Could they be thermometers? Anyone know when ones for measuring air temp began being marketed? Clinical thermometers would be different in a number of readily identifiable ways.

Lindsay
________________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Doug Ross [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 1:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: clear glass tubes

Could they be from the inside of a light bulb?

Doug

On 2013-02-02, at 10:19, Sarah Sportman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to identify a few artifacts we recovered from back yard contexts in a 19th century mining town in the Adirondacks.  We found six fragments of thin, clear glass tubes. They are a little smaller in diameter than a modern drinking straw and round in cross-section.  All are broken and each fragment is less than 3 inches long.  The fragments came from the yards of three different domestic sites, including a tenement house, a double house, and the superintendent's house. The sites were occupied from the mid 1870s to the mid 1890s.  Any help in identifying them would be greatly appreciated!
>
> thanks,
> Sarah