Rare Woulfe’s Glass Laboratory Bottle

Description

Heading : Rare Woulfe glass bottle
Date : Second half of the 19^th century
Origin : England or Ireland
Colour : Clear
Body : Cylindrical form with three necks. both outer apertures have an applied lip
Pontil : Sand
Glass Type : Low lead
Size : 6 1/4 inches tall and approximately 2 3/4 inches in diameter
Condition : Excellent. no chips or cracks. Some minor internal residue. to be expected considering this vessels function
Restoration : None
Weight : 289 grams

Additional Information : The iconic Woulfe bottle was named after an Irish chemist and mineralogist. Peter Woulfe (1727 – 1803). who publicised them but was not the inventor. The purpose was to pass gasses through a liquid. Peter Woulfe received the Copley Medal in 1768 for outstanding achievements in research. the medal is the Royal Society’s oldest and most prestigious award. and interestingly Benjamin Franklin received this award some years earlier in 1753.

This bottle was invented as part of the ‘Woulfe Apparatus’ and was connected to similar vessels via thin glass tubes and rubber hoses. The apparatus has since been adjusted and improved upon. but remains remarkably similar to the original designs.

We have included images from the Chemical Heritage Foundation which depict a variety of devices and instruments used in chemistry experiments of the early 19th-century. The artwork was part of a series on modern chemical apparatus published in London in 1800 for the ‘Encyclopaedia Londinensis. or Universal Dictionary of Arts. Sciences. and Literature’.

Any examples we have been able to track down are in Museums such as the Corning Glass Museum in New York and London Science Museum. Each similar example dates to the second half of the 19th century.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=6736