Quadrant Electrometer
name: label: patented by
content: Thomson
notes: label: Description
content: The “No. 14 Thomson's Patent” inscription on this electrometer refers to William Thomson (1824-1907), the British mathematical physicist who invented the quadrant electrometer in 1853 and introduced several improvements over the course of the next seventeen years. This example is of the form unveiled in 1870. Since it was found in the Smithsonian “Castle,” it was probably acquired by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as the founding Secretary of the Institution.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Thomson, “Report of Electrometers and Electrostatic Measurements,” in <i>Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism</i> (London, 1872), pp. 260-309.
label: Description
content: Matthew Trainer, “The Patents of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin),” <i>World Patent Information</i> 26 (2004): 311-317.
label: Description
content: George Green and John T. Lloyd, <i>Kelvin’s Instruments and the Kelvin Museum</i> (Glasgow, 1970).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: patented in
content: United Kingdom: Scotland, Glasgow City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CH.314620
label: catalog number
content: 314620
label: accession number
content: 208046
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electrometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 3 in; 12.7 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 7/8 in x 3 5/8 in; 12.3825 cm x 9.2075 cm