Calorimotor (Replica)
date: label: date made
content: early 1960s
name: label: originator
content: Hare, Robert
notes: label: Description
content: Following the work of Luigi Galvani in the early 1790s, several scientists experimented with galvanic electricity and developed ever more powerful batteries. Allesandro Volta introduced the electric pile. William Cruickshank designed a trough battery that was essentially a Voltaic pile turned on its side. Humphry Davy used large batteries to isolate new elements. James Woodhouse, an American chemist who went to England and returned home with a Cruickshank battery, shared his enthusiasm for galvanic work with Robert Hare (1781–1858), his student at the University of Pennsylvania.
label: Description
content: As professor of chemistry in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, Hare developed what was widely regarded as the best equipped lecture room in the world, and demonstration experiments suitable for very large classes. His galvanic instrument, introduced in 1817, consisted of 20 copper plates that connected with one another, 20 zinc plates that connected with one another, and a wooden box filled with a weak acid. It generated heat as well as electricity, and so Hare called it a calorimotor.
label: Description
content: The calorimotor that Hare gave the Smithsonian in 1848 was destroyed in the Institution’s fire of 1865. The replica shown here was made in anticipation of the opening of the National Museum of History and Technology in 1964.
label: Description
content: Ref: Robert Hare, <i>A New Theory of Galvanism supported by some Experiments and Observations made by means of the Calorimotor</i> (Philadelphia, 1819).
label: Description
content: Robert Hare, “A New Theory of Galvanism, supported by some Experiments and Observations made by means of the Calorimotor,” <i>American Journal of Science</i> 1 (1819): 413-426, and plate.
label: Description
content: “Dr. Hare’s Calorimotor,” in Benjamin Pike, Jr., <i>Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments</i> (New York, 1856), vol. 1, pp. 328-330.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Chemistry
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.319426
label: catalog number
content: 319426
label: accession number
content: 237914
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calorimotor (replica)
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 46 in x 22 in x 25 in; 116.84 cm x 55.88 cm x 63.5 cm