Glass Dome for a Monitor Crystal Spa
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890s
name: label: maker
content: John Matthews Apparatus Company
notes: label: Description
content: John Matthews (1808-1870) was an English engineer who moved to New York in 1832 and began making soda water. After purchasing the Bigelow Manufacturing Co., he began making soda water apparatus. In time, The John Matthews Apparatus Co. (as the firm became known) was the leading maker of soda water apparatus in the U.S. Among Matthews’ many apprentices was William Gee, a New Yorker who designed and manufactured soda fountain apparatus. His most notable was the Monitor Crystal Spa, some features of which appeared in his design patent of Dec. 3, 1878. This glass dome was once part of a Monitor Crystal Spa.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Gee, “Improvement in Apparatus for Drawing Soda-Water,” U.S. Patent 38,577 (May 19, 1863); reissue Feb. 2, 1864.
label: Description
content: William Gee, “Improvement in Apparatus for Drawing Soda Water,” U.S. Design Patent (Dec. 3, 1878).
label: Description
content: William Gee ad for Monitor Crystal Spa in Druggists’ Circular and Chemical Gazette (Jan. 1, 1879): 23.
label: Description
content: “The Monitor Crystal Spa” in John Matthews Apparatus Co., The Matthews Catalogue and Price List of Apparatus, Materials, and Accessories for Making and Dispensing Carbonated Beverages (New York, 1891), pp. 192-194.
label: Description
content: “John Matthews Apparatus Co., New York,” in Merck’s Market Report and Pharmaceutical Journal (Feb. 1895): 61-62.
label: Description
content: Chauncey Mitchell Depew, 1795-1895. One Hundred Years of American Commerce (New York, 1895), vol. 2, pp. 471-472.
label: Description
content: James Tufts, “The Growth of the Soda Water Industry,” American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record 36 (1900): 78-84.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
label: associated place
content: United States: Pennsylvania, McConnellsburg
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Daniel L. Hohman, D.M.D. and Mrs. Ethel C. Hohman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0136.01.01
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0136.01.01
label: accession number
content: 1986.0136
objectType: label: Object Name
content: glass dome, soda fountain
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 in x 7 1/16 in; 45.72 cm x 17.93875 cm