Fluid Glass Lens
notes: label: Description
content: This is a hollow plano-convex lens that, when filled with a fluid such as NaCl in glycerine, produces an achromatic image. The form was patented in 1866 by David Acheson Woodward (1823-1909), an artist and inventor who served for many years as principal of the Maryland Institute. The idea was not new, having been described by the Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler, in the eighteenth century.
label: Description
content: Ref: D.A. Woodward, “Improvement in Fluid Lenses,” U.S. Patent 60,109 (1866).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Smithsonian Institution Instrument Room
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.315234
label: catalog number
content: 315234
label: accession number
content: 218479
objectType: label: Object Name
content: fluid glass
label: Object Name
content: fluid glass lens
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in; 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 3/4 in x 11 7/8 in x 12 in; 37.465 cm x 30.1625 cm x 30.48 cm