Examples of surviving half-liter Grenet cells (Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection). The cell on the right has its Zn anode raised.
The 25th issue of Museum Notes is the last installment of our series on historic voltaic cells and highlights the famous dichromate cell of Poggendorff and Warington.
Click here for all other issues of Notes from The Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.
The Leclanché cell as depicted in Benjamin’s 1893 treatise on the voltaic cell.
The 24th issue of Museum Notes highlights the Leclanché voltaic cell in both its original wet-cell form and modern dry-cell form. This cell is the basis of most of our current everyday batteries from the D-cells used in traditional flashlights to the smaller AAA-cells used in many of our everyday electronic devices.
Click here for all other issues of Notes from The Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.
An actual surviving example of the Grove cell and a spare ceramic spacer.
The 23rd issue of Notes from The Oesper Collections highlights the famous Grove nitric acid cell and its later modification by Robert Bunsen which made it into a standard commercial and laboratory source of electrical energy for more than 50 years.
Click here for all other issues of Notes from The Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.
(Contributed by Dr. William Jensen, Curator of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry)
As the global reputation of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry continues to grow, these special collections are attracting the attention of more and more international scholars.
Starting in January 2013, Professor José Chamizo of the University of Mexico spent three months of his sabbatical working in the collections and returned once more in June for another two weeks. While at Cincinnati his research focused on the role of instrumentation in initiating chemical revolutions and on the life and work of the 19th-century Mexican chemist, José Ortigiosa.
Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript
Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript
In late June, the Oesper collections were also visited by Dr. Eberhard Slenczka, former Director of Libraries for the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremburg, who came to examine our facsimile of the 16th century alchemical manuscript known as the Splendor Solis in order to make comparisons with the copies found in Nuremburg, Paris, London and Spain.
Please direct questions regarding access and use of the Oesper collections to Professor William B. Jensen or Ted Baldwin, Director of Science and Engineering Libraries.