Accession No
2565
Brief Description
spectroscope, by Adam Hilger Ltd., English, 1910 (c)
Origin
England; London
Maker
Adam Hilger Ltd.
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1910
Latest Date
1910
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); glass
Dimensions
length 254mm; breadth 50mm; depth 40mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 5/6/1980.
Inscription
‘ADAM HILGER LTD
LONDON ENGLAND’
Description Notes
Brass spectroscope. Slit with glazed cover. Telescope attachment. Collimeter with draw tube. Telescope (fixing screw missing) fixed for slight deviation. Screw-in eyepiece with sliding focus.
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:44808
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