Test Tube
notes: label: Description
content: The test tube is one of the most commonly used pieces of laboratory ware, available in many sizes ranging from less than 1 inch to 6 inches in length. Test tubes are the perfect shape and size to hold small amounts of substances, usually liquid, which are then manipulated in some way, such as being placed over the flame of a Bunsen burner.
label: Description
content: The earliest English account of test tubes, and wooden test racks that hold tubes upright so their contents would not spill, appears in A System of Theoretical and Practical Chemistry (London, 1803) written by Frederick Accum, a German “operative chemist” who offered chemicals, books, lessons, and apparatus from his shop in Compton Street, Soho. Since Accum never claimed to have invented either form, we might assume that both were known to practical chemists and others who seldom discussed their work in print. Indeed, Accum may have learned about test tubes during his apprenticeship in a pharmacy in Hanover.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Artifact Walls exhibit
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of University of South Carolina
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.315121.061
label: catalog number
content: 315121.061
label: accession number
content: 215563
objectType: label: Object Name
content: test tube
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 5/16 in; 6.35 cm x .79375 cm