Liquid Level Indicator, Recording Mechanism
name: label: maker
content: Siemens & Halske
notes: label: Description
content: The U.S. Weather Bureau transferred this device to the Smithsonian in 1954, describing it as a recording mechanism for a liquid level indicator. The inscription reads “Siemens & Halske, Berlin. No. 1734.”
label: Description
content: Werner Siemens (von Siemens since 1888) was a prominent German inventor and industrialist who established the instrument firm of Siemens & Halske in 1847.
label: Description
content: Siemens described an electrical water level indicator in 1866. Siemens & Halske sent an example to the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus held in London in 1876, terming it a “Magneto-Electric Water Level Indicator.” The accompanying text explained that: “A float which rises or falls with the level of the water in the reservoir or tank communicates motion by a metallic chain to a magneto inductor, which, generating electric currents, works at any distance [by] an indicator connected by a cable or insulated wire.” An example was also shown in the Collective Exhibit of the Historical Development of the Applications of Electricity in Germany, at the Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893.
label: Description
content: Ref: “Siemens & Halske’s Electrical Water Level Indicator,” in Werner von Siemens, <i>Scientific & Technical Papers</i> (London, 1895), vol. 2, pp. 251-255.
label: Description
content: South Kensington Museum, <i>Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus</i> (London, 1876), p. 918.
label: Description
content: Chicago. Columbian Exposition. <i>Official Catalogue. Exhibition of the German Empire</i> (Berlin, 1893), p. 247.
label: Description
content: Wilfried Feldenkirchen, <i>Werner von Siemens. Inventor and International Entrepreneur</i> (Columbus, O., 1994).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Berlin, Berlin
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Water Currents
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314565
label: accession number
content: 204612
label: catalog number
content: 314565
objectType: label: Object Name
content: recording mechanism
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 5 in x 4 in; 25.4 cm x 12.7 cm x 10.16 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 5/8 in x 5 1/2 in x 4 3/8 in; 24.4475 cm x 13.97 cm x 11.1125 cm