The transient operation of a new multiwavelength pyrometer based on a dispersing prism and a Si photodiode array is presented. After calibration, transient tests were performed using a tungsten strip lamp, supplied by a current pulse of 0.3-s duration. Measurements were carried out with a data acquisition system consisting of a FET multiplexer, a DVM (14 bit, 100 kHz), and a buffer memory (64 kbytes). Pyrometer signals are processed off-line, and temperature vs time is displayed. With the present arrangement, temperature measurements at 20 wavelengths may be performed with 200μs resolution. Faster measurements are possible with a reduced number of channels.