Accession No

2298

Brief Description

Clarke hydrometer, with thermometer, by Dring and Fage, English, 1820 (c)

Origin

England; London; 248 Tooley Street

Maker

Dring and Fage

Class

physics; metrology

Earliest Date

1820

Latest Date

1820

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, steel, mercury); wood (two types); ivory; cloth (silk, baize, ribbon, padding)

Dimensions

hydrometer length 168mm; maximum diameter 33mm thermometer length 205mm; breadth 29mm; thickness 17mm box length 232mm; breadth 122mm; height 48mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from D & H. Morgan, Norfolk, England, 18/4/1977.

Inscription

‘CLARKE’ (lower spindle)
‘IMPORT’ (lower spindle)
‘CLARKES
Import Hydrometer made only by
Dring & Fage. Hydrometer Makers to his
Majesty’s Honorable Board of Excise.
NO. 248 Tooley ST near
London Bridge’ (lid of box)
‘DRING & FAGE
NO 248 TOOLEY St
NEAR LONDON BRIDGE’ (thermometer)

Description Notes

Clarke hydrometer, with thermometer, by Dring & Fage, English, c. 1820.

Clarke’s ‘import hydrometer’ in fitted wooden box with spherical float and turned counterweight. Scale on one side of spindle: two scales marked in opposite directions each divided 1 - 10, numbered by 1 (10 not marked on upper scale, marked as 0 on lower scale). Bottom of counterweight marked ‘SPT WINE 6825’.
43 weights with varying serial numbers; one more originally. Some weights marked as ‘5 u’ etc., some marked with single digit numbers and indications of temperature, some marked with ‘B’, some marked ‘0 5’ etc.
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with ivory scale. Scale divided [18˚] - [102˚F], numbered by 10˚, subdivided to 1˚; also marked are ‘vy cold’, ‘colder’, ‘cold’, ‘coldish’, ‘temperate’, ‘warmish’, ‘warm’, ‘warmer’, ‘hot’, ‘hotter’, ‘vy hot’.
Fitted wooden box with brass hinges and hook fasteners. Lined with green silk and green baize. Depression in back of box contains thermometer.

Condition good (some tarnishing, box coming apart at one corner); complete (though difficult to tell if any weights missing)

References

Events