Thermocouple
Date
ca.1950
Creator - Organisation
Hilger & Watts Limited (est.1948, British), Instrument maker
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
length (object): 155mm
diameter (object): 37mm
diameter (object): 37mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Commercially manufactured Schwarz thermocouple.
The instrument has been marked in pen: ‘0.310’. There is a maker’s logo and manufacturing details engraved on the outer case of the object: ‘HILGER MADE IN ENGLAND F.T.10.301/51203’. An original card label with string is associated with the object: ‘0.301 Used by Dr. Harding.’
The instrument was preserved in a Fortis of Bath biscuit tin with its original printed label. An additional typed label has been added by the Royal Society: ‘FT.10 Schwarz thermocouple by Hilger & Watts returned by Dr A.J. Harding September 1953. This instrument should be kept absolutely dry, preferably in a desiccator, but is in a sealed tin inside another container surrounded by silica gel. Any person taking it over should be warned to open the tin in such a way that no moisture will condense on the instrument.’
A.J. Harding (fl.1940s-1950s) British physical chemist.
Hilger & Watts Limited (est.1948) British instrument making company, formed by the merger of Adam Hilger Ltd. (founded 1874) and E.R Watts & Son (founded 1865) and based in Camberwell, Southwark, England.
The instrument has been marked in pen: ‘0.310’. There is a maker’s logo and manufacturing details engraved on the outer case of the object: ‘HILGER MADE IN ENGLAND F.T.10.301/51203’. An original card label with string is associated with the object: ‘0.301 Used by Dr. Harding.’
The instrument was preserved in a Fortis of Bath biscuit tin with its original printed label. An additional typed label has been added by the Royal Society: ‘FT.10 Schwarz thermocouple by Hilger & Watts returned by Dr A.J. Harding September 1953. This instrument should be kept absolutely dry, preferably in a desiccator, but is in a sealed tin inside another container surrounded by silica gel. Any person taking it over should be warned to open the tin in such a way that no moisture will condense on the instrument.’
A.J. Harding (fl.1940s-1950s) British physical chemist.
Hilger & Watts Limited (est.1948) British instrument making company, formed by the merger of Adam Hilger Ltd. (founded 1874) and E.R Watts & Son (founded 1865) and based in Camberwell, Southwark, England.
Object history
Presented by A.J.Harding, September 1953.
The instrument was purchased by A.J. Harding following a Government grant application to the Royal Society. The application summarised the research objectives: ‘In the proposed research, hydrogen atoms generated by electric discharge will be passed down a tube with an end-window of rock-salt and will react with formaldehyde in the tube. It is hoped that the infra-red emission spectrum observed through the window will reveal the vibrational frequencies of the HCO radical…The method, if successful, has a very wide application to the study of free radicals and their reactions’. Included in the application was the expenditure of £120 for ‘One Hilger-Schwarz vacuum thermocouple FT16’. Parliamentary grant in aid of scientific investigations: applications July 1950 (The Royal Society, 1950), p.11-12.
Harding published resulting research in Nature and as ‘The Role of Formaldehyde in the Oxidation of Ethylene’, by A.J. Harding and R.G.W. Norrish, Proceedings of the Royal Society A 7 May 1952, v.212, issue 1110.
The instrument was purchased by A.J. Harding following a Government grant application to the Royal Society. The application summarised the research objectives: ‘In the proposed research, hydrogen atoms generated by electric discharge will be passed down a tube with an end-window of rock-salt and will react with formaldehyde in the tube. It is hoped that the infra-red emission spectrum observed through the window will reveal the vibrational frequencies of the HCO radical…The method, if successful, has a very wide application to the study of free radicals and their reactions’. Included in the application was the expenditure of £120 for ‘One Hilger-Schwarz vacuum thermocouple FT16’. Parliamentary grant in aid of scientific investigations: applications July 1950 (The Royal Society, 1950), p.11-12.
Harding published resulting research in Nature and as ‘The Role of Formaldehyde in the Oxidation of Ethylene’, by A.J. Harding and R.G.W. Norrish, Proceedings of the Royal Society A 7 May 1952, v.212, issue 1110.
Associated place