Accession No
2542
Brief Description
spectrograph, by Adam Hilger Ltd., English, 1930-1931
Origin
England; London
Maker
Adam Hilger Ltd.
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1930
Latest Date
1931
Inscription Date
Material
metal (steel, cast iron); stone (quartz)
Dimensions
length 1330mm; breadth 560mm; height 425mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1980.
Inscription
‘SCREW = 5m/m’ (on slit end)
‘ADAM HILGER LTD LONDON, ENGLAND
No F.31.302
30752’ (on slit end)
‘ADAM HILGER LTD
LONDON, ENGLAND No. E315.304
31215’ (on cover)
‘AH
LTD
ADAM HILGER
LONDON ENGLAND’ (on camera flap)
‘0.166’ (painted number)
Description Notes
Hilger’s ‘All Metal Medium Quartz Spectrograph’. Slit with steel jaws, width adjustable by micrometer screw, drumhead divided 0-100 by 1; sliding height adjustment with linear scale 0-18mm. Slit sides out on draw tube, retaining clamp on collimator. Cast iron housing entirely encloses optics. Removable cover reveals stage for prism (missing), with 3 clamping screws, and 2 lenses - collimating lens ‘A’ and telescope lens ‘B’ - both sliding in grooves and with linear scales (A 15mm, B 20mm) and clamping screws. Camera with bellows. Mount for photographic plate hinged at one side, with inclination scale. Plate has vertical motion by rack and pinion, with vertical scale of 80mm. Hinged flap. The whole on cast iron mount with 4 legs.
References
Events
Description
Spectroscope
In 1814 Joseph von Fraunhofer noticed that the sun’s spectrum, when dispersed by a glass prism, is crossed by hundreds of fine dark lines. These lines could be used to determine the chemical composition of the sun, stars and many other substances by spectral analysis. The first photograph of the spectrum of a star (Vega) was made by Henry Draper using a spectroscope in 1872.
There are various different forms of spectroscope, but all use a slit and collimator to make a parallel beam of light, a prism for dispersing different wavelengths and a telescope to observe the dispersed spectrum.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:44745
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