Saccharimeter
date: label: date published
content: 1907
label: date made
content: after 1907
name: label: maker
content: J. & J. Fric
notes: label: Description
content: This saccharimeter is marked "E. H. SARGENT & C0. 645 CHICAGO" and "BUREAU OF STANDARDS WASHINGTON" and "B.S. 2862." It was, however, probably made by J. & J. Fric of Prague. The National Bureau of Standards transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1960.
label: Description
content: The Bureau of Standards was established in 1901 and given responsibility for standardizing the saccharimeters and other instruments used to assess the saccharine quality of sugar coming into the United States. Frederick Bates joined the Bureau in 1903 after having earned a M.S. in physics from the University of Nebraska. Placed at the head of the Polarimetry Section of the Optics Division, he was effectively in charge of the government’s sugar research program. In 1907 he published the design for a quartz compensating polariscope with adjustable sensibility that allowed observers to admit only as much light as was needed and thus preserve as much accuracy as possible. Bates asked J. & J. Fric of Prague to manufacture this instrument for the U.S. Customs Service. The Frics also made a slightly simpler model, as here, more suitable for chemists working in industry and academia.
label: Description
content: E. H. Sargent & Co., the Chicago firm that imported Fric instruments into the United States, explained that the Bates saccharimeter was the first instrument with wedge compensation for white light whose sensibility and brightness were adjustable; its optical and mechanical parts were protected by a dust-proof metal case; and its scales and verniers were etched on ground glass and read by transmitted light.
label: Description
content: Ref: F. Bates, “A Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” <i>Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards</i> 4 (1907): 461-466.
label: Description
content: F. Bates, “Remarks on the Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” <i>Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards</i> 5 (1908): 193-198.
label: Description
content: E. H. Sargent & Co., <i>Price List No. 25. Scientific Laboratory Apparatus and Bacteriological Supplies</i> (Chicago, 1922), p. 372.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Czech Republic: Praha, Hlavní Město, Prague
topic: label: Subject
content: Optics
label: Subject
content: National Bureau of Standards
label: Subject
content: Sugar
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Saccharimeters
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: National Bureau of Standards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.318110
label: catalog number
content: 318110
label: accession number
content: 231765
objectType: label: Object Name
content: saccharimeter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 1/4 in; 41.275 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 1/2 in x 9 in; 41.91 cm x 22.86 cm