Accession No

1902

Brief Description

five prisms

Origin

Maker

Class

optical

Earliest Date

Latest Date

Inscription Date

Material

glass

Dimensions

of 1902.1 length 175mm; breadth 42mm; depth 25mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

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

Inscription

Description Notes

1902.1: 90˚ glass prism with 2 glass handles.
1902.2 length 164mm; breadth 28mm; height 22mm
1902.3 length 128mm; breadth 22mm; height 18mm
1902.4 length117mm; breadth 22mm; height 18mm
1902.5 length 111mm; breadth 20mm; height 17mm

Condition

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:42679