Saccharimeter
name: label: maker
content: J. & J. Fric
notes: label: Description
content: The National Bureau of Standards was established in 1901 and given responsibility for standardizing the saccharimeters and other instruments used to assess the quality of sugar coming into the United States. Frederick John Bates (1877-1958) joined the Bureau in 1903. In 1907 he described a quartz compensating polariscope with adjustable sensibility which allowed observers to admit only as much light as was needed and thus preserve as much accuracy as possible. Bates then asked J. & J. Fric of Bohemia to manufacture instruments of this sort for the U.S. Customs Service. That agency transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 1999.
label: Description
content: The inscriptions on this example read "No. 883 / HALF SHADE POLARISCOPE / WITH / VARIABLE BRIGHTNESS / U.S. BUREAU OF STANDARDS TYPE ACCORDING TO BATES / FRIC’S U.S. PATENT FEB. 12, 1907 / MADE BY JOSEF & JAN FRIC / PRAGUE BOHEMIA."
label: Description
content: Ref: F. Bates, “A Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” <i>Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards</i> 4 (1907): 461-466.
label: Description
content: F. Bates, “Remarks on the Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” <i>Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards</i> 5 (1908): 193-198.
label: Description
content: E. H. Sargent & Co., <i>Price List No. 25. Scientific Laboratory Apparatus and Bacteriological Supplies</i> (Chicago, 1922), p. 371.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Czech Republic: Praha, Hlavní Město, Prague
topic: label: Subject
content: Optics
label: Subject
content: Sugar
label: Subject
content: National Bureau of Standards
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Saccharimeters
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Customs Service
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1999.0029.01
label: catalog number
content: 1999.0029.01
label: accession number
content: 1999.0029
objectType: label: Object Name
content: polariscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 43.3 cm x 20.5 cm x 61 cm; 17 1/16 in x 8 1/16 in x 24 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 in x 8 in x 24 in; 43.18 cm x 20.32 cm x 60.96 cm