796  Who  Invented  the  Tall  Percolator?  l^Nolm^e^^iiTd. 
operator's  disposal  will  permit.  Certainly,  such  a  procedure  will 
amply  compensate  in  elegance  and  permanence  of  product. 
{To  be  Continued) 
WHO  INVENTED  THE  TALL,  NARROW  PERCOLATOR? 
By  George  M.  Bertnger,  Ph.M. 
Camden,  N.  J. 
The  historian  is  concerned  in  determining  to  whom  credit  should 
properly  be  given  for  each  discovery,  invention  or  advance  made  in  our 
knowledge.  The  history  of  pharmaceutical  products  and  of  the  ap- 
paratus and  the  processes  used  by  pharmacists  has  not  received  the 
careful  study  that  it  merits  and  to  determine  the  question  of  priority 
in  the  development  of  these  will  often  times  require  critical  review 
of  the  data  and  literature  available.  The  longer  the  delay  in  set- 
tling questions  that  are  involved  and  mooted  the  more  difficult  of 
settlement  they  become. 
Pharmaceutical  literature  and  the  catalogues  of  apparatus  manu- 
facturers very  generally  speak  of  the  "Oldberg"  and  the  "Cylin- 
drical" percolator,  and  credit  is  given  to  the  late  Prof.  Oscar  Old- 
berg for  having  originated  this  type  of  percolator.  From  the  writer's 
study  of  this  question  he  is  convinced  that  neithet  the  word 
"cylindrical"  nor  the  appellation  "Oldberg"  in  this  connection  is 
correct. 
Reference  to  the  original  displacement  apparatus  of  Boullay 
(see  page  772)  shows  that  the  body  or  tubular  portion  of  the  per- 
colator was  really  cylindrical  but  not  proportioned  in  height  and 
width  to  what  is  now  accepted  as  the  best  dimensions  for  percola- 
tion. The  orifice  of  the  Boullay  apparatus  was  of  the  funnel  type 
with  slanting  sides  and  without  the  usual  shoulder  above  the  orifice 
of  the  percolator  that  has  since  been  commonly  adopted. 
Upon  referring  to  the  original  paper  of  Prof.  Oldberg,  as  pub- 
lished in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion for  1884,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  title  thereof  was  "A  Set  of 
Standard  Dimensions  for  Simple  Percolators."  In  his  paper  he 
distinctly  states  that  "I  propose  to  summarize  the  conclusions  to  be 
derived  from  the  able  and  exhaustive  studies  of  Dr.  Squibb  and 
