2-840-026 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

This liquid oxygen flow regulator was tested by the American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) about July 1926. There were two of these devices, each placed on the ends of liquid oxygen pipes. Within each regulator (within the cylindrical cage formed by the regulators) Goddard placed a cork. As the liquid oxygen flowed through these pipes, a certain amount of condensation was allowed to escape through holes at the bottom of each regulator. The corks thus freely moved upward within the cage, but only to the top of the cage, and therefore limited how much condensation could be released. Mrs. Robert H. Goddard donated this object to the Smithsonian Institution in 1959 as part of a large collection of artifacts from her husband.