Accession No

1921

Brief Description

double reflecting prism (?) on stand, 19th Century

Origin

Maker

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1800

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, oxidized brass); glass; wood (cork)

Dimensions

height 180mm; base diameter 82mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 1974.

Inscription

Description Notes

Glass prism in cork mount bound in oxidized brass on universal joint with screw-fit attachment to brass pillar mounted on turned brass base.

Condition fair; complete

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:44628