| Author: D. Graham Burnett
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Category: Book
Buy New: $24.00
New (1) from $24.00
Sales Rank: 1798615
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 152
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.6 x 0.4
ISBN: 0871699532
Dewey Decimal Number: 681.42309032
EAN: 9780871699534
ASIN: 0871699532
Publication Date: April 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New in no jacket pp. 152. In 1629, the natural philosopher RenE Descartes enticed a young artisan to undertake a secretive project, one that promised to revolutionize early modern astronomy. Descartes believed he had conceived a new kind of telescope lens, shaped by the light of reason itself, & surpassing anything ever to come from the hands of the glass-working craftsmen of the era. These novel lenses would never be touched by human hands--they would be cut by an elaborate machine, a self-regulating & automatic device. This study traces the inception, development, & finally the collapse of this ambitious enterprise, which absorbed the energies & attentions of a broad range of 17th-century savants, including Huygens, Wren, Hevelius, Hooke, & even Newton. Illus.
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