Colorimeter
name: label: maker
content: Keuffel & Esser Co.
notes: label: Description
content: The disc colorimeter, the first color instrument designed for agricultural use, was developed by Carl W. Keuffel working with staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This one seems to be a prototype, put together from parts made by such firms as Keuffel & Esser, the Bodine Electric Company, and the Ward Leonard Electric Co. In use, there would have been colored papers provided by the Munsell Color Company. Dorothy Nickerson (1900-1985)—a woman who was influential in developing colorimetry for agricultural and industrial purposes, and who was known as “Uncle Sam’s Color Expert”—wrote the early accounts of this instrument.
label: Description
content: Carl W. Keuffel was a son of William J. D. Keuffel, a German immigrant who, along with Herman Esser, established the Keuffel & Esser instrument firm in New York the 1860s, and a factory in New Jersey. In time, he became president of the firm.
label: Description
content: Ref: Dorothy Nickerson, Keuffel & Esser Disk Colorimeter, in <i>USDA Technical Bulletin</i> (1929).
label: Description
content: Dorothy Nickerson, <i>A Method for Determining the Color of Agricultural Products</i> (Washington, D.C., 1929).
label: Description
content: Dorothy Nickerson, “A Colorimeter for Use with Disc Mixture,” <i>Journal of the Optical Society of American</i> 21 (1931): 640-642.
label: Description
content: "Color Chart Issued for Gardners," New York Times (March 16, 1958), p. D15.
label: Description
content: "Dorothy Nickerson," Washington Post (April 30, 1985), p. B6.
label: Description
content: Dorothy Nickerson, “History of the Munsell Color System and Its Scientific Application,” Journal of the Optical Society of America 30 (1940):
label: Description
content: Carl W. Keuffel, “Color Analyzer,” U.S. Patent 1,524,180 (Jan. 27, 1925).
label: Description
content: Carl W. Keuffel, “A Trichromatic Additive Colorimeter,” Journal of the Optical Society of America 2 (1926).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Chemistry
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0496.08
label: accession number
content: 1981.0496
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0496.08
label: serial number
content: C80859
label: model number
content: DC8895
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Colorimeter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 55.5 cm x 61 cm x 78.4 cm; 21 27/32 in x 24 1/32 in x 30 7/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 1/2 in x 30 1/2 in x 24 in; 54.61 cm x 77.47 cm x 60.96 cm