Accession No
3110
Brief Description
pair of prisms, by Adam Hilger, English, c. 1900
Origin
England; London; 204 Stanhope Street
Maker
Adam Hilger
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1900
Latest Date
1910
Inscription Date
Material
glass; wood; metal (brass); hide (chamois leather)
Dimensions
triangle side 115mm; height 70mm box length 190mm; breadth 145mm; height 129mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 12/1983. Prisms from Hills Spectrograph, Cambridge Observatory.
Inscription
‘Hills
Flint
No 1’ (in pencil on one prism)
‘New fracture 15.6.35’ (in pencil on same prism)
‘1’ (in pencil on same prism)
‘Hills
Flint
No 2’ (in pencil on other prism)
‘2 scratches on face’ (in pencil on same prism)
‘Scratches seen 12.6.35’ (pencil on same prism)
‘2’ (in pencil on same prism)
‘A. HILGER, F.R.A.S.’
204, STANHOPE STREET,
LONDON, N.W.’ (trade label in box)
‘No 1 Prism chipped at three
corners, H.F.N.
Oct. 1910.’ (pencil on label)
Description Notes
Two 60˚ flint glass prisms. Fitted box with Hilger trade label; brass handles; wrapped in two chamois leather cloths.
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:43421
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