Duboscq heliostat Silbermann type, c. 1885
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The heliostat is designed to reflect a beam of sunlight in a fixed direction, and uses a clockwork driven mirror to counteract the apparent motion of the sun through the sky. The resulting steady beam of sunlight would often be projected into a laboratory for experiments requiring intense light, physical optics studies, microscopy, analysis of the solar spectrum, etc.
This example has an octangular mirror, a clockwork mechanism, and tri-leg base with leveling screws. The inscription on the clock housing reads “J. T. Silbermann Invteur / Fait par J. Duboscq à Paris”.
Jean Thiebaut Silbermann (1806-1865), a physics demonstrator at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris, designed the form in 1843. J. B. F. Soleil made the first examples. Jules Duboscq, Soleil’s son-in-law and successor, was still offering these instruments in 1880s. He made them in collaboration with the Parisian clockmaker Jean Paul Garnier (1801-1869).
Height: 37 cm.
Diameter: 25 cm
