The pump was acquired by Francesco Rossetti for the Cabinet of Physics of the University of Padua between August and December 1876.

Maker: Edme Louis Golaz, b.1811 or 1812 – d.1891. The Maison Golaz, founded in 1830 by L. Golaz father, was closed in 1919.

Date: 2nd half 19th century

Description

Of a classical nineteenth-century design, this compression pump consists in a cylinder containing a piston. Thanks to a wooden handle, it is possible to make the piston move within the cylinder. The cylinder is equipped, close to the basis, with a cock and two horizontal tubes, both with a cock as well. Within the tubes, two valves open in opposite directions, so that one allows to suck the external air and the other one allows to expel the air contained in the cylinder. The pump could thus be used both for compression and to create a low vacuum. It is mounted on an cast iron basis with three holes, in order to fix it to the ground or on a table to carry out experiments.

Such pumps were for instance employed to dissolve gas in water: the gas container was fixed to the tube equipped with the aspiration valve, while the liquid container was connected to the other tube. In the nineteenth century, sparkling artificial waters were produced in this way.  

Inscription: L. GOLAZ Rue de Fossès ST Jacques 24 PARIS. 1870

Materials and techniques: brass/wood/cast iron

Dimensions: height 55 cm, width 20 cm, depth 15 cm

Related scholars: Francesco Rossetti (n.1833 – m.1885). Professor of Experimental physics at the University of Padua from 1866 to 1885.

Keywords: mechanics, pneumatics

University of Padua, Museum of the History of Physics

Cat. Number: 156

Exhibitions

• "Bagliori nel vuoto. Dall'uovo elettrico ai raggi X: elettricità e pneumatica dal Seicento ad oggi"., Padua, Botanical garden, 1 February-30 June 2004

Bibliography

• Adolphe Ganot, Traité élémentaire de physique expérimentale et appliquée et de météorologie, 14 ed., Paris, 1870
• Jules Jamin, Cours de physique de l’Ecole Polytechnique, 3 vols., Paris, 1858-1866
• Jules Jamin and M. Bouty, Cours de physique de l’Ecole Polytechnique, 4 vols., Paris, 1878-1883