Air pump

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This double-action, double-barrelled air pump was made around 1870, probably by Eugene Ducretet (1844-1915), a scientific instrument maker based in Paris.

The pump has its pistons visible in twin glass cylinders, a feature more common in European air pumps than those made in Britain. It is signed above the barrels 'E. Ducretet & Cie / Paris'. There is a separate mercury manometer, which acts like a small barometer tube, and measures the pressure of the air in the collecting vessel (in this case a bulbous tube).

The firm of Ducretet was founded in 1864, and a trade catalogue issued by the firm dating from 1879 offers three sizes of this model of air pump, depending on the size of the plate carrying the bell jar (not shown), from 350 francs to 750 francs.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-104-287-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1984.85
• Date: Around 1870
  c. 1870
  
• Material: Vacuum pump
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Vacuum pump
  
• Subject:
• Who: E. Ducretet (Possibly the maker)
  E. Ducretet, Paris (Maker)
  
• Where: France, Paris
  France, Paris
  
• Event:
• Description: Two-cylinder double action vacuum pump by E. Ducretet of Paris, c. 1870
  
• References:
  • and Brenni, Paolo, '19th century French Scientific Instrument Makers: VIII - Eugene Ducretet (1844-1915', Bulletin of the SCientific Instrument Society, No 46 (1995), pp 12-7 
  • Catalogue des instrumnets de precision de E. Ducretet & Cie (eteve de M. Froment), Constructeurs d'Instruments de Precision pour les Sciences et l'Industrie...Paris: 1879 
  • For Ducretet, see Payen, J., 'La construction des instruments scientifiques en France au XIXe siecle' in de Clercq, P. R. (ed.) Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and Their Makers. Leiden & Amsterdam: 1985, p 159-82 
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