Accession No
3392
Brief Description
direct-vision spectroscope, by John Browning, English, c. 1880
Origin
England; London; 78 Strand
Maker
Browning, John
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1880
Latest Date
1880
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, oxidised brass, steel); glass; wood (mahogany, cork); cloth (baize)
Dimensions
length 450mm; maximum diameter 38mm box length 197mm; breadth 143mm; height 75mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased, 1986. Purchased with grant-in-aid from the PRISM fund, administered by the Science Museum.
Inscription
‘John Browning
78 Strand, London’ (main body)
Description Notes
Direct-vision spectroscope, by John Browning, English, c. 1880.
Brass direct vision spectroscope. Collimator with slit on draw tube, brass jaws adjusted by knurled screw moving against spring. Collimator screws into body of instrument which houses the prisms, set in cork. Screw-in telescope with draw tube eye-end. Screw-in compound eyepiece.
Fitted mahogany box with brass hinges and lock (no key); lined with dark green baize; stores spectroscope in three pieces; chipped in one place.
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:44857
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