Spirometer
name: label: maker
content: Code, Hopper and Company
notes: label: Description
content: S. Weir Mitchell, a prominent Philadelphia physician interested in anthropometry, reported in 1859 that he had used a small dry gas meter as a spirometer to measure lung capacity. His instrument was made by Code, Hopper & Co., cost no more than $15, and worked quite well. Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, was friendly with Mitchell, interested in anthropometry, and probably acquired this instrument for the Institution. The "Code, Hopper and Co., Manufacturers, Philadelphia" inscription refers to the principal manufacturer of gas meters in Philadelphia in the late 1850s.
label: Description
content: Ref: Edwin T. Freedley, <i>Philadelphia and Its Manufactures</i> (Philadelphia, 1858), p. 323.
label: Description
content: “Improved Spirometer,” <i>American Journal of the Medical Sciences</i> (1859): 378-379.
label: Description
content: “Proceedings of the Franklin Institute,” <i>Journal of the Franklin Institute</i> 38 (1859): 143.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.314949
label: accession number
content: 212903
label: catalog number
content: 314949
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Gas Meter
label: Object Name
content: spirometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in x 9 in; 35.56 cm x 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/2 in x 10 1/4 in; 29.21 cm x 26.035 cm