Griffin & George Slit Plates: A Rare Survival from the Golden Age of School Physics

Dear readers,

While exploring the storage room of my school Physics laboratory, I came across what may be one of the best-preserved pieces of laboratory history I have ever found.

Still wrapped in their original brown paper packaging, complete with the factory's blue paper seals, these are Griffin & George Slit Plates for the Griffin Ray Box.

And remarkably, they look almost untouched.

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🏛️ A Name from Another Era

For older Physics teachers and laboratory technicians, the name Griffin & George Limited needs little introduction.

Founded in Britain in the late nineteenth century, Griffin & George became one of the most respected suppliers of scientific apparatus in schools, colleges and universities throughout the Commonwealth.

The packaging proudly displays the iconic Griffin lion logo together with:

✅ LONDON

✅ ENGLAND

✅ MADE IN BRITAIN

Even the original catalogue reference number remains visible:

L52-442/030

A small detail, perhaps, but one that instantly transports this little object back to an era when laboratory equipment was built to last for generations.

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🔍 What Exactly Is It?

These are Slit Plates designed for use with a Griffin Ray Box.

They were installed in front of a light source, typically a low-voltage filament lamp, to produce narrow beams of light for optics experiments.

Different slit plates produced different light patterns:

✅ Single beam

✅ Double beam

✅ Triple beam

✅ Multiple parallel beams

When light passed through the slits, students could observe straight, well-defined rays on a white surface.

Those light rays then became the foundation for learning some of the most important ideas in optics:

🌈 Refraction

🔄 Reflection

🔍 Lens Focusing

🌈 Dispersion of Light

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✍️ The Handwritten Numbers

Look closely and you will notice handwritten inventory markings such as "7" and "71".

These markings are more interesting than they might first appear.

For many schools throughout the Commonwealth, including numerous historic schools in Malaysia, laboratory apparatus were routinely numbered and catalogued by hand as part of inventory management.

The numbers are a small reminder that these slit plates were not museum pieces.

They were working classroom tools.

Students used them.

Teachers taught with them.

Technicians maintained them.

And somehow, decades later, they are still here.

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✨ AHA Moment

Long before simulations could draw perfect light rays on a computer screen, students created real ones using a lamp and a simple metal plate.

These slit plates may be decades old, but the questions they helped answer are timeless.

Technology changes. Curiosity does not. 🔦📚✨