Melloni Bench

Ruhmkorff, Heinrich Daniel · early 1840s

Joseph Henry, the first notable American physicist after Franklin, was in Europe in 1837, meeting scientists and purchasing apparatus for research and classroom demonstrations at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). While in Paris, Henry spent time with Macedonio Melloni, the Italian physicist who had recently connected the properties of radiant heat with those of visible light. In 1841, Henry commissioned a travelling friend to procure a Melloni apparatus from Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff, an up-and-coming instrument maker in Paris. This example, used at Princeton, seems to be part of that apparatus. The inscription reads “Ruhmkorff Rue des Orfevres 6.”