Prism
notes: label: Description
content: Equilateral glass prism that may have belonged to Samuel Pierpont Langley, the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Charles Greeley Abbot, the second director of the SAO and fifth secretary of the Institution, made it available to Robert Bruce Withrow, head of the Smithsonian’s Division of Radiation and Organisms, in the mid-1950s. Walter Shropshire, Jr., a scientist affiliated with the Division of Radiation and Organisms (later the Radiation Biology Laboratory, and still later the Smithsonian Environmental Research center) gave it to the National Museum of American History in 2008.
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Walt Shropshire
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2008.0009.01
label: catalog number
content: 2008.0009.01
label: accession number
content: 2008.0009
objectType: label: Object Name
content: prism
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 cm x 10.3 cm x 10.3 cm; 6 5/16 in x 4 1/16 in x 4 1/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 5/8 in x 6 in x 5 1/4 in; 19.3675 cm x 15.24 cm x 13.335 cm