Newton’s Window Prism

This large crown glass prism projects beautiful spectral colours into your room.

Hang the prism in a south-facing window and when the low standing sun shines through the prism, it projects fields of spectral colours sideways into the room. A slight spin of the prism makes them dance around beautifully.

The English mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was one of the founding fathers of the modern theory of colours. Prisms like this one, were commonly known as a toy in Newton’s time, but he was the first one to use them for scientific experiments, leading to his famous Theory of Colours.