EBULLIOSCOPE MALLIGAND - THERMOMETER

1938 - 1949
Overview

L shaped brass and glass thermometer. The horizontal arm is flat and rectangular in shape. On the front is a an indentation that houses a glass a thermometer over a scale etched onto the brass underneath it. At the top of the vertical arm is a circular cap with a slightly smaller solid disk under it. A screw thread is on the outside of the disk. A metal tube then extends out from the middle of the disk.
In the top of the cap next to where the thermometer bends out is a small threaded hole.
The cap and disk screw into the top of the cone shaped boiler with the thermometer arm sticking out at a right angle.
In the top left corner is an engraved logo of three leaves, two side by side and one under them with a bunch of grapes sitting in the middle of the three leaves. A star is in the left and right leaf, text on the bottom leaf.

Historical information

In 1894 business partners, and later brothers-in-law, Martin Jull and Mitchell Stewart started a vineyard in the hills overlooking Armadale where they planted several varieties of wine grapes. In 1896 visiting British lord, Sir Arthur Stepney, bought Stewarts share of the vineyard. Three years later he purchased Julls share of the vineyard and named it Derry Na Sura, which reportedly translates from Gaelic to Valley of the wine. Clement Edward Pike was the manager of Derry Na Sura vineyard between 1938 and the late 1940s. Clement Pike was born in Magill, a suburb in the foothills in eastern Adelaide, in 1899. He had come to Western Australia from South Australia where he had been a wine maker in Magill. This collection of instruments was used by Mr Pike at Derry Na Sura to test the quality and the alcohol content from the wines that they produce. In 1949 Clement took Derry Na Sura Pty Ltd to court for breach of contract which he won and was awarded 72 pounds. He then moved to East Bullsbrook were he ran another vineyard until 1954 when it is thought he returned to South Australia. He died in Margill in 1981, aged 93 years.
The Ebullioscope determines the alcoholic content of wine by heating it. Water is boiled first to observe its boiling point to compare against the wine sample. The sample of wine would be boiled next, the higher the alcoholic content of the wine the lower the boiling point.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-33-AK1984.653d
Material
Inscriptions and markings

bottom leaf [E.B.V]

Place made
paris
France
Year
1938
Year End
1949
Statement of significance

This object is a part of a collection that represents the skills and scientific knowledge required to produce wine and fortified wines in a commercial vineyard and how the products of the wineries were sold and marketed across Western Australia. The collection also represents the important role wine making played in the agricultural development of the City of Armadale from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. During this period several large and small commercial vineyards operated along Albany Highway and the South West Highway.

Comparative significance criteria
Interpretive capacity
Rare or representative
Well provenanced
City of Armadale - History House

City of Armadale - History House

Organisation Details
View Collection
Item Feedback

Thermometer arm for the Ebullioscope. This is an L shaped instrument with a threaded section for connection to the boiler.

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