Newton's Rings Apparatus
date: label: date made
content: 1870s
name: label: maker
content: Lutz, Edouard
notes: label: Description
content: “Newton’s Rings” refers to the interference pattern created by the reflection of light between a spherical surface and an adjacent flat surface. Robert Hooke mentioned the phenomenon in his <i>Micrographia</i> (London, 1664), and Isaac Newton discussed it at length in his <i>Optics</i> (London, 1704). By the early nineteenth century, Newton’s Rings were routinely included in accounts of natural philosophy.
label: Description
content: Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Smithsonian, purchased this example for the Institution. The “Ed LUTZ, Paris” inscription is that of Édouard Lutz, an optical instrument maker who was in business ca. 1870-1896.
label: Description
content: Ref: Édouard Lutz, <i>Catalogue des Instrumens d’Optique</i> (Paris, 1872). Here (p. 26), the “Appareil de Newton” cost 20 fr.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
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.315381
label: catalog number
content: 315381
label: accession number
content: 219902
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Newton's rings apparatus
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 3 1/8 in x 3 in; 5.08 cm x 7.9375 cm x 7.62 cm