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Scientific apparatus and instruments

Vacuum desiccator belonging to Rosalind Franklin

  • After 1940 – before 1958

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BY 4.0

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Glass chamber for dehydrating samples over a desiccant chemical. Desiccant crystals remain in the bottom lobe of the device. A valve on the side of the upper lobe allows a vacuum to be attached. After being used by Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) and Raymond Gosling (1926-2015) at King’s College London circa 1952, this desiccator remained in Gosling’s possession. The practice of drying and moistening samples played an important role in Franklin and Gosling’s research on the structure of DNA. They showed that the DNA molecule occurred in two distinct forms, A and B, depending on humidity. In Gosling’s 1954 PhD thesis, he described using a desiccator to dry DNA samples over the chemical phosphorus pentoxide.

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  • 44.5 cm H x 36.8 cm D (object with lid in place)
  • 12.7 cm H x 36.8 cm D (lid)
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Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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  • Science History Institute
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  • Courtesy of Science History Institute

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Science History Institute. Vacuum Desiccator Belonging to Rosalind Franklin. Photograph, 2025. Science History Institute. Philadelphia. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/qumhgda.

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