Monochromator
date: label: date made
content: 1920s
name: label: maker
content: Kipp & Zonen
notes: label: Description
content: A monochromator selects and then transmits light of a narrow band of wavelengths. This example, a double monochromator with two prisms, was designed by Pieter Hendrik Van Cittert (1889-1959), a Dutch physicist and, in time, founding director of the Utrecht University Museum. The “KIPP / DELFT HOLLAND” inscription at the slit refers to the maker, an old instrument firm that worked closely with the Dutch scientific community.
label: Description
content: A tag on one foot reads “IMPORTED BY / JAMES G. BIDDLE / PHILADELPHIA.” Biddle boasted that this instrument “gives monochromatic light of great purity” and could be used to measure the distribution of energy through a spectrum.” It was also useful for absorption measurements, calibration of standard lamps, and control of the sensitivity of photographic plates for different colors. And it measured wavelengths as narrow as 15A. It could be had with flint glass prisms or, for much more money, with quartz prisms of the Cornu form.
label: Description
content: Some small pieces are missing.
label: Description
content: Ref: P. H. van Cittert, “Un Monochromateur de grande Luminosité et avec peu de Lumière Diffuse,” <i>Revue d’Optique</i> 2 (1923) 57-60.
label: Description
content: P. H. van Cittert, “Zur Theorie der Doppelmonochromatoren, <i>Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde </i> 46 (1926): 557-563.
label: Description
content: P. J. Kipp & Zonen, <i>Glass Double Monochromator</i>.
label: Description
content: James G. Biddle Co. ad in <i>Science</i> 74 (Oct. 9. 1931): 13.
label: Description
content: K. S. Gibson, “Apparatus for Accurate and Rapid Measurement of Spectral Transmission and Reflection,” <i>Journal of the Optical Society of America</i> 18 (1929): 166.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Netherlands: South Holland, Delft
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: National Bureau of Standards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.318116
label: catalog number
content: 318116
label: accession number
content: 231765
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spectrometer
label: Object Name
content: monochromator
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 1/2 in; 31.75 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 5/8 in x 17 3/4 in x 11 1/2 in; 32.0675 cm x 45.085 cm x 29.21 cm