Abstract
NOW that the Spectroscope is becoming an instrument of world-wide use, we think it will be not uninteresting to call attention to some few points that appear to be often overlooked in designing the instrument for various purposes; and in order to ascertain the best arrangement, we cannot do better than analyse the effects produced in any spectroscope by varying the proportion of its parts. We must, however, premise by saying that the power of an instrument is not altogether dependent on the dispersive power of the prisms, but also on the width of the image of the slit in the eyepiece of the telescope of the spectroscope. To make our meaning clear, let us suppose that the slit is illuminated with a sodium flame, then the dispersive power of the prisms will produce in front of the eyepiece two images, or “lines,” and with the same lenses the distance of their centres will depend upon the prismatic power; but it is clear that if the slit be widened, the two images will eventually widen until they touch each other or overlap. There is, then, the same dispersion, but less separation, than when we use the narrow slit; and it would follow from this that with an almost indefinitely small slit a prism of very small dispersion would give two separate images of a sodium-illuminated slit, which could be magnified so as to have their distance and width the same as would be given by using a wider slit and greater prismatic dispersion; but with an eyepiece of the large power required, the lines would be so diminished in brightness as to preclude this arrangement; and in order to see a spectrum as brilliant as possible, the eyepiece ought to be as low in power as possible consistent with reducing the cylinder of rays sufficiently small that they all enter the lens of the eye.
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S., G. The Optics of the Spectroscope . Nature 10, 467–469 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/010467a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/010467a0