Schweydar-Bamberg Torsion Balance
date: label: date made
content: 1926
name: label: maker
content: Askania
notes: label: Description
content: Torsion balances are used to measure weak natural forces. Torsion balances generally consist of a straight rod with masses attached to each end, suspended from a wire. It is then encased in metal to isolate it from temperature or wind disturbance. All mass near or far has an influence on the rod, but the wire resists this force and twists in the opposite direction, producing through its twisting the measurements of the forces imposed upon it.
label: Description
content: The Humble Oil and Refining Co. purchased this photographic torsion balance in 1926—this was just four years after Americans began making gravimetric surveys for prospecting purposes—and used it for oil exploration in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama until the introduction of gravimeters in 1936. Although this instrument has no signature, it was probably made by Askania, in Friedenau, Germany. Askania opened a sales office in Houston, Texas in the 1920s.
label: Description
content: The Schweydar Bamberg instrument is an Eötvös torsion balance with a photographic arrangement for recording the results automatically. The form was described in 1921 by Wilhelm Schweydar, a German geophysicist, and produced by Carl Bamberg. It was publicized in the United States by C. A. Heiland, a German geophysicist who worked for Askania in Houston and who taught at the Colorado School of Mines.
label: Description
content: Ref: Askania <i>Bulletin Geo 103E</i>
label: Description
content: W. Schweydar, "Die Photographische registrierende Eötvössche Torsionswage der Firma Carl Bamberg in Berlin-Friedenau," <i>Zeitschrift fur Instrumentendekunde</i> 41 (1921): 175-183.
label: Description
content: C. A. Heiland, "Schweydar-Bamberg Types of Eötvös Torsion Balance" <i>Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists</i> 10 (1926): 1201-1209.
label: Description
content: C. A. Heiland, <i>Directions for the Use of the Askania Torsion Balance</i> (Houston, 1933).
place: label: place made
content: Germany
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture and Natural Resources
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Humble Oil and Refining Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.MHI-P-7680
label: catalog number
content: MHI-P-7680
label: accession number
content: 230370
objectType: label: Object Name
content: torsion balance, Bamberg
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 152 cm x 50 cm x 54 cm; 59 27/32 in x 19 11/16 in x 21 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 67 in x 27 in x 27 in; 170.18 cm x 68.58 cm x 68.58 cm