Saybolt Colorimeter
name: label: maker
content: C.J. Tagliabue Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: George M. Saybolt (d. 1924) organized the Inspection Laboratory of the Standard Oil Co., managed it for 36 years, and designed a "Universal Chromometer" for use with refined petroleum oils. Saybolt's instrument was adopted as a standard test by the United States Fuel Association (by 1919), the American Society for Testing Materials (1923), the National Petroleum Association, and the American Petroleum Institute. The C. J. Tagliabue Mfg. Co., then the major U.S. manufacturer of instruments for testing petroleum and petroleum products, was offering the Saybolt Universal Chromometer by 1919. The Fisher Scientific Co. of Pittsburgh assumed responsibility for the manufacture of these instruments in the early 1950s.
label: Description
content: The Saybolt Chromometer has two vertical tubes, one holding a standard colored glass and the other holding the sample to be analyzed, both of which are seen through an eyepiece at the top. Using the cock in the sample tube, the operator can draw down the sample until the colors of the two tubes appear the same. The height of the sample at that point is an indication of its quality.
label: Description
content: This example is marked "GEO. M. SAYBOLT / STANDARD UNIVERSAL CHROMOMETER / MANUFACTURED BY / C. J. TAGLIABUE MFG. CO. / BROOKLYN U.S.A." It incorporates some slight modifications that Tagliabue introduced in 1930, and that made the instrument easier to clean and use. The Stevens Institute of Technology donated it to the Smithsonian in 1960.
label: Description
content: Ref: Foster D. Snell, <i>Colorimetric Analysis</i> (New York, 1921), pp. 21-23.
label: Description
content: C.J. Tagliabue Mfg. Co., <i>Catalog of TAG Oil Testing Instruments</i> (New York, 1930), p. 10.
label: Description
content: “INVENTOR LEAVES $100,000. George M. Saybolt, Former Standard Oil Man, Perfected the Viscometer,” New York Times (Sept. 11, 1924), p. 23.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Brooklyn
topic: label: Subject
content: Color
label: Subject
content: Petroleum
label: Subject
content: Optics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
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content: Saccharimeters
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Stevens Institute of Technology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.316871
label: catalog number
content: 316871
label: accession number
content: 222983
objectType: label: Object Name
content: colorimeter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 1/2 in; 67.31 cm
label: Measurements
content: base: 5 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm x 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 5/8 in x 5 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in; 67.6275 cm x 13.97 cm x 13.97 cm