Magnified 90,000 times in the electron microscope, weird, wormlike patterns are made by an unsuspected impurity revealed in a study of deposits formed on spent catalysts used in an experimental process. A comparison with a published photograph at the Esso Research center identified this impurity as cuprene, a solid produced from acetylene.

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Magnified 90,000 times in the electron microscope, weird, wormlike patterns are made by an unsuspected impurity revealed in a study of deposits formed on spent catalysts used in an experimental process. A comparison with a published photograph at the Esso Research center identified this impurity as cuprene, a solid produced from acetylene.

Artist Unknown

Title Magnified 90,000 times in the electron microscope, weird, wormlike patterns are made by an unsuspected impurity revealed in a study of deposits formed on spent catalysts used in an experimental process. A comparison with a published photograph at the Esso Research center identified this impurity as cuprene, a solid produced from acetylene.

Date June 1949

Medium Gelatin silver print

Dimensions Image: 7 1/16 × 7 in. (18 × 17.8 cm)

Credit Line Henry Holmes Smith Archive, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 79.200.XX.33.1

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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Publisher Standard Oil Company, New Jersey

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"Magnified 90,000 times in the electron microscope, weird, wormlike patterns are made by an unsuspected impurity revealed in a study of deposits formed on spent catalysts used in an experimental process. A comparison with a published photograph at the Esso Research center identified this impurity as cuprene, a solid produced from acetylene. | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=79.200.XX.33.1