Accession No
3101
Brief Description
prism train, 4 prisms, from spectroscope by Steinheil, German, c. 1880
Origin
Germany
Maker
Steinheil
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1880
Latest Date
1880
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); glass
Dimensions
each prism height 81mm; length 73mm; breadth 65mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 12/1983. Transferred from Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington to Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge in 1913.
Inscription
Description Notes
Prism train, 4 prisms, from spectroscope by Steinheil, German, c. 1880.
4 glass prisms; 3 of 44˚, 1 of 58˚; numbered in paint ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’; in brass mounts each with 3 levelling screws; 5th damaged prism (perhaps replaced); mounts marked ‘SPO/2E’, ‘2PO/2D’, ‘SPO/2C’, ‘2PO/2B’ respectively; prism marked in pencil ‘2b’, ‘2c’, ‘2d’, ‘2e’. Unmounted prism marked in pencil ‘2PO/305’.
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:43410
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