Accession No

1908

Brief Description

7 assorted prisms, 19th C

Origin

Maker

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1800

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

glass; paper (card); hide (leather); metal (brass, white metal); cloth (velvet, silk)

Dimensions

1908.1 length 35mm, breadth 29mm, height 16mm 1908.2 length 49mm, breadth 44mm, height 32mm 1908.3 length 76mm, breadth 35mm, height 29mm 1908.4 length 62mm, breadth 62mm, height 25mm 1908.5 length 59mm, breadth 35mm, height 39mm 1908.6 length 53mm, breadth 33mm, height 22mm 1908.7 diameter of base 43mm, height 18mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 1974.

Inscription

‘Optical
Very Obtuse
Prism
for effecting the
mixture of two
streams of light
coming from the
same spot
Very valuable’ (box for 1908.4)

Description Notes

1908.1 small prism made of greenish glass and full of air bubbles; 32˚ x 73˚ x 75˚.
1908.2 prism - unpolisted ‘as-cast’; approx equilateral triangular ends.
1908.3 equilateral triangular prism with one face painted black. In leather-covered box lined with red velvet and red silk.
1908.4 prism appearing as glass plate, but with very obtuse angle. In cardboard box.
1908.5 iscosceles triangle cross-section prism, 40˚ x 70˚ x 70˚; short face unpolished.
1908.6 prism with short face unpolished, 40˚ x 70˚ x 70˚.
1908.7 conical prism, top chipped.

Condition fair; complete.

References

Events