Mason's Hygrometer
date: label: date made
content: 1843-1864
name: label: maker
content: B. Pike, Jr.
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument consists of wet and dry bulb thermometers with a liquid vial (missing in this instance) in between, mounted on a wooden board. The inscriptions on the board read "MASON'S HYGROMETER" and "B. PIKE JR. 294 BROADWAY, NEW YORK." The scales for the thermometers are on the board. That for the dry-bulb thermometer is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from 0 to +135. That for the wet-bulb thermometer is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -5 to +145.
label: Description
content: John Abraham Mason, an English surgeon, described the form in 1836. Benjamin Pike Jr., a leading purveyor of instruments in New York between 1843 and 1864, claimed that the use of an instrument of this sort "in the sick chamber will be at once evident, as a fire kept up in a closed room naturally dries the air which the patient has to breathe."
label: Description
content: Ref: John Abraham Mason, "Description of a New Hygrometer," <i>Records of General Science</i> 4 (1836): 23-35 and 96-111.
label: Description
content: B. Pike Jr.,<i> Illustrated, Descriptive Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical and Philosophical Instruments</i> (New York, 1856), vol. 2, pp. 135-138.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Thermometers and Hygrometers
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: John William Christopher Draper and James Christopher Draper
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.333982
label: accession number
content: 304826
label: catalog number
content: 333982
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mason's hygrometer
label: Object Name
content: hygrometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 13/16 in x 2 7/16 in x 1 1/8 in; 22.38375 cm x 6.19125 cm x 2.8575 cm