A 5 m curved grating instrument is described that will record diffracted spectra photographically to a short wavelength limit below 1 Å. A 295 lines per mm NPL x-ray reflection grating is used at grazing angles of incidence of 10, 20, 40 and 60 minutes of arc. Spectra have been recorded from an x-ray tube and from the plasma focus at the Culham Laboratory. The 45 cm long instrument is capable of resolving the copper Kα₁α₂ doublet at 1·540 Å and 1·544 Å in the fourth order.