Lissajous Apparatus (Tuning Fork and Stand)
name: label: maker
content: Rudolph Koenig
notes: label: Description
content: With a Lissajous apparatus—devised by Jules Antoine Lissajous (1822-1880), a French mathematician—a beam of light is bounced off a mirror attached to a horizontal tuning fork, then off a second mirror attached to a vertical tuning fork, and then onto a wall. The resulting images are the graphs of complex harmonic motions known as Lissajous figures. This example came from the Smithsonian Instrument Room, and was probably purchased by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Smithsonian. It was, moreover, probably made by Rudolph Koenig in Paris.
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.314591.04
label: catalog number
content: 314591.04
label: accession number
content: 205890
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tuning fork
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 1/2 in x 2 3/4 in x 1 7/16 in; 34.29 cm x 6.985 cm x 3.65125 cm