Interferometer
notes: label: Description
content: Designed by the American physicist, Albert A. Michelson, this type of interferometer measures the speed of light along two different paths. Using an instrument of this sort in 1887, Michelson and Edward Morley showed that the speed of light is not affected by the motion of the earth through the supposed luminiferous ether. This example was used with the Mendenhall gravity apparatus at the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey.
label: Description
content: Ref: Clarence H. Swick, “The Force of Gravity and Methods of Measuring It,” <i>Bulletin of the American Geographical Society</i> 44 (1912): 183-189.
label: Description
content: Clarence H. Swick, <i>Modern Methods for Measuring the Intensity of Gravity</i> (Washington, D.C., 1921), fig. 16.
label: Description
content: W. H. Burger, “The Measurement of the Flexure of Pendulum Supports with the Interferometer,” Appendix 6 in <i>Report of the Superintendent of the Coast & Geodetic Survey Showing the Progress of the Work from July 1, 1909 to June 30, 1910</i>.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.315809
label: catalog number
content: 315809
label: accession number
content: 221202
objectType: label: Object Name
content: interferometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 10 3/4 in x 5 3/4 in; 15.24 cm x 27.305 cm x 14.605 cm