Accession No
2940
Brief Description
spectrometer, by Philip Harris and Company (1913) Ltd., English, 1930 (c)
Origin
England
Maker
Philip Harris and Company (1913) Ltd.
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1930
Latest Date
1930
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, aluminium, steel); wood
Dimensions
box height 205mm; breadth 179mm; depth 280mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Christie’s, South Kensington, London, England; lot 147, 03/02/1983.
Inscription
‘Philip Harris & CO (1913) LTD’
‘p.h. & Co LTD’
Description Notes
Brass spectrometer with aluminium divided circle graduated 0-90-0 twice, by 10 to 1. Fixed prism table (prism missing); prism clamp; collimator on draw tube; adjustable telescope with screw fit eyepiece and index arm; steel tribach base; wooden box.
References
Events
Description
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:44800
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