Baking Cylinder
date: label: Date made
content: early 1900s
name: label: maker
content: Central Scientific Company
notes: label: Description
content: This small brass instrument measures the gluten strength of a sample of flour. John Alfonso Wesener (1865-1926), a Chicago physician, pharmaceutical chemist, and founder (in 1894) of the Columbus Medical Laboratory, introduced the form in 1901. In operation, one mixes and kneads a simple bread dough (flour, water, and yeast), puts a small amount in the cylinder, inserts the piston, and screws on the top. The cylinder is then put into an incubator until the expansion of the dough causes the cylinder to rise to a certain mark; it then moves it to an oven until it is done. From the overall rise of the piston one can calculate the size of a one pound loaf made from that flour.
label: Description
content: Ref: Central Scientific, Catalog M. Physical and Chemical Apparatus (Chicago, 1914), p. 367; and Catalog C (Chicago, 1922), p. 241.
label: Description
content: "Bread Baking As A Science," Chicago Tribune (Jan. 12, 1901), p. 8.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Colorado State University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0297.05
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0297.05
label: accession number
content: 2005.0297
objectType: label: Object Name
content: baking cylinder
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in x 2 1/8 in; 13.97 cm x 5.3975 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 2 in; 15.24 cm x 5.08 cm