Prisme des Passages
date: label: date made
content: second half, nineteenth century
name: label: Maker
content: Secretan
notes: label: Description
content: Marc Secretan (1804–1867), a Swiss mathematician, joined forces with Noël Paymal Lerebours (1807–1873), a French optician, and established a scientific instrument shop in Paris in 1845, under the heading Lerebours et Secretan. Secretan became sole owner of the firm in 1854. Following his death in 1867, his heirs dropped Lerebours’ name.
label: Description
content: Secretan introduced a new “prisme des passages” in 1847, explaining that it could be used to determine precisely the meridional passage of the sun. The “SECRETAN / PARIS” inscription on this example indicates a date after 1867.
label: Description
content: Ref: Secretan, <i>Instruction Sur le Prisme des Passage</i> (Paris,1847; reprint, 1878).
label: Description
content: Lerebours et Secretan, <i>Catalogue et Prix des Instruments d’Optique, de Physique, de Chimie, de Mathematiques, d’Astronomie et de Marin</i> (Paris, 1853), pp. 183-184.
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: Mount St. Mary's College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.326113
label: catalog number
content: 326113
label: accession number
content: 257245
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Prisme des Passages
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 in x 8 1/2 in x 5 in; 38.1 cm x 21.59 cm x 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 7/8 in x 8 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; 37.7825 cm x 21.59 cm x 11.43 cm