Origin
This air pump was created by William Harris and Co. in London around 1809. Harris worked for a famous scientist called Sir David Brewster before opening this shop in London and producing instruments under his own name in about 1800 (Edwin, 2018, para. 2). Frederick Hall, a professor at Middlebury College, most likely bought this instrument from Harris during his tour and brought it back to use it for his demonstrations in class. It seems that Frederick Hall esteemed Harris’ skills as an instrument-maker. He also purchased other devices like the peep-sight alidade and early quadrant electrometer from William Harris around the same time period.