Spectrophotometer, Perkin-Elmer model 21
date: label: Date made
content: 1949
label: date made
content: 1966
name: label: maker
content: Perkin-Elmer
notes: label: Description
content: Richard Scott Perkin (1906-1969) and Charles Elmer (1872-1954), one an investment banker and the other a court reporter, established the Perkin-Elmer Optical Company in 1937, incorporated the firm in 1939, established a factory in Glenbrook, Connecticut, and produced optical instruments for military purposes during World War II. In collaboration with chemists at the nearby Stamford Research Laboratory of American Cyanamid, who were working on the federally-funded program to develop synthetic rubber, optical engineers at Perkin-Elmer developed an infrared spectrophotometer. A commercial version, the Model 12A, was unveiled in 1945.
label: Description
content: Perkin-Elmer unveiled the Model 21 double-beam IR spectrophotometer circa 1949, and the success of this instrument is said to have “shot Perkin-Elmer from relative obscurity into the Fortune 500 category.” This example was at Pomona College by 1966.
label: Description
content: Ref: Perkin-Elmer Model 21 ad in <i>Analytical Chemistry</i> 30 (Nov. 1958): 30A.
label: Description
content: Corwin Hansch, “The Seaver Chemistry Laboratory for Undergraduate Instruction,” <i>Journal of Chemical Education</i> 43 (Nov. 1966): 612-616.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Pomona College, Chemistry Department
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2000.0091.01.1
label: catalog number
content: 2000.0091.01.1
label: accession number
content: 2000.0091
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Spectrophotometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 55.8 cm x 96.5 cm x 44.5 cm; 21 15/16 in x 38 in x 17 1/2 in