The podcast “110 Histórias | 110 Objetos” (“110 Stories, 110 Objects”) covers the 110 years of history of Instituto Superior Técnico, through its past, present and future objects.
A collection of objects related to different fields, such as science, music, arts and sports, is the starting point for conversations with people who will tell us more about the history of these objects.
A new episode is released every week. The podcast “110 Histórias | 110 Objetos” (“110 Stories, 110 Objects”) is part of the Público newspaper podcasts.
Today’s episode (#108) – 25th August 2023: “110 Histórias | 110 Objetos” (“110 Stories, 110 Objects”) – The constant deviation spectrometer.
Técnico’s constant deviation spectrometer dates back to 1919 and its main purpose was the chemical analysis of elements. This instrument allows us to identify the type of light emitted by various chemical sources. By detecting the type of spectrum, it’s as if we were reading the barcode of the element itself. Gold, silver, oxygen, carbon…
Using the optical spectrometer, light can be broken down into its individual components, with colours corresponding to different frequencies or wavelengths, from red to blue. These fundamentals were crucial, for example, for astronomy research: it helped to see that the farther away the galaxy or star was, the more it shifted towards the red, which meant it was moving faster. If all the objects we see are moving away from each other, this means that the Universe is expanding, as if it were an explosion. Different from those that led to such conclusions but similar in fundamentals is the spectrometer that can be seen (working) in the Faraday Museum.
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