Barometers Realm

Before us is a rare Faux Tortoiseshell Acrylic Barometer manufactured by the German company Lufft and dating approximately to 1935–1939 — a short and today particularly fascinating period in the firm’s history, when the company was already under the direction of Dr. Richard Müller-Lufft while simultaneously owning the Parisian company E. Hüe, acquired in 1923 in order to strengthen trade with France. It was during this period that Lufft produced a distinctive French line of instruments featuring localized dials, modernist design, and cases made from early decorative plastics. In 1939, the export branch effectively ceased operations and the French enterprise was lost, allowing instruments of this type to be confidently attributed to a very narrow chronological window existing between the acquisition of Hüe and the outbreak of the war. Additional confirmation is provided by a French Lufft-Hüe catalogue of the 1930s, which illustrates the desk barometer No. 932, described as “Baromètre à poser, monté sur un cadre en matière plastique (couleurs diverses), avec entourage chromé”, featuring an identical case plate.

Structurally, the instrument consists of a square plate measuring approximately 12 × 12 cm with a circular opening in the center into which the barometric movement is mounted within a chromed metal housing. On the reverse side, the case is fitted with a small folding aluminum stand allowing the instrument to be used as a desk barometer. On the front, a brass bezel is attached to the plate with screws and fitted with mineral glass featuring a faceted edge, producing the characteristic refraction of light typical of decorative instruments of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne period. The overall composition appears highly geometrized and fully belongs to the aesthetic of late interwar modernism, in which Victorian ornamentation was abandoned in favor of material quality and purity of line.

The principal feature of the barometer is its striking faux tortoiseshell case. The plate possesses a deep amber-brown transparency with characteristic elongated dark streaks creating the impression of molten amber or an organic material. Under side illumination the case becomes almost entirely translucent, while the pattern acquires remarkable visual depth and internal dimensionality. The material is highly rigid, exhibits no shrinkage around the mounting holes, and retains stable geometry, which is atypical for earlier decorative plastics such as celluloid or galalith. Material analysis further indicates that the plate does not react to acetone and, under localized heating, displays thermoplastic melting with the formation of a semi-transparent pale droplet without any pronounced phenolic or camphor odor. Under ultraviolet light it produces a characteristic cloudy green fluorescence with brighter areas in sections protected from light by the metal bezel. Taken together, these characteristics allow the material to be identified with high probability as an early acrylic plastic — polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), known under trade names such as Plexiglas, Acrylglas, Perspex, and others.

The history of this material is itself closely connected with Germany and represents an important chapter in the development of European industrial design. The German chemist Otto Röhm (1876–1939), who later founded the company Röhm & Haas in Darmstadt together with Otto Haas, had already begun experimenting with the polymerization of acrylic acid and its esters in the early twentieth century, obtaining transparent polymers resembling flexible glass. The first commercial success came in 1928 with PMMA used in laminated safety glass under the name LUGLAS. The decisive breakthrough occurred in 1934, when Röhm, together with his colleague W. Bauer, developed a method for the block polymerization of methyl methacrylate, enabling the production of so-called Acrylglas. Marketed under the trade name Plexiglas®, the material quickly became a symbol of the modern industrial age and was awarded the Grand Prix and gold medal at the 1937 Paris International Exposition. PMMA later appeared under additional trade names including Altuglas, Oroglas, Perspex, and Paraglas. Owing to its transparency, light weight, and ability to assume almost any form, it rapidly found applications in aviation, scientific instrument making, horology, and the decorative arts.

The present barometer is especially significant because its case belongs to the very earliest period of acrylic glass being introduced into decorative instrument making. The German origin of Plexiglas perfectly explains why Lufft adopted the material so early in its own production, while the company’s French branch through E. Hüe provided an understanding of the local market, where a strong tradition of luxury plastics imitating tortoiseshell, amber, horn, and lacquered finishes had already existed since the 1920s. The Lufft-Hüe catalogues of the 1930s demonstrate that such plastic cases were used specifically for the French line of products. It is therefore highly probable that the combination of German technological innovation and French taste for faux tortoiseshell aesthetics resulted in the creation of such an unusual instrument. Earlier decorative applications of this kind had relied on older plastics such as celluloid and galalith, while after the outbreak of the war both the aesthetics of instruments and the materials themselves changed considerably, with Bakelite and more utilitarian technical plastics entering mass production.

The dial of the barometer is of open construction and made from cardboard and paper. It consists of two concentric circles superimposed upon one another: the inner ring carries the barometric scale in millimeters of mercury, while the outer ring provides textual weather indications in French. This arrangement creates a visually light and modern appearance, allowing part of the mechanism itself to remain visible through the center of the dial.

At the core of the movement is a compact aneroid capsule measuring approximately 30 mm in diameter, manufactured from nickel silver and tensioned by a U-shaped steel spring. Motion is transmitted to the pointer arbor by means of a simple thread mechanism — a characteristic and economical solution frequently encountered in small interwar desk barometers. Despite its miniature dimensions, the movement displays careful finishing, blued screws, and the level of craftsmanship typically associated with Lufft production; the company logo is engraved on the reverse side of the movement.

Overall, this barometer represents a rare example of a transitional period in the history of European scientific instrument making, when traditional nineteenth-century mechanics became united with the newest synthetic materials and the aesthetics of industrial modernism. At the same time, it reflects the early history of acrylic plastics, the Franco-German collaboration of Lufft-Hüe, and the interwar ambition to transform the scientific instrument into a fully decorative object of the modern age.