Capillary Electrometer
notes: label: Description
content: A capillary electrometer measures small differences in electric potential in terms of changes in surface tension between mercury and an electrolytic solution in a capillary tube. This example represents the design introduced by Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1982), a University of Leipzig professor who won the 1909 Nobel prize in Chemistry. The “FRITZ KOHLER / LEIPZIG” and “GERMANY” inscription is that of the Universitäts-Mechaniker at Leipzig. “DRGM” means that the design was registered within Germany. Kőhler was in business by 1897, and he showed an instrument of this sort at the International Exhibition held in St. Louis in 1904.
label: Description
content: Ostwald’s design was a modification of the form that Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921) had introduced in his 1873 PhD dissertation. A Jewish scientist from Luxembourg who spent most of his life in Paris, Lippmann won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics for his method of reproducing colors photographically.
label: Description
content: Ref: John T. Stock, “Gabriel Lippman and the Capillary Electrometer,” <i>Bulletin of the History of Chemistry</i> 29 (2004): 16-20.
label: Description
content: Fritz Kőhler, <i>Physico=Photo=Chemische Apparate</i> (Leipzig, 1909), p. 25.
label: Description
content: German Empire, <i>Special Catalogue of the Hygiene Exhibition</i> (Berlin, 1904), p. 231.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Rutgers University Department of Physics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.327640
label: catalog number
content: 327640
label: accession number
content: 268279
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Capillary Electrometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: microscope: 10.8 cm x 2.5 cm; 4 1/4 in x in
label: Measurements
content: each tube: 15 cm; 5 7/8 in
label: Measurements
content: mirror: 3.5 cm; x 1 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 34.3 cm x 16 cm x 20.2 cm; 13 1/2 in x 6 5/16 in x 7 15/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 in x 10 1/2 in; 45.72 cm x 26.67 cm