Saccharimeter
date: label: date made
content: after 1895
name: label: maker
content: Franz Schmidt & Haensch
notes: label: Description
content: Half shadow saccharimeter marked “Franz Schmidt & Haensch, Berlin S. No. 4645” and “D.R.P. No. 82523.” This firm began in business in Berlin in 1864 making saccharimeters and other optical instruments. It trades today as Schmidt & Haensch.
label: Description
content: The two screws below the eyepiece indicate that this instrument has a double-quartz wedge compensation, a feature that relieves the observer from the necessity of checking the instrument against a standard solution or quartz plate. The German patent 82523, granted in 1895, describes the polarizer that enables the observer to equalize the darkness (rather than the color) of the various parts of the image.
label: Description
content: The graduated scale, viewing scope, and 400 mm observation tube are missing. The additional inscription–“BS 482”–refers to the National Bureau of Standards, the organization that purchased this instrument in the early 1900s and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1960. For many years the Bureau standardized the saccharimeters and other apparatus that customs agents used to assess the saccharine quality of sugar coming into the United States.
label: Description
content: Ref: Franz Schmidt & Haensch, “Halbschatten-Polarisationsapparat,” German patent 82523 (1895).
label: Description
content: Eimer & Amend, <i>Illustrated Catalogue with Prices Current of Chemical & Physical Apparatus</i> (New York, 1895), p. 392.
label: Description
content: Geo. Stade, “Modern Polariscopes,” <i>International Sugar Journal</i> 1 (1899): 65-72.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Berlin, Berlin
topic: label: Subject
content: Optics
label: Subject
content: Sugar
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Saccharimeters
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: National Bureau of Standards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.318124
label: catalog number
content: 318124
label: accession number
content: 231765
objectType: label: Object Name
content: saccharimeter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 in x 29 in; 38.1 cm x 73.66 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 5/8 in x 11 1/4 in x 29 in; 39.6875 cm x 28.575 cm x 73.66 cm