Duboscq-Soleil Saccharimeter
date: label: date made
content: 1850-1859
name: label: maker
content: Duboscq, Jules
notes: label: Description
content: Jean Baptiste François Soleil, a leading optical instrument maker in Paris, invented the saccharimeter in 1845, described it to the Académie des Sciences, and received a gold medal from the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale. This new instrument was a form of polariscope that determined the saccharine strength (or purity) of a sugar solution by measuring the extent to which that solution rotated the plane of polarization of polarized light passing through it.
label: Description
content: The inscription on this example reads "SACCHARIMETER-SOLEIL J. Duboscq, rue de l’Odeon 35 a Paris" and "No. 133." Jules Duboscq was an instrument maker who apprenticed with Soleil, married his daughter, and assumed control of the scientific side of the business following Soleil’s retirement in 1849. The address is that of the Soleil shop where Duboscq remained until the early 1860s.
label: Description
content: This saccharimeter used a Nicol prism to polarize the light and a pair of quartz wedges to analyze it. A linear scale developed by the French chemist Clerget (missing in this example) indicated the optical rotation of the liquid in the observation tube. The vertical cylinder in the tube held a thermometer.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Optics
label: Subject
content: Sugar
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.327501
label: catalog number
content: 327501
label: accession number
content: 266156
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Saccharimeter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 3/4 in x 16 1/2 in x 8 in; 42.545 cm x 41.91 cm x 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 5/8 in x 8 3/4 in x 8 in; 49.8475 cm x 22.225 cm x 20.32 cm