Technicon Gradient Mixer (partial)
notes: label: Description
content: Leonard T. Skeggs (1918-1992) was a chemist with PhD from Western Reserve University who, while working at the VA Hospital in Cleveland in the 1950s, designed a device for automatically analyzing biological samples. Edwin C. Weiskopf, a New York businessman, agreed to establish a firm, termed Technicon, to turn Skeggs’ ideas into commercial products. In 1956, Technicon announced that an automatic device for analyzing blood might be ready for commercial production in six months. This device, it said, takes a 2cc sample of blood and, within a few minutes, produces a written graph showing the amount of urea, sugar or calcium in the blood. The firm introduced the Autograd, for continuous flow variable gradient devices for use in chromatography, in 1960. The inscription on the case of this partial example reads “AUTOGRAD TECHNICON.”
label: Description
content: Weiskopf’s son, Edwin C. Whitehead, sold the business to Revlon in 1980, and used some of his resulting wealth to fund the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at M.I.T.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0147.019
label: accession number
content: 2004.0147
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0147.019
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gradient mixer
label: Object Name
content: Technicon Gradient Mixer
label: Object Name
content: Technicon Gradient Mixer (partial)
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: insulated wire (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 cm x 6.9 cm x 5.7 cm; 1 31/32 in x 2 23/32 in x 2 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 3 in; 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm x 7.62 cm