Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

Fisher burner (1920s)

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This is a laboratory burner, retailed in the USA by Fisher, and should be dated to the 1920s. The instrument is engraved with “FISHER BURNER” and “PAT’D JAN. 1913 - 1921, MADE IN USA”. In 1905, the French engineer Georges Meker developed a laboratory burner producing higher temperatures compared with the standard Bunsen burners. Edwin Fisher, from the USA, modified Fisher’s burner and assigned the patent rights to his brother Chester Fisher (the founder of Scientific Materials Co., that later became Fisher Scientific) (Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Fisher burner as featured in “Edwin H. Fisher, “Gas-Burner,” U.S. Patent 1,364,094 (Jan. 4, 1921), assigned to Scientific Materials Co. of Pittsburgh”.