Accession No
1121
Brief Description
table spectroscope, Browning’s ‘Students Spectroscope’, by John Browning, English, c. 1890
Origin
England; London; 63 Strand
Maker
Browning, John
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1890
Latest Date
1890
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, oxidised brass); glass; wood
Dimensions
length 780mm; breadth 218mm; height 320mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Gift in 12/1951.
Inscription
‘John Browning,
63 Strand, London’
Description Notes
Table spectroscope, Browning’s ‘Students Spectroscope’, by John Browning, English, c. 1890.
Brass table spectrometer - Browning’s ‘Students Spectroscope’ - part oxidised brass. Slit, brass jaws, width adjustable by knurled screw, reflecting prism on pivoted arm. Slit cover. Slit mount screws on to brass draw tube. Brass collimator tube with threaded joint in centre, screws into mount on stand, screw-in lens at prism end. Trunkated prism in brass mount held on tripod platform by arm and clamping screw. Circular stage, part divided -5-115 by 1˚, subdivided to 20’ on brass. Mount for telescope pivots about centre of stage with vernier and clamp. Screw-in telescope with screw-in objective, threaded central joint, 2 draw tubes and screw-in eye-end consisting of 2 threaded adaptors, single draw tube with lens and screw-in eyepiece lens. Brass pillar stand with flat tripod base and 3 brass feet secured to wooden base.
Cf. 1852 (and file).
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:44815
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