Accession No

2796

Brief Description

nicol prism, by Harvey and Peak, English, 1850-1900 (c)

Origin

England; London; W.; Beak Street

Maker

Harvey and Peak

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1850

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass); wood; glass

Dimensions

box length 204mm; breadth 206mm; height 140mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1981.

Inscription

‘Harvey & Peck
Beak Stt : London.W.’

Description Notes

Large Nicol prism in cylindrical brass mount, one end racked and with vernier scale, the other with circle divided on brass 0-360 by 1o. Later fitted wooden box.

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:44174