Boiling flask
date: label: date made
content: after 1916
name: label: maker
content: Corning Incorporated
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This object is a boiling flask made from Pyrex glass. The boiling flask, also known as a round bottom flask, is a chemical vessel with a spherical body and a cylindrical neck. It is most often used when heating solutions, particularly for distillation.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Pyrex has its origins in the early 1910s, when American glass company Corning Glass Works began looking for new products to feature its borosilicate glass, Nonex. At the suggestion of Bessie Littleton, a Corning scientist’s wife, the company began investigating Nonex for bakeware. After removing lead from Nonex to make the glass safe for cooking, they named the new formula “Pyrex”—“Py” for the pie plate, the first Pyrex product. In 1916 Pyrex found another market in the laboratory. It quickly became a favorite brand in the scientific community for its strength against chemicals, thermal shock, and mechanical stress.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This object is part of a collection donated by Barbara Keppel, wife of C. Robert Keppel. Robert Keppel taught at the University of Nebraska-Omaha after receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from M.I.T. The glassware in the Keppel collection covers the 19th and early 20th centuries.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Sources:
label: Description (Brief)
content: Dyer, Davis. The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Jensen, William B. “The Origin of Pyrex.” Journal of Chemical Education 83, no. 5 (2006): 692. doi:10.1021/ed083p692.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Kraissl, F. “A History of the Chemical Apparatus Industry.” Journal of Chemical Education 10, no. 9 (1933): 519. doi:10.1021/ed010p519.
label: Description (Brief)
content: National Museum of American History Accession File #1985.0311
label: Description (Brief)
content: “University of Nebraska Omaha.” 2015. Accessed May 4. http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/chemistry/student-opportunities/scholarships.php.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
label: See more items in
content: Science Under Glass
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Barbara A. Keppel
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0311.036
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0311.036
label: accession number
content: 1985.0311
objectType: label: Object Name
content: flask, boiling
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: pyrex (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 77 mm x 60 mm; 3 1/16 in x 2 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 2 1/2 in; 7.62 cm x 6.35 cm