The Firm and 1903 Catalog of Eduard Zimmermann

Edward J. Haupt (1936 - 2001)

(Dr. Haupt Died in 2001)

Montclair State University

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The firm of Eduard Zimmermann is known primarily through its catalogs, particularly the facsimile catalog produced in Germany 1878 and its later catalogs from 1910 on (see Davis and Dreyfuss, 1986), which are fairly widely held in libraries and archives. In spite of this recognition, this Zimmermann catalog should not give the firm undue importance at the time of its publication, i.e., 1903.

One reason for this lack of importance is that Leipzig was not a high-prestige location for the manufacture of physiological apparatus, and physiological apparatus was the primary source of psychological apparatus at that time, since no Leipzig manufacturers were present at the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893 (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Mechanic and Optik, 1893).

A second reason for the lack of importance of the Zimmermann firm is that it appears merely to be a successor to the partnership of Baltzar and Schmidt. While the firm of Baltzar and Schmidt is extremely difficult to find in German sources (e.g., Brachner, 1986), it nevertheless seems to have been well known and highly regarded. Part of the renown comes from the fact that Baltzar was the personal mechanic of Carl Ludwig, from 1865-1895, the Ordinarius for physiology in Leipzig and the successor of E. H. Weber. Much of Baltzar's apparatus was displayed in a notable book, E. v. Cyon's (1876) Atlas zur Methodik der physiologischen Experimente und Vivisectionen. This book is a series of breathtakingly beautiful woodcuts, apparently almost all done by Cyon himself, of important research apparatus/procedures of the time.

The firm of Baltzar and Schmidt apparently dissolved in 1887, when the Zimmermann firm started. In the Leipzig Adreß-Buch for 1887, no further address for Baltzar and Schmidt can be found, but Baltzar has become the precision machinist for the Leipzig Pharmacological Insitute. Baltzar apparently died in 1899, since in that year, he is not longer listed, but his widow, Frau Baltzar is present.

In 1903, through this catalog, the Zimmermann firm apparently tried to sell itself on two grounds. The first was the connection to Baltzar, since the (Ludwig-) Baltzar kymograph is shown prominently on the cover. The second is the strong presentation of apparatus connected to Wilhelm Wundt. Both of these grounds are somewhat specious. By 1903, precision recording was no longer a matter of a whisker wiping away carbon black from a kymograph drum, but involved photographic registration of a string galvanometer (due to W. Einthoven; 1901), which enabled far more precise and responsive recording.

The Baltzar kymograph was, for many purposes, the standard kymograph. In Borell (1989), the University of Michigan students (Fig. 197) can be seen using Baltzar kymographs, while the Harvard students can be seen paired around devices adapted from the Baltzar device (Fig. 198), but "manufactured locally." In addition, Walter Cannon (Fig. 199) is portrayed using a device that could have come from the Zimmermann catalog or Cyon book, while a lie detector (Fig. 200) shows another adaptation of the kymograph.

Nor was Wundt the leader in psychological instrumentation. William O. Krohn (1893) had reported that G. E. Müller's laboratory was the best in Germany for research; Boring (1950), adds the superfluous and almost certainly incorrect comment, "... presumably second to Wundt." In addition, Victor Henri's (1893) meticulous descriptions of the contents of both laboratories leave no doubt that Müller's equipment was superior. In addition, the 1908 Spindler and Hoyer catalog, which can be found in the Archives of the History of American Psychology, contains a more extensive set of psychological apparatus and descriptions which are far more complete than Zimmermann's.

Thus, while we do not have an immediately contemporary catalog of a better group of apparatus, the Zimmermann catalog should not be taken as the best equipment of the time.

(Copyright (c), Edward J. Haupt, June 16, 1997)

References


Borell, M. (1989). The biological sciences in the twentieth century. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Boring, E. G. (1950). A history of experimental psychology, 2nd Ed. New York: New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Brachner, A. (1986). German nineteenth-century scientific instrument makers. In P. R. De Clercq (Ed.), Nineteenth- century scientific instruments and their makers (pp. 117-159). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Cyon, E. (1876). Atlas zur Methodik der physiologischen Experimente und Vivisectionen: LIV Tafeln in Holzschnitt. Giessen: J. Ricker'sche Buchhandlung.

Davis, A. B., & Dreyfuss, Mark S. (1986). The finest instruments ever made. Arlington MA: Medical History Publishing Associates I.

Deutsche Gesellschaft Für Mechanic Und Optik. (1893). German Exhibition Group 21. Special Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of Scientific Instruments and Appliances exhibited by the Deutsche Gesellschaft... Berlin: Julius Bahlke.

Henri, V. (1893). Les laboratoires de psychologie expérimentale en Allemagne. Révue philosophique de France et de l'étranger, 36, 608-622.

Krohn, W. O. (1893). The laboratory of the Psychological Institute at the University of Göttingen. American Journal of Psychology, V(2), 282-284.


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