Spectrophotometer, Coleman Model 11A
date: label: date made
content: 1938-1950
name: label: maker
content: Coleman Instruments
notes: label: Description
content: The Coleman Electric Company of Maywood, Illinois, was organized by Edwin Dewitt Coleman in the 1930s, made “precision tools for the technologist” during World War II, and became Coleman Instruments in the 1940s. It was bought by Perkin-Elmer in 1964, and became the Coleman Instrument Division of that firm.
label: Description
content: The spectrophotometers that Coleman Electric introduced in 1938 were designed by (or in conjunction with) Robert W. Wood, a renowned professor of optical physics at The Johns Hopkins University, and they incorporated Wood’s replica diffraction gratings. By 1955, Coleman was boasting that over 10,000 of these instruments were in use in industrial, medical and academic laboratories all over the world.
label: Description
content: Coleman began advertising their Model 11A Universal Spectrometer in 1947, boasting that it “has set high standards for simple . . . rapid . . . precise analysis wherever light is used as a laboratory tool.” A tag on the top of the wooden box of this example reads “UNIVERSAL SPECTROPHOTOMETER / COLEMAN ELECTRIC CO. MAYWOOD, ILL. NEW YORK U.S.A. / INST. NO. 4806 / MODEL 11A / VOLTS 81 / CYCLES AC-DC / WATTS 35 / PATENTS PENDING.” A paper tag on the front of the box reads “BURRELL / TECHNICAL SUPPLY CO. / PITTSBURGH, PA.”
label: Description
content: Ref: Edwin D. Coleman, “Spectrophotometer,” U.S. Patent 2,339,053 (Jan. 11, 1944).
label: Description
content: “Coleman Universal Spectrophotometers” ad in <i>Analytical Chemistry</i> 19 (Feb. 1947): 35A.
label: Description
content: “Coleman Spectrophotometers,” ad in <i>Analytical Chemistry</i>27 (March 1955): 14A.
label: Description
content: “Two Ex-Wives Benefit From Coleman Will,” <i>Chicago Tribune</i> (Aug. 25, 1959), p. C5.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Maywood
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Department of Chemistry, Lehigh University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.337146
label: catalog number
content: 337146
label: accession number
content: 1979.0432
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spectrophotometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 7.2 cm x 33.3 cm x 30.2 cm; 2 13/16 in x 13 1/8 in x 11 7/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 3/4 in x 12 in x 12 3/8 in; 17.145 cm x 30.48 cm x 31.4325 cm