Accession No
3719
Brief Description
spectroscope slit, 1875-1925 (c)
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1875
Latest Date
1925
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, steel)
Dimensions
length 94mm; breadth 41mm; thickness 33mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 1988.
Inscription
Description Notes
Brass jaws made of steel. Two slits, each moved by a screw with a drum head which moves against a spring; each drum head calibrated from 0 to 50 by 1. Cast brass mounting rim with bolt holes.
Condition: good; complete.
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:44820
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