Trapezory prism

Trapezory prism. It comes from a 15-drawer cabinet found in the Herschel family home in the 1950s. The contents of this and a similar cabinet seem to suggest that they were used by successive generations of the family to store specimens, material and apparatus for carrying out experiments.

This prism is likely to have been bought by William Herschel or possibly made by either William or his brother Alexander, while William was carrying out experiments on the nature and temperature of light. Alternatively, it may have belonged to William's son John or any one of John's 12 children all of whom were taught and pursued scientific interests and all of whom lived for at least some portion of their lives in the Herschel family home in Slough where this piece was found.

Object Details

ID: AST1029.13
Type: Cabinet contents
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Unknown
Date made: Unknown
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Herschel Collection
Measurements: Overall: 13 x 40 x 35 mm
Parts: Cabinet
Close

Your Request

If an item is shown as “offsite”, please allow eight days for your order to be processed. For further information, please contact Archive staff:

Email:
Tel: (during Library opening hours)

Click “Continue” below to continue processing your order with the Library team.

Continue