Soleil saccharimeter
Date1880-1890
Inventory Number1993-1-0002
ClassificationPolarimeter
Subject
Maker
Théodore and Albert Duboscq
circa 1880 - 1890
Seller
Queen & Company
1893 - 1912
User
Radcliffe College
1894 - 1999
Place of Origin
Dimensions40 × 24.5 × 50 cm (15 3/4 × 9 5/8 × 19 11/16 in.)
Material
DescriptionVery fine brass saccharimeter of the Soleil-Duboscq form. The instrument is hinged to a mount that is free to turn on a brass pillar attached to three blackened feet.
There is a nicol prism (polarizer) on the collimator and a nicol prism at the eyepiece (analyzer). The eyepiece end also has a micrometer scale with a quartz wedge. In between there is a removable hollow metal tube which serves as a sample chamber filled with a solution (such as the Duboscq saccharimeter tubes, inv. 1997-1-2029). The glass windows are missing from the ends of the tube.
There is a nicol prism (polarizer) on the collimator and a nicol prism at the eyepiece (analyzer). The eyepiece end also has a micrometer scale with a quartz wedge. In between there is a removable hollow metal tube which serves as a sample chamber filled with a solution (such as the Duboscq saccharimeter tubes, inv. 1997-1-2029). The glass windows are missing from the ends of the tube.
Signedon frame: Th & A. Duboscq / à Paris / Queen & Co. in Phila.
Inscribedon bracket: SACCHARIMÈTRE SOLEIL PERFECTIONNÉ
FunctionA saccharimeter is polarimeter used to determine the concentration of sugar solutions, giving the density and types of sugars present, by measuring the way the solution rotates polarized light. With a Soleil design (using a compensator to rotate plane of polarization in opposite direction), the solution would be viewed in white light.
A video demonstration of a Soleil-Buboscq saccharimeter, made at the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence, is available on Youtube here.
A video demonstration of a Soleil-Buboscq saccharimeter, made at the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence, is available on Youtube here.
ProvenanceOptics Lab, Byerly Hall, Radcliffe College; transferred to CHSI October 13, 1964.
Historical AttributesFrom optics lab in Byerly Hall 10/13/64. Perhaps originally from the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, and taken to Radcliffe in 1940 when the optics course transferred buildings.
Hermann & Pfister
Date: circa 1872
Accessories: pine box; instruction manual; glass tubes (2); open-ended tube; gas lamp (DW0854b)
Object number: DW0854a
Louis Jules Duboscq
Date: circa 1875
Object number: 1997-1-1477a
Félix Marie Pellin
Date: circa 1930
Object number: 1996-1-0365b
