# help me identify some glassware **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397 "2003-11-21T00:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/1 "2003-11-21T00:05:16Z")
My chem teacher gave me this (seemingly) useless piece of glasswar last year… it’s about 4 inches high, 1.5 inches in diameter, and about 2.5 inches up, it abruptly narrows into about 1/2 inch diameter, and it has graduations from 0 to 50 there, going up from 0, 50 is near the top. What is this possibly for? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/2 "2003-11-21T00:29:22Z")
Are the ends open or closed? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/3 "2003-11-21T00:40:49Z")
A photograph might be helpful. At first blush, I’m thinking something along the lines of the apparatus used to perform titration, a process used to determine the concentration of an acid or a base in solution. Can’t think of the name, though…anyone? ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/4 "2003-11-21T00:45:16Z")
Titration column. This doesn’t sound like one, though, because they usually come in pairs. It sounds like it’s used to measure large volumes with comparitively small errors, since the narrow cylinder at the top makes hitting exactly 122.2 ml easier. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/5 "2003-11-21T01:03:13Z")
Buret is my guess. Does it have a valve? ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/6 "2003-11-21T01:16:21Z")
nooope, not a buret. the bottom is closed, top is open. All in all, a bit like a reeeallly misshapen flask or grad cylinder. Let me go see if we actually have batteries for the digital cam. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/7 "2003-11-21T01:36:48Z")
That’s a fairly large piece of glassware. Does it have a TS marking for jointware? I’m looking through my organic lab book to see if I can spot anything. Well, nothing in that book. It’s not a very strange centrifuge tube? ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/8 "2003-11-21T02:21:59Z")
no, no distinguishable markings, besides the graduations and a small, frosted hexagon on the front with “USA” and “K” under it. Turns out I over estimated the diameter… It’s about an inch in diameter at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/9 "2003-11-21T05:04:29Z")
It would help if you described the shape of the bottom and the lower part, as well as the mouth. Does it have some kind of base to stabilize it, or does it have a flattened bottom? Is the lower part cylindrical, or does it taper to the narrow part? Does the mouth have a ground glass (‘frosted’) fitting? Anyway, it’s probably a volumetric flask, and it’s probably old. Most volumetric flasks only have one ring, but there are some (Cassia volumetric flasks) with graduated necks. The idea is that 0 is really 100 mL or something, and you can use the rings to measure precisely between, say, 100 and 105 mL. The marking probably means it was manufactured in the USA by Kimble (now Kimble-Kontes), a major glassware manufacturer. A modern volumetric flask would be marked TC or TD for ‘to contain’ or ‘to deliver’ and would also be marked with the volume of the flask and the temperature at which the measurement is accurate. Many volumetric flasks have ground glass mouths for a glass stopper, but it’s possible that yours has an ordinary glass mouth for a cork or rubber stopper (or a Teflon one, in a modern lab). If it’s not a volumetric flask, I can’t think of what it might be – but, yeah, if you could get a picture that would definitely help. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/10 "2003-11-21T05:54:39Z")
It’s probably a Babcock bottle, used in the dairy industry to measure fat content. The “0-50” graduations indicate that it’s a cream bottle, calibrated in percent. A sample is measured into the bottle and centrifuged, and the butterfat content is read directly from the neck. The description makes it sound smaller than the AOAC standard bottle, but it might be specific to some other requirement. [http://www.kimble-kontes.com/html/pg-2015S.html](http://www.kimble-kontes.com/html/pg-2015S.html) ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/11 "2003-11-21T11:50:21Z")
! holy crap, that’s it! I’ll have to go share that amazing discovery with my chem teacher… who’d have thought… centrifuging cream… ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/12 "2003-11-21T12:36:59Z")
That would explain why all the usual markings aren’t there, and why there’s no ground glass fitting. Does the centrifuge hold the milk/cream in the bottle? Somehow I can’t imagine putting anything into a centrifuge without a cap. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-some-glassware/214397/13 "2003-11-21T13:03:15Z")
When microbiologists use centrifuges they are very keen to avoid cross contamination during the spinning process, so caps are used. If you are doing a centrifugation for non-microbiological purposes, for example to perform a separation of components within a suspension then microbiological cross contamination is not an issue. I have used Majonnier tubes in the dairy industry in a centrifuge and no lids were required, for this very reason.