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ven colors into which the rays of light divide themselves, when refracted through a glass prism; the color of the clear sky, or a color resembling that, whether lighter or darker; a pigment having such color. Sometimes, poetically, the sky.

Pertaining to the shorter diagonal, as of a rhombic prism. Brachydiagonal axis, the shorter lateral axis of an orthorhombic crystal.

An instrument which by means of a prism of a peculiar form, or an arrangement of mirrors, causes an apparent image of an external object or objects to appear as if projected upon a plane surface, as of paper or canvas, so that the outlines may conveniently traced. It is generally used with the microscope.…

e cantharis, or Spanish fly, a volatile, acrid, bitter solid, crystallizing in four-sided prisms.

r modification is graphite, or blacklead, and in this it is soft, and occurs in hexagonal prisms or tables. When united with oxygen it forms carbon dioxide, commonly called carbonic acid, or carbonic oxide, according to the proportions of the oxygen; when united with hydrogen, it forms various compounds called hydrocar…

vage, cleavage parallel to the faces of an octahedron, dodecahedron, or rhombohedron. -- Prismatic cleavage, cleavage parallel to a vertical prism.

Possessing the qualities of a prism, obliquely inclined to a rhombic base; monoclinic.

rawing, made of clay and plumbago, or of some preparation of chalk, usually sold in small prisms or cylinders. Let no day pass over you . . . without giving some strokes of the pencil or the crayon. Dryden.

A mineral consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with perfect basal cleavage; -- so named from the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt.

or falling athwart; transverse; oblique; intersecting. The cross refraction of the second prism. Sir I. Newton.

or streak in any substance, as wood, glass, etc.; flexure; sinuosity. If the glass of the prisms . . . be without those numberless waves or curls which usually arise from the sand holes. Sir I. Newton.

The revolving square prism carryng the cards in a Jacquard loom. Cylinder axis. (Anat.) SeeAxis cylinder, under Axis. -- Cylinder engine (Paper Making), a machine in which a cylinder takes up the pulp and delivers it in a continuous sheet to the dryers. -- Cylinder escapement. See Escapement. -- Cylinder glass. See…

n of forces, under Resolution. -- Decomposition of light, the division of light into the prismatic colors.

A precious stone or gem excelling in brilliancy and beautiful play of prismatic colors, and remarkable for extreme hardness.

ue bodies or through narrow slits, causing the appearance of parallel bands or fringes of prismatic colors, as by the action of a grating of fine lines or bars. Remarked by Grimaldi (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called diffraction. Whewell. Diffraction grating. (Optics) See under Grating.…

Having twelve similar faces; as, a dihexagonal prism.

of apparent noon. It consists of two mirrors and a plane glass disposed in the form of a prism, so that, by the reflections of the sun's rays from their surfaces, two images are presented to the eye, moving in opposite directions, and coinciding at the instant the sun's center is on the meridian.

arating the different rays of light by refraction, as when the substance is formed into a prism. -- Dis*pers"ive*ness, n.

A prism formed by planes parallel to a lateral axis which meet above in a horizontal edge, like the roof of a house; also, one of the planes of such a form.

A large, elongated cell, either round or prismatic, usually found associated with woody fiber.