th edition, revised (New York, 1915), pp. 228-230.
John Servos, Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling (Princeton, 1990).
A Victor Meyer apparatus is used to determine the molecular weight of a volatile liquid. Viktor Meyer (1848-1897) was a German chemist (who spelled his name Victor in publications at the time of its development).