Accession No

1907.3

Brief Description

prism bottle, by John Browning, English, 1875 (c)

Origin

England; London

Maker

Browning, John

Class

optical

Earliest Date

1875

Latest Date

1875

Inscription Date

Material

glass; paper (card and one other)

Dimensions

height 121mm; breadth 56mm; depth 61mm

Special Collection

Cavendish collection

Provenance

Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 11/1974.

Inscription

‘John Browning
London’ (scratched on surface)

Description Notes

Bottle forming hollow 60˚ prism, one ground curved face, ground stopper. Card slip case.

Condition fair (needs cleaning); complete.

References

Events

Description
Prism
A prism consists of a translucent piece of glass or crystal, usually triangular in cross section, which is used to separate light into a spectrum of its separate colours.

The instrument works because different wavelengths of light are refracted (bent) by different amounts as they enter and leave the prism; the shorter wavelengths (towards the blue end of the spectrum) are refracted by the greatest amount, and the longer wavelengths (towards the red end) are refracted the least. This spreads out normal white light, which is a mixture of all the different colours, into its constituent parts and produces the rainbow effect of a spectrum.

18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002

FM:40103