Spectrophotometer
date: label: date made
content: 1965-1990
name: label: maker
content: Perkin-Elmer
notes: label: Description
content: Richard Scott Perkin (1906-1969) and Charles Elmer (1872-1954), one an investment banker and the other a court reporter, organized the Perkin-Elmer Optical Company in 1937, incorporated the firm in 1939, built a factory in Glenbrook, Connecticut, and produced optical instruments for military purposes during World War II. In collaboration with chemists at the nearby Stamford Research Laboratory of American Cyanamid, who were working on the federally-funded program to develop synthetic rubber, Perkin-Elmer optical engineers developed an infrared spectrophotometer. A commercial version, the Model 12A, was unveiled in 1945. This example is a Model 290b. The form, introduced in 1965, was a relatively inexpensive ($2,900) atomic-absorption instrument.
label: Description
content: Ref: Perkin-Elmer ad in <i>Analytical Chemistry</i> 38 (January 1966): 90A.
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 Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Inc. (through Thoru Pederson)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0892.01
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0892.01
label: accession number
content: 1991.0892
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spectrophotometer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 60.9 cm x 39.4 cm x 29.8 cm; 24 in x 15 1/2 in x 11 3/4 in