acid basin for desiccator
Date1870-1920
Inventory Number4762
ClassificationDesiccator
Subject
Maker
German
?
Cultural Region
Dimensions5.6 x 17.2 x 16 cm (2 3/16 x 6 3/4 x 6 5/16 in.)
Material
DescriptionA white porcelain vessel, round at the bottom, increasing slightly in diameter and ending in a scalloped rim. On one side it has a little spout. Inside, six branches come straight from the rim towards the center without touching there. The tops of these branches start horizontally and then slope towards the center in a straight line. Their bottom edges start touching the bottom at the center and get further away from it as they approach the rim.
This basin has more a prominent spout and scalloped rim than the others in the collection.
This basin has more a prominent spout and scalloped rim than the others in the collection.
Signedunsigned
FunctionThis is a basin to place acid inside of a desiccator. The acid would absorb the humidity. The branches are probably so that one can put the tray with the sample to be dried atop it.
Todd Scientific Company
Date: 1955-1965
Object number: 1996-1-0396
German
Date: 1870-1920
Accessories: its lid is instrument No. 4350.
Object number: 4349
Walter Balcke
Date: circa 1958
Accessories: wooden case; blue pencil; pink eraser
in library folder (Lib 4927):
-twenty-one letters from Joseph L. Walsh, mathematics professor at Harvard University, to Walter Balcke, dated between 27 May 1957 and 24 January 1964 (letters thank Balcke for the many mathematical models he gifted to the Mathematics Department, praise his skill and ingenuity, many invite him to faculty and personal luncheons, and one letter provides an analytic solution to the "13-point problem" behind one of Balcke's models)
-three letters from Garret Birkhoff (then Chairman of the Harvard Mathematics Department) dated 3 March 1954, 4 January 1955, and 10 January 1955, each expressing gratitude (and in one case, an official department thank you) for the many mathematical models he gifted to the mathematics department
-photocopy of original envelope in which correspondence between mathematics department and Walter Balcke was stored (original was destroyed on 13 July 1997)
-photocopy of instructional card for object 1997-1-1671
- seven instructional cards that accompany the following Balcke models: Pascal's Theorem, Brianchon's Concurrent Lines, Trisector, Twelve Point Ellipse, Rolling Parabola, unknown, Equation Solution with a 'Constant' Variable and Thread
- photograph of the display case containing Balcke's models in the Harvard Mathematics department
Object number: 1997-1-1671