Equilateral Glass Prism: Sawn, Ground and Pitch-Polished

A prism splits white light into its colours, so its faces must be optically flat and its angles true. This is how the US arsenals ground prisms in 1918, as F. E. Wright recorded for the Ordnance Department in 1921: saw a blank from optical glass, rough-grind it on iron disks, set a batch of prisms in plaster, fine-grind, and polish on pitch with rouge. Wright's worked example is a right-angle prism; an equilateral prism has three 60° angles, made the same way. The picture: blocking prisms for rough grinding at Frankford Arsenal (Wright 1921, Fig. 77, public domain).