National Museum of American History
Polariscope
Lerebours · around 1830
This instrument, which the U.S. Military Academy bought from Lerebours in Paris in 1830, consists of a hollow brass tube (10.25 inches long) supported by a brass stand (10 inches high). At either end of the tube is a dark rectangular mirror that can be aimed in various directions. It demonstrates the phenomenon, found by Étienne Malus in 1808, that light can be polarized by reflection.
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