Inventory no. 40516 - Former Display Label
HOPE'S EUDIOMETER
c.1825
Described in 1803 by Thomas Charles Hope (1766-1844) to William Nicholson (1753-1815), who promptly made it public in his Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts.
This eudiometer was primarily used for analysing atmospheric air in lecture-demonstrations. It is in two parts: the tube containing the air sample was inserted in the neck of a small bottle filled with an alkali sulphide solution for absorbing the oxygen. This slow reagent was thought to be better than the previously used nitric oxide or glowing phosphorus. The combined bottle and tube were shaken so that all the oxygen was absorbed by the reagent. When the bottle was next placed under water in a pneumatic trough and its side stopper was removed, the level of the water rising into the graduated tube indicated the amount of oxygen that had been absorbed.
Hope succeeded Joseph Black as Professor of Chemistry in Edinburgh in 1799.