baume meter

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Wed, 29 Aug 2007, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> The answer to your question is to buy a $30 baume meter from Cole Parmer and 
> also a test tube tall enough so it can be submerged mostly (about a foot). 
> I've been communicating with Art Chakalis about this and he has a measure of
Chris, I'm curious about this $30 "baume meter."  A long time ago (tho not 
so long as it could have been) I used a baume meter from the chem 
department at school... It was a beautiful little thing, probably from 
about 1890, some simple but delicate/intricate mechanical operation.... 
and it was all I could do to refrain from stealing it. (Tho I did refrain, 
or maybe I just lacked courage -- which was dumb in the long run, because 
a year later they closed that dept & the darling old thingum was probably 
dumped). I was trying to see if the differences I found in behavior among 
commercial gums (quite striking) were from different baume -- they 
weren't, as all were about the same, as was the pH. I finally decided the 
differences were from preservative and/or source of the acacia, which I'd 
never know for sure, so live with it.

But that "thingum" was a simple little device, used (if memory serves) 
also in winemaking.  I can't see a contemporary version costing $30 (maybe 
$6)-- so I'm imagining there's now a digital instrument. I ask out of 
curiosity as I have no plans to abandon my nice commercial live-forever 
gums.  But what is the $30 baume meter? Battery operated?  Hard drive 
attached?  And Cole Porter -- or I guess that's Cole Parmer.  They have a 
website?

Have you used this instrument? .... I remember the rather expensive pH 
meter I bought that never worked as well as the strips on a roll... which 
of course may have been my fault for not properly titrating the solution. 
There's probably an adage about that... (probably Occam's razor, tho that 
is of course wrong).

Meanwhile, TIA & happy labor day

PS. What did work very well in the chem lab was, not a test tube, but a 
rather fat graduate (the glass, not the human kind). You could fit 
whatever you wanted in it.

Judy