Tourmaline Tongs
notes: label: Description
content: By 1816, the Scottish physicist, David Brewster, had devised a simple polariscope in which the object to be examined was held between two plates of a singly refracting crystal (he used agate) placed transversally to one another. Building on this work, the French physicist, Jean Baptiste Biot designed a similar device using tourmaline. These instruments, known variously as polariscopes or tongs, were inexpensive, effective, and easy to use, and soon widely distributed.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
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.329180
label: catalog number
content: 329180
label: accession number
content: 290307
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Tourmaline Polariscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3.3 cm x 4.5 cm x 17.3 cm; 1 5/16 in x 1 3/4 in x 6 13/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/8 in x 6 13/16 in x 1 3/4 in; 3.4925 cm x 17.30375 cm x 4.445 cm