Images(3)

Beckmann thermometer in case

Date1900-1940

Inventory Number2008-1-0101

ClassificationThermometer

Subject

Maker Fritz Köhler fl. 1897 - 1940

Cultural Region

Place of Origin

Dimensionsthermometer: 59 x 2 cm (23 1/4 x 13/16 in.)
case: 65.3 x 3.4 cm (25 11/16 x 1 5/16 in.)

Material

Accessoriescardboard case

DescriptionA thermometer consisting of a narrow glass tube filled with mercury, mounted on a white scale. The tube has a long bulb at its lower end and an s-shaped top chamber. Tube and scale are both contained in a glass vessel with a metal (nickel?) cap. Its scale is calibrated from -1°C to 30°C, graduated to 0.05 of a degree.

Stored in a black cardboard tube.

Signedengraved on back of scale: Thermometer nach Beckmann 1/20. Centigrade Jenaer Normalglas. Fritz Köhler, Leipzig.

Inscribedhandwritten on two tags, one on each piece of tube: Beckmann / 31° / by / 0.05° handwritten on end of short half of tube: 120 s[?]

FunctionThis is a thermometer that the user can fill with different amounts of mercury to use at different temperature ranges. It is very precise (0.05C) but because of this it has a relatively narrow range of 31 degrees Celsius. To set it up for use, the thermometer would be placed in contact with a substance a few degrees above the upper required limit of temperature, and enough mercury would then be poured in so that the stem filled up to the s-bend. That way, the thermometer would have a range up to that temperature.

ProvenanceFrom the Department of Physics, Harvard University.