Colorless-glass Test Tubes

3D Model

These colorless-glass test-tubes were recovered by CAP in the area of campus that formerly hosted the William James Beal Botantical Laboratory. Alongside the presence of an aqua-glass tube used for ‘flame working,’ the rough and inconsistent ends of these test tubes likely suggests that they were shaped by-hand on-site, rather than produced in molds on an industrial scale.

The Beal Botanical Laboratory was built in 1873, and served as the home of MSU’s Botanical research until 1890, when the structure burnt down in a fire. The extant ‘Beal’s Botanical Garden’ remains one of the most beautiful parts of campus, and is regarded as the oldest operating University botanical garden in the United States.

Background image courtesy of the Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections.