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He′li-o-stat.


Optics.) An instrument invented by Gravesand, 1719, by which a sunbeam may be steadily directed to one spot during the whole of its diurnal period. Improved by Malus, Foucault, and Dubosq.

The object of the instrument is to make a sunbeam apparently stationary for purposes of experiment, obviating the inconvenience arising from the continual change of direction of the solar rays.

It consists of a plane metallic mirror, having a vertical and horizontal movement, and of a clock, the index of which moves in a plane parallel to that of the equinoctial. The extremity of the index is connected by a rod attached behind the mirror in the line of its axis. See heliotrope; solar-camera.

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Malus (1)
M. Foucault (1)
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1719 AD (1)
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