Accession No

6079

Brief Description

Looser’s double (differential) thermoscope, partly by Mertig-Meiser, Rob. Muller, Max Kohl, German, first half 20th Century

Origin

Germany; Dresden

Maker

Mertig-Meiser Rob. Muller Max Kohl [attributed]

Class

physics; demonstration; thermometry

Earliest Date

1900

Latest Date

1950

Inscription Date

Material

Wood; glass; metal; plastic(?)

Dimensions

height 450mm; width 330mm; depth 140mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 10706, U.S.A., on or before 17/02/2006. Tesseract catalogue 81, Winter 2005/2006.

Inscription

‘Rob. Müller Stüzerbach, Essen’ [on calibrated glass test tube]
‘Made in Germany, Mertig-Meiser, Dresden’ [on inner test tubes, only partially visible on one]

Description Notes

Looser’s double (differential) thermoscope; German, partly[?] by Mertig & Meiser, Rob. Muller, Max Kohl; first half 20th century.

Symmetrical U-shaped glass tubing running along an inset scale mounted onto a vertical wooden board, which is attached to a wooden base. U-shaped tubes have reservoirs for coloured fluid with glass stop taps. Scale is calibrated from 0 to 30 centimetres in 0.5cm intervals (calibrated both front and back, to allow the person carrying out the demonstration to view from the back). An open tube is mounted on each end of the wooden board, each containing removable test tubes, and each with provision for connecting by hoses (not present) to the central system.

Looser’s apparatus is useful for a number of experiments on heat. It is listed as item 54955 in instrument supplier Max Kohl’s sales catalogue (Mxk.23), which lists numerous possible demonstrations concerning radiant heat, calorific effects of electric current, thermal conduction in solids, liquids and gases etc. The catalogue also lists a manual of experiments that can be carried out with the instrument (no 54956).

Mertig & Meiser made scientific instruments c. 1900 and their name is inscribed on the test tubes. Also inscribed is the name ‘Rob. Muller’ on the calibrated test tubes.

Condition good; accreted surface dirt on test tubes.

References

Events