Accession No

3196

Brief Description

saccharimeter, by J. Duboscq, French, late 19th Century

Origin

France; Paris

Maker

Duboscq, J.

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1880

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, oxidized brass, cast-iron); glass; ivory

Dimensions

length 490mm; breadth 300mm; height 464mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Sotherby’s, London, England; Lot 216, ‘Scientific and Medical Instruments ... ‘, 25-9-1984, 13/6/1980.

Inscription

‘SACCHARIMETRE-SOLEIL PERFNE
J . Duboscq
à Paris
No 701 ‘ (on beam)

Description Notes

Brass saccharimeter mounted on turned brass column and cast-iron tripod base. Sliding-focus eye-piece screws into eye-end over further push-fit compound lenses. Eyepiece has screw-in eye-stop and rotatable collar (rotatable through approximately 180˚) which adjusts prism. Eye-end has 2 panes of glass in brass mounts which can be moved relative to each other, in a horizontal plane, by means of a knurled brass screw. One mount carries an ivory index marked ‘0’ and the other carries an ivory scale divided 50 - 0 - 50 numbered by 10 subdivided to 1. Swinging magnifying glass to aid reading scale on collar around eye-end. Brass beam connects eye-end to collimator (?) end, which has push fit brass lens mount with system of lenses. A shaped trough at the inside end of the eye-end and the collimator end takes a glass tube of sugar solution (no tube extant). Instrument attached to turned brass column by winged nut, enabling adjustment in the vertical plane. Instrument can also be swung in the horizontal plane. Brass column can be unscrewed from base.

Condition fair; complete

References

Events