Société Genevoise d'Instruments Physiques Optical Bench Accessories


This is a set of accessories for an optical bench, including a set of interchangeable slides with various lenses, pinholes, gratings, etc. for one to pass a beam of light through and observe the resulting diffraction patterns.

Figure 1: Société Genevoise d'Instruments Physiques Optical Bench Accessories. Front view.

Attached letter with the instrument mentioning, "Young's interference experiment and single aperture diffraction..... Punctured paper clips.....double and single holes"

Figure 2: Attached letter with the instrument.

This is a set of accessories for an optical bench, including a set of interchangeable slides with various lenses, pinholes, gratings, etc. for one to pass a beam of light through and observe the resulting diffraction patterns.

Figure 3: Société Genevoise d'Instruments Physiques Optical Bench Accessories

This is a set of accessories for an optical bench, including a set of interchangeable slides with various lenses, pinholes, gratings, etc. for one to pass a beam of light through and observe the resulting diffraction patterns. Additionally, the box contains a set of rotatable holders for these slides and a pair of precisely adjustable mirrors. Unfortunately, it seems that several of the original components have been lost, though some have also been added, such as the envelope of paper cards with tiny pinholes for performing the double-slit experiment (referred to as "Young's Interference Experiment").



These accessories (and optical benches in general) would have been mainly used for educational demonstrations of the principles of optics. This particular set of accessories, imported by Queen & Company, was manufactured by the Société Genevoise d'Instruments Physiques, a Swiss scientific instrument manufacturer active until their string of bankruptcy filings in the early 2000s and subsequent takeover by the Starrag group.