Electric Furnace
name: label: maker
content: Hoskins Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: The Hoskins Company was established in Chicago in the early years of the twentieth century; moved to Detroit in 1908; and became Hoskins Manufacturing soon thereafter. The inscription on the horizontal cylinder of this device reads “HOSKINS ELECTRIC FURNACE / PATENTED IN U.S. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES / U.S. PATENTS – FEB. 6, 1908 – MAY 14, 1907 – JULY 9, 1907 / TYPE FA 301 SER. NO 3145 / VOLTS 110 AMPERES 4.50 / HOSKINS MANUFACTURING COMPANY DETROIT / SOLD BY / ARTHUR H. THOMAS COMPANY / IMPORTERS AND DEALERS / MICROSCOPES, LABORATORY APPARATUS AND CHEMICALS / PHILADELPIA 17.”
label: Description
content: According to trade literature, the Hoskins Type FA produced temperatures up to 1000° C and operated on AC or DC. There was also a Type FB that operated on AC only.
label: Description
content: The referenced patents were issued to Albert Leroy Marsh (1877-1944), a metallurgist who, while working for Hoskins, developed a relatively inexpensive alloy suitable for making high-resistance wire that could be used in electric furnaces. In 1914, this alloy would be termed Chromel.
label: Description
content: Ref: Arthur H. Thomas, <i>Laboratory Apparatus and Reagents</i> (Philadelphia, 1914), p. 237.
label: Description
content: Eimer & Amend, <i>Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory Supplies and Assayers’ Materials</i> (New York, 1913), p. 192.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Detroit
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Hoskins Manufacturing Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.316586
label: catalog number
content: 316586
label: accession number
content: 225029
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electric Furnace
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: cylinder: 12 1/2 in; 31.75 cm
label: Measurements
content: legs: 3 3/4 in; x 9.525 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 3/8 in x 14 in x 3 3/4 in; 23.8125 cm x 35.56 cm x 9.525 cm