This spectrometer produced a high dispersion by passing light through the lower part of four tall equilateral prisms, through a totally reflecting prism, and back through the upper part of the prisms. It was probably made to order (for whom we do not know), and was probably fairly expensive. The “John Browning 63 Strand, London” inscription on the horizontal circle refers to the first important English spectroscope maker. Browning was at this address from 1872 to around 1900.
Browning advertised this as a “Large Model Spectroscope, for the use of Physicists,” noting that it cost over ₤38, and was similar to the one he had made for John Peter Gassiot, a prominent fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Ref: John Browning, How to Work with the Spectroscope (London, 1878), p. 57.
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