Accession No
0477
Brief Description
spectroscope, by Spencer, Browning and Company, English, 1870 (c)
Origin
England; London
Maker
Spencer, Browning and Company
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1870
Latest Date
1870
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); glass; cloth; hide (leather); wood
Dimensions
length 250mm; breadth 28mm; height 95mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from T.H. Court on 05/03/1929. This object originally was bought with a case, which is now missing.
Inscription
‘PATENT Spencer Browning & Co London’
Description Notes
Brass spectroscope. Fixed screw-in collimator and telescope with central brass housing for prism. Adjustable slit moved by two screws. Eyepiece screws into single drawer.
Cloth lined leather box and wooden picks.
References
Events
Description
Spectroscope
In 1814 Joseph von Fraunhofer noticed that the sun’s spectrum, when dispersed by a glass prism, is crossed by hundreds of fine dark lines. These lines could be used to determine the chemical composition of the sun, stars and many other substances by spectral analysis. The first photograph of the spectrum of a star (Vega) was made by Henry Draper using a spectroscope in 1872.
There are various different forms of spectroscope, but all use a slit and collimator to make a parallel beam of light, a prism for dispersing different wavelengths and a telescope to observe the dispersed spectrum.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:43395
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