C. F. Palmer
C. F. Palmer Ltd was a manufacturer of scientific instruments, mostly in the field of physiology.
1891 The company was founded in Brixton by Charles Fielding Palmer. It described itself as a maker of "Research and Students' Apparatus for Physiology, Pharmacology, Psychology, Bacteriology, Phonetics, Botany, etc." It specialized in equipment for the relatively new science of physiology.
Early customers included the hospital of St Thomas's in London.
As a result of good workmanship and excellent contacts with scientists, the company became an important supplier of physiology research equipment in the British Empire until ca. 1950.
Palmer manufactured instruments such as the kymograph, invented by the German physiologist Carl Ludwig in 1847, the Stromuhr (another design by Ludwig) for measuring the rate of bloodflow and a 'dotting machine', designed by William McDougall to measure and record levels of fatigue.
From the 1930s onward, the company catalogue also mentioned equipment for research in psychometrics.
1953 9th Edition of the catalogue: "Catalogue of Research and Students' Apparatus for Physiology, Pharmacology, Psychology, Phonetics, etc." (includes recording cylinders (kymographs, recording drums, electric drums, smoking, varnishing etc.); time recording (time clocks, pendulum clocks metronomes, stopwatches, tippers, time markers or signals, tuning forks, vibrators, drop counters, outflow recorders); recording instruments (tambours, levers, manometers, volume recorders, myographs, light pulleys, weights, writing points); stands (uprights, clamps, rods, adjustable and other X blocks, universal joints, muscle clamps) ; respiration (pumps, metabolism apparatus, operating tables, animal holders, cannulae) ; circulation and perfusion (baths for isolated organs, oxygenators, coagulometer); mechanical (electric motors, shafting, pulleys, brackets, standards, speed varying gears, tablets); electrical (induction coils, relays, rotary and other keys, electrodes) ; instruments for psychology and phonetics)."
1957 "Selection of Recent Apparatus, Also Revised Prices of Research and Students Apparatus Shown in the 9th Edition (1953) of Our Catalogue" (includes Condon's Manometer, dual bath for isolated tissue, intraventricular cannula, Perspex arm plethysmograph, electronic square wave stimulator, students' stimulator, Perspex electrode for phrenic nerve)
1961 Engineers Instrument makers - light mechanical engineers and improvers required. — C. F. Palmer. Ltd. 63a Effra-rd., Brixton, S.W.2.[5]
1964 Derbyshire Stone acquired C. F. Palmer (London) Ltd, of Brixton, specialists in the field of research and students' apparatus for physiology, pharmacology and psychology[6]
By 1966 was a member of the Baird and Tatlock group[7]
1969 Baird and Tatlock was sold to G. D. Searle and Co of the U.S.A.
1960s-70s C. F. Palmer was mostly making electromechanical devices in an increasingly electronic age. so it lost some of its importance as an instrument maker.
1976 SEARLE BioScience, incorporating G. Washington Ltd and C F PALMER (LONDON), of Harbour Estate, Sheerness, Kent.[8]
1976 C. F. Palmer (London) Ltd, of Lane End, High Wycombe, was wound up voluntarily[9]
Renamed PalmerBioscience.
1987 The company was acquired by Harvard Apparatus.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Creative Commons License. This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
- ↑ Creative Commons License. This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
- ↑ Creative Commons License. This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
- ↑ Creative Commons License. This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
- ↑ South London Observer 20 July 1961
- ↑ The Times Sept. 30, 1964
- ↑ The Times Feb. 18, 1966
- ↑ Faversham News 17 December 1976
- ↑ The London Gazette 7 January 1977