Cyanopolarimeter
date: label: date made
content: early 1850s
notes: label: Description
content: François Arago presented two polarimeters to the Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1841—one that he had built himself and a more polished one that had been built by the optical instrument maker, J.B.F. Soleil. Four years later, Jean Charles Athenase Peltier told the Academy about his improved version of Arago’s “cyano-polarimètre” which could measure the intensity of the polarization and the blue color of the sky. Peltier noted that an instrument of his design had been shown at the 1844 Exposition of Products of French Industry, and that examples could be found in 20 cabinets of physics. He also gave the Academy a copy of his recent Memoir which described the instrument and its use, and which thanked Soleil and his son-in-law, Jules Duboscq, for their help in its development.
label: Description
content: Duboscq-Soleil, as the firm was then known, showed a cyano-polarimeter at the Crystal Palace exhibition in London in 1851, and again at the international exhibition held in New York in 1853. This example belonged to Columbia College (now University) in New York, may have been bought in 1853. The inscription reads “J. Duboscq-Soleil / à Paris”
label: Description
content: Ref: M. Ath. Peltier, “De la cyanométrie atmosphérique, ou notice sur les additions et les changements faits au cyano-polariscope de M. Arago, pour le render cyano-polarimètre dans l’observation de tous les points du ciel,” <i>Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique</i> 12 (1845): 433-489.
label: Description
content: Maison Jules Duboscq, <i>Historique & Catalogue de tous les Instruments d’Optique Supérieure Appliqués aux Sciences et à l’Industrie</i> (Paris, 1885), p. 28.
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: Columbia University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.322964
label: accession number
content: 249200
label: catalog number
content: 322964
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cyanopolarimeter
label: Object Name
content: Cyanopolarimeter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 38 cm x 62.5 cm x 14 cm; 14 31/32 in x 24 19/32 in x 5 1/2 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 in x 5 5/16 in x 17 1/2 in; 40.64 cm x 13.49375 cm x 44.45 cm