Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Papers of the Third International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Budapest, 2–4 July, 1999) – First Part - Varella, Evangelia A.: An analytical laboratory of the 1890’s in Chania/Crete

unfair reaction of potent frauds, dr. Vamvacas managed to acquire great competence. His papers - sent to international journals - dealt with the analysis of wine, milk, butter, olive oil, soap, further with ancient pigments and alloys from archeological excavations in the region; moreover his work was presented in several international congresses of applied chemistry, e.g. Berlin, Rome and London. The broad spectrum of the analyses can be decuded from a price list of the year 1900, mentioning flour, bread, wine, vinegar, beer, milk, butter, cheese, olive and seed oil, soap, sugar, spices, resins, petroleum, drugs and pharmaceutical specialities, dyes and pigments, source and well water, fertilizers, alloys, glass, textiles and paper, blood, saliva and urine. Furthermore, by 1913 dr. Vamvacas published an account of his work. The 240 pages of the large book in 8° format contain the results of all analyses performed in these years and describe in detail the procedures used. Due to the valuable practical information it offered, the manual was widely accepted as an indispensable laboratory aid and acquired the name of The Ark. During world war II the old apparatus escaped bomb destruction by initiative of the already retired dr. Vamvacas, who safely packed his ancient acquisitions waiting for better days. Recently, the laboratory - an oblong hall of ca. 80 m

2 with an adjacent office has been renovated and substantially enriched by initiative of Demosthenes Markoyannakis, head of the chemist's association of the region, and under the care and supervision of the present author. It now acts as the Chemistry Museum of Chania El.Venizelos and Ch. Trikoupis str., Chania/Greece. The collections draw a rather complete picture of the analytical work as performed in the 1890's and 1900's; to the right of the entrance - at the center of the hall's long western side - an old cupboard contains german, french and italian reagents and indicators, burettes, various glass retorts and funnels, devices for the determination of viscosity, specific weight or boric acid. Several painted porcellan and glass recipients grant an aesthetic touch. In a second cupboard are shown various thermometers, densimeters, areometers, lactometers, Gay Lussac and Cartier alcoholmeters, polarimeters, Abbe and Wollny refractometers, microscopes, Roehrig and Schmidt Bondzynski devices for the determination of fat, a copper retort, a crucible, a centrifuge, a petroleum distillator. A third cupboard left to the entrance holds a large assortment of glass and copper vessels - beakers, flasks, volumetric cylinders etc. A barometer and a benzene oxidizing system are fixed on the wall, underneath stand pharmaceutical and precision balances and an ice box. The side opposite the entrance exhibits sophisticated apparatus for the analysis of wine, beer, oil, fat, drugs or blood, saliva and urine: among them several Geissler ebullimeters, a Mohr-Westphal hydrostatical balance, centrifuges, a Heinricisystem for the determination of foreign substances in beer, a device for the determination of carbon dioxide; furthermore various types of Salleron and Dujardin Salleron wine spirit distilling batteries, an Adnet apparatus for the determination of wine residue,