Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer, Varian A-60A
date: label: date made
content: around 1970
label: date made
content: ca 1970
name: label: maker
content: Varian Associates
notes: label: Description
content: Varian Associates was formed in Silicon Valley in 1948, and maintained close connections with scientists and engineers at Stanford University. Among these was Felix Bloch, the Jewish Swiss immigrant who led the team of Stanford physicists that had recently succeeded in measuring nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Along with Edward Purcell, the Harvard professor who achieved similar results, Bloch received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952.
label: Description
content: Varian Associates introduced its first commercial NMR spectrometer in 1953. The Varian A-60, designed for organic chemists and introduced at the Pittsburgh Conference of 1961, was a more successful instrument: relatively compact, reliable, stable, affordable, and easy to use. In time, some 1,000 examples were sold. The A-60A was more sensitive still.
label: Description
content: The inscription on the front panel of this example reads “A-60A ANALYTICAL NMR SPECTROMETER.” That on the handle reads “VARIAN associates.”
label: Description
content: Ref: Photograph of the Varian Associates A-60A, “the most popular instrument in the United States,” in Paint Testing Manual (ASTM, 1972), p. 566.
label: Description
content: David M. Grant, ed., Encyclopaedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Historical Perspectives (1996).
label: Description
content: Tim Lenoir and C. Lecuyer, “Instrument Makers and Discipline Builders: Case of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance,” Perspectives on Science 3 (1995): 276-345.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Palo Alto
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: National Institutes of Health
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0644.1
label: accession number
content: 1980.0644
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0644.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer, Varian A-60A