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Vintage glucose meter

JustLucky

JustLucky

Well-Known Member
Messages
61
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone hope you are all doing well. :cool:

I was just wondering if any of you ever used this kind of meter?
It is from the 1930s, so maybe too old for first hand experience. :borg: I'm just curious on how it works, it is interesting

It is called a Carl Zeiss Ikon D and it is for sale on ebay, not sure if I'm allowed to put a direct link here...
s-l400.jpg
 
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JustLucky said:
It is called a Carl Zeiss Ikon D and it is for sale on ebay, not sure if I'm allowed to put a direct link here...
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That's fascinating. I was diagnosed in 1970 and didn't have any sort of meter till the 80s...
 
Carl Zeiss are known for their quality cameras, so my thoughts are also that it's a piece of laboratory equipment, e.g. a microscope with a Zeiss lens for testing blood samples.

(edited for spelling error)
 
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Antje77 said:
I'm curious but I couldn't find it on ebay when I searched.
And yes, you can post the link, unless you're the seller or know the seller.
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Here it is, it is in Netherlands :)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zeiss-Ikon-D-Vintage-blood-sugar-calorie-meter-in-Original-Box/265486078721

Riva_Roxaban said:
Here's an article here, it looks like a piece of lab equipment than something the NHS would hand out for home testing. :D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/heritagefutures/8275133422
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Thanks for the article, a shame it is old so the 3 links don't work... not much info on this on the internet, this article is most informative of all :)...
I suppose it is something that could have been used by a nurse or a doctor for a "quick" measurement...


Robbity2 said:
Carl Zeiss are known for their quality cameras, so my thoughts are also that it's a piece of laboratory equipment, e.g. a microscope with a Zeiss lens for testing blood samples.
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Zeiss is actually maker of professional microscopes, along with other optics devices...
 
JustLucky said:
Zeiss is actually maker of professional microscopes, along with other optics devices...
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One of the last th ings I saw when I had my first cataract removed, was Zeiss as my head went under the microscope so the ophthalmologist could see what she was doing..
 
JustLucky said:
Zeiss is actually maker of professional microscopes, along with other optics devices...
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Which is why I was suggesting the item is a microscope for examining blood samples rather than some sort of blood glucose testing meter.
 
Robbity2 said:
Which is why I was suggesting the item is a microscope for examining blood samples rather than some sort of blood glucose testing meter.
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According to @Riva_Roxaban 's link it is both. You test the bg by optically comparing colours. Sounds like a blood version of one of those sticks for urine testing.
Wonder how accurate it is!

From the linked article:
"The item is an optical device to determine the level of blood sugar in a sample. A small hand wheel turns a coloured tinted disc. A prepared sample is filled into a glass and inserted into the Kolorimeter. When the colour of the sample (at left) and and the colour of the disc (at right) match, a lever is flipped to reveal the scale is graduated 30–400 mg%."
 
Antje77 said:
But I own enough useless stuff already, 50 USD is a lot of money, and it likely won't work anymore.
Still, I have family in Katwijk, so I wouldn't even have to have it posted...
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You could always make an offer! It looks very interesting.
 
I had a bit of fun doing some research on this:

From eBay listings:
On box lid: Blutzucker - Kolorimeter nach Crecelius Seifert
Wikipedia's definition of a Kolorinter aka Colorimeter:
A colorimeter is a device used in colorimetry that measures the absorbance of particular wavelengths of light by a specific solution.

Description of our Crecelius Seifert calorimeter from WorldCat:
Colorimeter. Enameled metal base supports mounted circular colorimeter with attached cylindrical ocular lens; colorimeter has square side opening for squared test tube (containing blood sample) and a hinged door and metal rotating disk on underside; glass ocular lens allows viewing of color standard, blood sample, and hemoglobin scale. Round plastic case contains filter paper. Instruction and information booklets are included.

Worthpoint also provides a description and detailed step by step procedures used to check the blood samples, but briefly:
Very simply, a tincture is prepared by mixing a patient’s blood, distilled water and diluted picric acid. After agitation and filtering, sodium hydroxide is added & heated a few minutes. The resultant picramic acid acquires a radish color, the proportional intensity of which can be measured & compared to a color scale in the instrument’s eyepiece, thus the percentage of sugar in the blood is determined.

And more information from Wikipedia regarding picric acid's use in checking blood sugar:
This reduction of picric acid was also formerly used in Crecelius-Seifert's method for measuring blood sugar levels. This is a colorimetric method for determining blood sugar levels. A solution of picric acid is mixed with a blood sample; the protein is then filtered off. By adding caustic soda and heating the sample in a water bath, picric acid is reduced by the blood sugar to picramic acid, which has a red color. After cooling, the blood sugar level can be read in a sugar colorimeter.

And finally, from PubMed some references to various papers on the Crecelius-Seifert method, and an abstract of one of the papers:
Kritik der colorimetrischen Blutzuckerbestimmung nach Crecelius-Seifert (Study of Crecelius-Seifert's colorimetric blood sugar method.) Buttner, H. E. ; Christ, H.; Klinische Wochenschrift 1931 Vol.10 pp.1815-1816 ref.5
Abstract : Crecelius and Seifert's picric acid method is rapid and very simple, but has been adversely criticized. Buttner and Christ showed that by standardizing the conditions, results comparable with those by Hagedorn-Jensen's method might be obtained. The error tended to be of the same order with concentrations of glucose varying from 50 to 500 mg. per 100 c.c., so that the percentage error was much lower in higher concentration. Average deviation on any determination was about 4 mg. (In German)

@Antje77 - there are also a couple more of this Instrument on eBat but much further from home (Kiev & USA), but somehow I don't think we;d be opting to buy use them due to their reliance on explosive picric - which I somehow doubt will be found in our kitchens! :D
 
Robbity2 said:
but somehow I don't think we;d be opting to buy use them due to their reliance on explosive picric - which I somehow doubt will be found in our kitchens! :D
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You should have told that part at the beginning of your post, I was getting more and more enthousiastic of buying this thing until I came to the very end. Such a disappointment. :(
Goonergal said:
You could always make an offer! It looks very interesting.
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No picric acid in my kitchen so it's no use. Too bad, I'd have loved to give it a try!
 
In those days I imagine that +/-15% would have seemed impossibly accurate.
 
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