Accession No
1909
Brief Description
prism, 19th Century
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1800
Latest Date
1900
Inscription Date
Material
glass; metal (brass)
Dimensions
length 161mm; breadth 131mm; height 41mm
Special Collection
Cavendish collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 1974.
Inscription
Description Notes
Hollow glass prism with brass binding strips. Strips are tightened by screws. Ends of prism are removable and made from frosted glass.
Condition good; complete.
References
Events
Description
Prism
A prism consists of a translucent piece of glass or crystal, usually triangular in cross section, which is used to separate light into a spectrum of its separate colours.
The instrument works because different wavelengths of light are refracted (bent) by different amounts as they enter and leave the prism; the shorter wavelengths (towards the blue end of the spectrum) are refracted by the greatest amount, and the longer wavelengths (towards the red end) are refracted the least. This spreads out normal white light, which is a mixture of all the different colours, into its constituent parts and produces the rainbow effect of a spectrum.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:42610
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