Accession No
1907.1
Brief Description
prism, c.1875
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1875
Latest Date
Inscription Date
Material
glass; metal (brass)
Dimensions
length 65mm; breadth 50mm; height 38mm
Special Collection
Cavendish collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 09/1974.
Inscription
Description Notes
Hollow glass prism with ground stopper. Pieces of glass either side. Bound by 2 brass bands, each with 2 brass clamping screws.
Condition: fair; 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:42669
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