electric spark ignitor
Date1800-1850
Inventory NumberDW0049
ClassificationIgnitor
Subject
Maker
French
?
Cultural Region
Dimensions11.1 × 24.5 × 11.5 cm (4 3/8 × 9 5/8 × 4 1/2 in.)
Material
DescriptionRectangular wooden base supporting a decorative urn-shaped stand in which passes a brass hook that was connected to an electrostatic machine. That hook is itself linked to another brass rod passing through a wood stopper and terminating into a pointed shaft. The latter is set inside a glass tube nested on a rectangular platform. Another pointed rod was most likely set in the opening of the glass tube (missing here). Connected to an electrostatic machine, this device was used to generate sparks inside the glass tube.
Signedunsigned
ProvenanceDavid Wheatland purchased from Alain Brieux, Paris, December 1965 (lot 24).
Sylvania
Date: late 19th-early 20th Century
Object number: RS0368
Thomas Hall
Date: circa 1890
Accessories: pulley rope
Object number: 1997-1-1423
John Cuthbertson
Date: 1770-1815
Accessories: brown storage box, descriptive tag, thin strip of paper in box with the inscription "lucernal microscope" in David P. Wheatland's handwriting (which refers to figs. 47-48 and 51 in this series), page from the book "Old Science and Medicine" with a photographic copy of the first print from this series, entitled "The Large Electric Machine at Haarlem."
Object number: 1998-1-1087
Thomas Burton Kinraide
Date: circa 1900
Accessories: condensers (VT4811b)
Object number: VT4811a
English
Date: circa 1820
Accessories: wooden case
brass frame with points
glass arm
handle
broken glass (in package)
Object number: DW0504
Champion Radio Works
Date: 1940-1960
Object number: 2008-1-0013
George Cruikshank
Date: dated 1817
Accessories: slip of paper containing brief commentary
Object number: 1998-1-1095
Benjamin Martin
Date: circa 1766
Accessories: rope cord belt
glass globe
conducting pad
in folder: photographs, page containing description, history, and discussion of design, note from Ebenezer Gay regarding conservation work, excerpt from David Pingree Wheatland and I. Bernard Cohen, A Catalogue of Some Early Scientific Instruments at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1949), woodcut with picture of instrument from B. Martin, Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy (1759): 139.
X-ray images of parts of the machine can be found in C1-A7.
Object number: 0013
