Abbé Refractometer
date: label: date made
content: after 1890-07-02
name: label: maker
content: Carl Zeiss
notes: label: Description
content: A refractometer measures the refractive index of stuff. Ernst Abbé built his first one in 1869 and used it in his work designing lenses for the Carl Zeiss Optical Works in Jena, Germany. Zeiss began advertising Abbé refractometers in 1881. The inscriptiion on this example reads “N˚ 148 Carl Zeiss Jena” and “Germany.” Zeiss records indicate that it was delivered to J. W. Queen & Co., an important instrument dealer in Philadelphia on July 2, 1890. Queen sold it to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
label: Description
content: Ref: Richard A. Paselk, “The Evolution of the Abbé Refractometer,” Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 62 (1999): 19-22.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Thuringia, Jena
topic: label: Subject
content: Optics
label: Subject
content: Chemistry
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Saccharimeters
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: University of Michigan, Department of Chemical Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.319718
label: accession number
content: 239025
label: catalog number
content: 319718
objectType: label: Object Name
content: refractometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 28 cm x 11.2 cm x 10 cm; 11 1/32 in x 4 13/32 in x 3 15/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 4 3/8 in x 3 1/4 in; 27.94 cm x 11.1125 cm x 8.255 cm