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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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The Barnstead Still (1930s – 1940s)
Robert Barnstead was a pioneer
manufacturer of water distillers. The origin of the business was in 1878, in
Boston (USA), as manufacturers of plumbing ware (originally the ‘Barnstead
and Spaulding Plumbing Company’). Barnstead built his first automatic
water distiller in the 1890’s and the essential features of his original
distiller are still in use today (known as the Barnstead-type water
distillers). The burner was enclosed to reduce the heat loss to a minimum,
and the design permitted the heat generated in the distiller to be used to
preheat the incoming water, and the dissolved gases to pass off. Barnstead
applied for several early patents with the United States Patent Office to protect
his inventions, including a condenser for a water distiller (Patent No.
456923; 1891), when the firm was named ‘Barnstead Pure Water Still Company’,
a steriliser (Patent No. 742560; 1903), a domestic water still (Patent Nº.
806450; 1905), and other water distillation and sterilisation apparatus such
as Patents No. 823488 (1906), No. 825178 (1906), No. 927764 (1909), No.
1039243 (1912), No. 1126937 (1915), No. 1132548 (1915), No. 1143568 (1915),
No. 1202147 (1916), No. 1286498 (1918), and 1360999 (1920). For decades,
Barnstead distillers were known mostly locally. In the early 1910s, the
firm’s products were promoted by a laboratory apparatus supply house and
Barnstead’s water distillers became widely recognized. In collaboration with
the General Electric Company, Barnstead introduced the first successful
electrically heated automatic water still. The firm adopted the name ‘Barnstead
Still and Sterilizer Company’ sometime in the early 20th
century, developing a wide range of water distillers and other products for
laboratory and industrial use. This item is an electric water
distiller for laboratory use, made of copper, described in adverts of the
company from 1923 as ‘The Barnstead Still’ (Figure 1). The distiller
could be built to use fuel or electricity as a heating source. This
instrument has the serial number 16782 and should be dated probably to the
late 1930s – 1940s. The metallic label includes the additional engraved
information: ‘MADE IN U.S.A.’, ‘Barnstead, Still & Sterilizer CO. Inc.,
FOREST HILLS, BOSTON, MASS’, ‘MFGRS CAT NO EL – ½’, ‘CAP GALS PER HR ½’,
‘VOLTS 220’, ‘WATTS 1300’ and ‘AMPS 6’. The information engraved on the
additional smaller metallic label includes: ‘LISTED UNDER REEXAMINATION
SERVICE OF UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES INC, UL’. This label was a certification
of safety by Underwriters Laboratories Inc., originally founded by William
Henry Merrill Jr. in 1894 (then called the Underwriters’ Electrical Bureau).
Over the course of the 1890s, the name gradually evolved into Underwriters’
Laboratories. In 1901, the organization incorporated in the state of
Illinois, USA, as Underwriters’ Laboratories, Inc. The UL’s Reexamination Service was created in 1904 and it
consisted of annual re-examinations of UL certified devices and materials. The
specific metallic plate label trademark on this water distiller started being
used in 1935.
Figure 1. Barnstead Still and Sterilizer
Company’s 1923 advert for ‘The Barnstead Still’ LAST
EDITED: 12.03.2022 |
