Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Mounted prism
    • Setting:
      Room XI
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Date:
      second half 18th cent.
    • Materials:
      glass, wood, brass
    • Dimensions:
      base diameter 156 mm, height 366 mm, prism side 26 mm
    • Inventory:
      774
    • Mounted prism (Inv. 774)

Equilateral glass prism with a mount, fixed to a small turned wooden column by means of an elbow joint. Resembles prism inv. 773. Isaac Newton used instruments of this type for his famous experiments on the separation of white light into a polychromatic spectrum.