overall: 77.5 cm x 57.1 cm x 24.1 cm; 30 1/2 in x 22 1/2 in x 9 1/2 in
overall: 17 in x 29 in x 37 in; 43.18 cm x 73.66 cm x 93.98 cm
Object Name:
Spectrophotometer
Date made:
1945-1960
Description:
Richard Scott Perkin (1906-1969) and Charles Elmer (1872-1954), one an investment banker and the other a court reporter, organized the Perkin-Elmer Optical Company in 1937, incorporated the firm in 1939, built a factory in Glenbrook, Connecticut, and produced optical instruments for military purposes during World War II. In collaboration with chemists at the nearby Stamford Research Laboratory of American Cyanamid, who were working on the federally-funded program to develop synthetic rubber, optical engineers at Perkin-Elmer developed an infrared spectrophotometer. A commercial version, the Model 12A, was unveiled in 1945. This is one of those instruments. An inscription reads "Infrared Spectrometer / Model 12A / Serial 101 / The Perkin-Elmer Corporation."
Ref: R. Bowling Barnes, Robert S. McDonald, Van Zandt Williams, and Richard F. Kinnaird, “Small-Prism Infra-Red Spectrometry,” <i>Journal of Applied Physics</i> 16 (Feb. 1945): 77-.
Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, “The Rise of Instruments during World War II,” <i>Analytical Chemistry</i> 80 (2008): 5684-5691.
Y. M. Rabkin, “Technological Innovation in Science: The Adoption of Infrared Spectroscopy by Chemists,” in Peter Morris, ed., <i>From Classical to Modern Chemistry</i> (London, 2002), pp. 3-28.
