Spectroscope

Spectroscope

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Description
Direct vision spectroscope inscribed “WALLACE / SPECTROSCOPE / CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC CO. / CHICAGO.” Instead of a prism assembly, this instrument has a replica diffraction grating of the sort developed by Robert James Wallace (1868-1945), a photographer at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.
Ref: Robert J. Wallace, “Diffraction Grating Replicas,” Astrophysical Journal 22 (1905): 123-130, and 23 (1906): 96-99.
Central Scientific Company, Physical and Chemical Apparatus (Chicago, 1909), p. 234.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
spectroscope
date made
early 20th century
maker
Central Scientific Company
place made
United States: Illinois, Chicago
Measurements
overall: 4 in; 10.16 cm
overall in housing: 3 11/16 in x 3 1/4 in x 6 7/16 in; 9.36625 cm x 8.255 cm x 16.35125 cm
ID Number
PH.337125
catalog number
337125
accession number
1979.0026
subject
Science & Scientific Instruments
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
Science & Mathematics
Optics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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Comments

A fine instrument. I have one of the first produced and it still functions as designed to this day. Robert Wallace referred to himself in a self made drawing/caricature as: “A lemon in a garden of love” While working at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay Wisconsin he was a fine creative photographer and designer of apparatuses.

Patrick Baron

Thu, 2020-02-27 07:59

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