Accession No
3245
Brief Description
direct-vision ‘meteor spectroscope’, by John Browning, English, 1870 (c)
Origin
England; London; 63 Strand
Maker
Browning, John
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1860
Latest Date
1880
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, oxidised brass); glass; wood (cork and one other)
Dimensions
length 61mm; diameter 22mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, 08/1985.
Inscription
‘DS & A AST: LAB:
II2
S.P.O.
255
Meteor
Spectroscope.’
‘John Browning
63 Strand
London’ (eyepiece end)
Description Notes
Direct-vision meteor spectroscope, by John Browning, English, c. 1870.
Brass tube containing two prisms set at opposite ends of wooden cylinder and held in place by cork strip. Screw-fit brass and oxidised brass eye-end.
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 used 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:39463
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