Spectroscope
date: label: date made
content: 1870-1900
name: label: maker
content: Browning, John
notes: label: Description
content: The Sorby-Browning micro-spectroscope is a direct-vision instrument that fit on the eye-end of a microscope. The form was developed by Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908), an English microscopist, and John Browning (ca. 1831-1925), the first important English spectroscope maker. It excited great interest when introduced in 1865, found numerous scientific, medical, and forensic applications, and was still popular at the turn of the century.
label: Description
content: This example incorporates several features that were introduced in 1870. One is a bright-line micrometer at the upper part of the prism tube that was used to measure the position of spectral lines. Another is a thumb-screw on the side that was used to focus the prisms and eye-glass on different parts of the spectrum. And yet another is an adjustable mirror that throws light onto the auxiliary slit at the side. The inscription reads “John Browning / London.”
label: Description
content: Ref: “On a New Micro-Spectroscope,” <i>Chemical News</i> 15 (1867): 220-221.
label: Description
content: H. Schellen, <i>Spectrum Analysis</i> (New York, 1872), pp. 133-140.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Optics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.323563
label: catalog number
content: 323563
label: accession number
content: 251552
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spectroscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 1/2 in; 19.05 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 15/16 in x 9 1/4 in x 4 in; 7.46125 cm x 23.495 cm x 10.16 cm