piezometer

Date1900-1920

Inventory Number1997-1-1248

ClassificationPiezometer

Subject

Maker American ?

User J. W. Shipley

User Theodore William Richards 1868 - 1928

Cultural Region

Place of Use

Dimensions21 x 2.9 x 2.9 cm (8 1/4 x 1 1/8 x 1 1/8 in.)

Material

DescriptionCylindrical glass tube opening to a neck on one end that widens toward the opening and flares at the tip. The walls of the neck are thick until the widening part, where they become thinner. A piece of wire is held to the inside wall of the wider part of the neck by a drop of glass. Half of the wire is outside the tube, half inside. The outer part has one coil and is bent at various spots along its lengths.

The other end of the tube has an electrode with a short wire on the inside part. The electrode connects to the outside of the tube.

Signedunsigned

Curatorial RemarksShipley, Piezometer # 3 It is difficult to see where the sample would be introduced. Richards, et al., use a device that looks similar except that the neck is detachable. An article by J.W. Shipley and T.W. Richards "The Compressibility of Certain Typical Hydrocarbons, Alcohols, and Ketones," Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 38 (1916): 989-999, was introduced in the journal as a contribution from the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Library at Harvard University.

FunctionFor measuring the fluid pressure of a liquid. This type of piezometer worked by introducing into the tube the liquid to be compressed and then filling the tube with mercury up to the platinum wire. The tube would be immersed into a compression barrel, where the pressure would be increased until the volume of the sample was compressed enough that the mercury was no longer touching the wire and the circuit was cut.