Projection Polariscope

Date: late nineteenth century
Maker: Jules Duboscq
Place: France: Île-de-France, Paris
Dimensions: overall; stand: 14 1/4 in x 8 7/16 in x 8 1/8 in; 36.195 cm x 21.43125 cm x 20.6375 cm; overall; box: 6 in x 21 1/2 in x 10 7/8 in; 15.24 cm x 54.61 cm x 27.6225 cm
Museum: National Museum of American History
Credit line: U. S. Military Academy

This sophisticated and costly instrument was designed to produce and project a wide variety of polarization phenomena. The “J. Duboscq à Paris No. 161” inscription refers to Jules Duboscq, the scientific instrument maker who introduced the form in the mid-1870s. This example has its original wooden box, and full complement of eyepieces.

Ref: Maison Jules Duboscq, Historique & Catalogue de tous les Instruments d’Optique Supérieure Appliqués aux Sciences et à l’Industrie (Paris, 1885), p. 84.

Bertin, “Notice sur la projection des experiences de polarisaion,” Journal de physique théorique et appliquée 4 (1875): 72-84, 111-120.

The museum's own record (Smithsonian, National Museum of American History)

Projection Polariscope

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