Polariscope
date: label: date made
content: 1847-1872
label: date made
content: 1865-1872
notes: label: Description
content: This polariscope, found in a Smithsonian storeroom and transferred to the Museum in 1956, was probably part of the “large collection of articles of Foreign and curious research” that Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as the founding Secretary of the Institution, intended to use “to excite the love of learning” in the United States. The “Soleil / rue de l’Odéon / à Paris” inscription on the tube could refer to J. B. F. Soleil from whom, in 1847, Henry ordered “a complete set of articles for the polarization diffraction and interference of light.” But, since that early apparatus was destroyed by a fire that swept through the Smithsonian Castle in January 1865, we suspect that this instrument came from Henri Soleil, the son who worked at that address from 1849 until 1872.
label: Description
content: This instrument consists of a brass tube (14.5 inches long) on a brass stand (13 inches high). At one end of the tube is a two sided glass mirror with a small graduated brass circle at one side. Between that and the tube is a larger brass circle graduated by degrees and read by vernier. The analyzer that was once at the other end of the tube has been lost.
label: Description
content: Ref: H. Soleil, <i>Catalogue des Appareils d’Optique</i> (Paris, 1867).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314954
label: catalog number
content: 314954
label: accession number
content: 212903
objectType: label: Object Name
content: polariscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 14 1/2 in; 33.02 cm x 36.83 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 1/4 in x 5 1/2 in x 14 1/2 in; 38.735 cm x 13.97 cm x 36.83 cm