Accession No

1911

Brief Description

prism and stand, late 19th C

Origin

Maker

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1875

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

glass; metal (oxidised brass; brass; silver)

Dimensions

length 115mm; breadth 81mm; height 228mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 1974. From Sir David Solomon’s bequest to the Cavendish Laboratory.

Inscription

Description Notes

90˚ glass prism mounted in brass; silvered back; pivots about vertical axis in oxidised brass mount; clamp. Pillar stand, light adjustable clamp. Turned base.

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:43402