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Your search for Books by Keywords = Optics has returned 19 results:

Optics--Camera Obscura. London: Longmans, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1817. 1st edition. From "Rees Encyclopedia" 1 8vo. Very good condition. This is a very finely engravedd plate from the massive Rees encyclopedia published in 1820. The image measure 10x8 and includes 7 figures relating to the camera obscura--(1) shows a construction of a small room for c.o.; (2) depicts a rather elaborate pinhole (with grating attachment??); (3) features a ccross-section of a very remarkable c.o. with the moveable aperture located at the apex of a moveable rotunda (constructed in a similar fashion to an astronomical observatory); (4) a similar aperture to #3, this being moveable on a non-moveable roof; (5)+ (6) are depictions of portable, handheld c.o.'s; (7) is a smalleyepiece for 6+7. Faint bit of foxing at the edges does not aprpeciably detract from this very interesting image. For as popular as this instrument must have been, old images of the camera obscura are scarce. (Book ID 21820) $145.00

Hale, George Ellery. Collection of 15 offprints. Various, 1902-1926. 15 offprints, as follows: Hale. Visual Observations of the Solar Atmosphere�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #97, vol 12, pp 286-295, 1926. Fine. Signed �To Dr. T.R. Merton, with the regards of George E. Hale�. (Merton was an Oxfordian, and an independent scholar and (wealthy) gentleman working in astronomy and spectroscopy). Hale (with George Luckey). �Some Vortex Experimetns Bearing on the Nature of Sun-Spots and Flocculi�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #11, vol 1, 5pp, 1915. Fine. Hale (with Ferdinand Ellerman). �The Minute Structure of the Solar Atmosphere�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #20, vol 2, 7pp, 1916. Fine. Hale. �The Law of Sun-spot Polarity�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #86, vol 10, pp 53-55. Fine. Hale. �The Spectrohelioscope�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #87, vol 10, pp 361-368, 1924. Fine. Hale. �A Test if Electromagentic Theory of the Hydrogen Vortices Surrounding Sun-spots�, Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #95, vol 11, pp. 691-696, 1925. Fine. Hale. �Invisible Sunspots�. Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #80, vol 8, pp 168-170, 1922. Fine. Hale. �The Direction of Rotation of Sun-Spot Vorticies�. Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #10. Vol 1, 3pp, 1915. Hale. �AN Attempt to Measure the Free Electricity in the Sun�s Atmosphere�. Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #3, vol 1, 5pp, 1915. Fine. Hale. �Visual Observations of the Solar Atmosphere�. Offprint, Communications to the National Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mount Wilson Observatory, #97., Vol 12/5, pp 286-295. 1926. Fine. Hale. �Some Opportunities for Astronomical Work with Inexpensive Apparatus�. Offprint, The Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1908, 18pp. Removed from larger bound volume. Good+ copy (if not better). Hale. �Stellar Evolution in the Light of Recent Research�. Washington, Offprint, Smithsonian Report for 1902, pp 149-183. Fine. Hale. �The Possibilities of Instrumental Development�. Offprint, Smithsonian Report for 1923, pp 187-193. Removed from larger collection. Very good. Hale. �The Rotation Period of the Sun as Determined from the Motions of the Calcium Flocculi�. Carnegie Institution, 1908. 54pp. Good+. Ex-library, with minimal markings, from the Franklin Institution, presented by the Carnegie. (On the Hale Telescope). �Dedication of the Hale Telescope�, Richardson, R.S. With 4 other articles, including Walter Baade, �A program of Extragalactic Research for the 200-inch Hale Telescope�, John Anderson �Optics of the 200-inch Hale Telescope; Bruce Rule, �Eningeering Aspects of the 200-inch Hale Telescope�, and one other. Offprint: Publications of the Astronomical Societyu of thePAcific, 80/355, August 1948. 8vo, pp 215-234. Wrappers. Fine. (Book ID 22763) $500.00

Maxwell, James Clerk. On Colour Vision. London: Nature, 1871. Nature, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science Original printed wrappers. Very good condition. This is the entire weekly issue of 4 May 1871, offered with the original outer wrappers, the whole cleanly removed from a larger bound source. The Maxwell article occupies pp 13-16 and runs about 1500 words. The following lengthy quote is taken from the wonderful maths website at the University of St. Andrews http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Projects/Johnson/Chapters/Ch4_2.html Maxwell's major paper in optics, On the Theory of Colour Vision, was presented to the Royal Society of London in 1860 and was awarded the Rumford Medal. It showed that colour blindness was due to individuals being unable to recognise red light and conclusively proved his theory of three primary colours. Most of the experiments for this work were conducted in Maxwell's London home with the help of his wife, Katherine Mary Dewar daughter of the Principle of Marchisal College, Aberdeen. These were wonderfully constructed and made use of a colour box designed by Maxwell himself. Maxwell's final achievement in optics was producing the first ever colour photograph. He displayed the picture of a Scottish tartan ribbon at a lecture on his colour investigations at the Royal Institute in May 1861. He took a black and white photograph through three filters - green, red and blue - and then projected and superimposed the results through the same filters. Later it was noticed that this should not have worked, as the collodion process he had used was not red sensitive. However Maxwell was lucky as the process, which was sensitive to the ultraviolet passed by the filter, compensated for the error. [Early photographic process using glass plates coated with iodised collodion sensitised with silver nitrate solution and exposed in the camera while still wet. This technique is still used by many large photograph companies to develop important film.] Maxwell's work on colour vision, although very clever, was probably some of his least astonishing work. It was not ground breaking like his work on gases or the electromagnetic field, nor did it contain the same originality of thought. However it was easier for his contemporaries to understand and it received more recognition than some of his other works. It is merely in comparison to his greater works that this excellent combination of mathematics and experimental physics is made to look ordinary (Book ID 22919) $350.00

Tyndall, John. Portrait: "Professor Tyndall". London: "Men of Mark", 1870. 8vo. Very good condition. Very fine woodburytype photographic portrait of Jihn Tyndall. The image is head-and-shoulders and appears in a 4x3" oval on a 9x6" sheet. John Tyndall, FRS, DCL, LLD John Tyndall was born on Aug 2 1820, at Leighlin Bridge, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of a member of the Irish Constabulary. Although he only received a common school education and was denied the advantages of a university education until his 30's, he became one of the great scientists of the 19th century. Among his friends he numbered Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, Charles Lister, Thomas Huxley, Leslie Stephens, Thomas Carlyle and Tennyson. Just a few years before his death, the 1888 edition of Prominent Men and Women of the Day noted: "… in a life of the duration of nearly three score and ten this able man has wielded his pen in the cause of science with a steadiness of purpose and a persistency of will that is worthy of praise and emulation". Tyndall left school at the age of 17, with a firm background in basic mathematics, surveying and English composition. In 1839 he joined the Irish Ordnance Survey where he spent three years becoming an accomplished practical surveyor and draftsman. When the Irish survey finished in 1842 he was transferred to the English Survey. In 1843, however, he was dismissed following a formal protest about the efficiency of the service and its treatment of the Irish. He temporarily returned to Ireland until the next year when a position arose in a private surveyors office in England. For the next three years Tyndall was caught up in the railroad boom and travelled extensively in the UK for the construction of the railway network. When this boom waned in 1847 he sought new employment as a mathematics master at Queenwood College Hampshire. After striking up a friendship with the science master - a young chemist called Edward Frankland - both men decided to go to Germany together for a formal science education the next year. In October 1848 at the age of 28, Tyndall and Frankland arrived in Marburg, Germany, where Robert Bunsen made space for them in his lab. Tyndall enrolled in introductory lectures on chemistry, physics and calculus. With a limited knowledge of science and German it was a challenge, but due to Bunsen's inspiration and intense effort Tyndall completed all the work required for his doctoral degree in less than two years. By his second year he decided to concentrate on physics. Tyndall began a series of studies on diamagnetism and magnetic optical properties of crystals. This was to be his major research for nearly six years and the research with which he became known to the scientific world. He extended his stay in Germany a year after his degree, spending several weeks in Gustav Magnus's laboratory in Berlin. During this period he won the respect of many of the finest scientific minds in Germany. Tyndall returned to England in 1851 unable to support himself financially doing research. He spent another two years at Queenwood College, supplementing his income by translating and reviewing foreign science for the Philosophical Magazine, whilst strengthening his ties with influential scientists such as Huxley and Faraday. The change of course for Tyndall came in 1853, aged 33, when it was arranged for him to give a discourse at the Royal Institution. This was so successful that he was invited to give another and then a whole course of lectures. Three months later he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy and was inundated with work offers. Due to the opportunity to work with Faraday he chose to stay at the Royal Institution. At the Royal Institution Tyndall proved to have the skill of making difficult scientific conceptions understandable and entertaining to the laymen. Throughout his whole career he spent months of every year lecturing and became one of the foremost speakers of his day, counting only Faraday and Huxley as his rivals as popular expositors of science. Using the basement laboratories of the Royal Institution he completed his study of diamagnetism on which his initial scientific reputation was based. Between 1860 and 1870, Tyndall carried out research on radiant heat. 1870-81 produced studies on spontaneous generation and the germ theory of disease. These studies, together with research on glacier motion (1857-60), sound (1867-78) the diffusion of light in the atmosphere (1868-71) and a host of related topics, brought Tyndall a reputation among his scientific peers that rivalled his reputation as a popular lecturer. Tyndall was an evangelist for the cause of science (Burchfield) and he was convinced that traditional British education was outdated and detrimental. He held many roles in order to promote science to the public including as a science examiner, and with Huxley gave 'working men lectures' at the Royal School of Mines. These were so successful that the British Association held a similar series at their annual meetings. Tyndall contributed over the years to science columns in a number of popular middle class periodicals and did much to interest an important element of the Victorian public in the progress of science. His greatest audience was gained ultimately thorough his books and he published more than 16 books and 145 papers in his lifetime. As well as trying to improve the quality of science education and scientific knowledge, Tyndall's youthful interest in theology had turned into open opposition of what he regarded as the anti-intellectual and anti-scientific tenets of Christianity. He was thus an early defender of Darwinian evolution and, like Huxley, he was freely denounced as a proponent of materialism and atheism. Tyndall had many clashes with orthodoxy, the most notorious incident was in Belfast in 1874 when he gave his British Association Presidential address. As a result of his opinions Tyndall was denounced from the pulpits, and pamphlets attacking the 'Belfast address' continued to appear for years afterwards. Tyndall visited the Alps for purposes of recreation in 1849 and began to go there yearly for the purpose of studying the glacier formation. This resulted in 1856 in an expedition with Huxley and produced a joint treatise 'On the Structure and Motion of Glaciers'. For the next four years glaciers became the major focus of Tyndall's scientific interest. In the process he became an accomplished mountaineer and in 1860 he made the first ascent of the Weisshorn. He also published 'Glaciers of the Alps' in this year. In 1859, aged 39, Tyndall began investigating radiant heat and the acoustic properties of the atmosphere. Part of his experimentation included the construction of the first ratio spectrophotometer which he used to measure the absorptive powers of gases such as water vapour, carbonic acid (carbon dioxide), ozone and hydrocarbons. Amongst his most important discoveries were the vast differences in the abilities of "…perfectly colourless and invisible gases and vapours…" to absorb and transmit radiant heat. He noted that oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are almost transparent to radiant heat, whilst other gases are quite opaque. Tyndall showed that ozone was an oxygen cluster rather than a hydrogen compound. He was the inventor of the firemans respirator and made other less well-known inventions including better fog-horns. One of his most important inventions, the light pipe, has led to the development of fibre optics. The modern light instrument is known as the gastroscope, which enables internal observations of a patient's stomach without surgery. Tyndall's experiments also showed that molecules of water vapour, carbon dioxide and ozone are the best absorbers of heat radiation and that even in small quantities these gases absorb much more strongly than the atmosphere itself, a phenomenon of great meteorological importance. He concluded that among the constituents of the atmosphere, water vapour is the strongest absorber of radiant heat and is therefore the most important gas controlling the Earth's surface air temperature. He said that without water vapour the Earth's surface would be "held fast in the iron grip of frost". He later speculated how changes in water vapour and carbon dioxide could be related to climate change. In the course of his study into light beams he discovered in 1869 the Tyndall effect - the diffusion of light by large molecules and dust. His suggestion that the sky's blue is due to the scattering of the suns rays by molecules in the atmosphere, a phenomenon which was later explained theoretically by Lord Rayleigh. The bluish plane polarised light scattered in the Tyndall effect is called Tyndall blue and the luminous path formed in the Tyndall effect by the breaking up of the entering light by suspended particles is known as a Tyndall cone. He is credited with the first ever atmospheric pollution measurements using infrared and scattering measurement instruments to monitor the London atmosphere. A role less frequently mentioned is that of a civic scientist or government consultant. Like many other scientists, Tyndall was called on from time-to-time to give expert advice. Areas he covered included investigation of accidents in coalmines and the determination of the causes of boiler explosions in steam engines. His most significant civil labours were in the cause of safe marine navigation. He was on the Board of Trade from 1867 for 14 years, which included lighthouse boards under its jurisdiction and had a profound effect on the safety of navigators around the coasts of England and Ireland. In 1872, Tyndall made a highly profitable lecturing tour throughout the United States which resulted in increased fame as a man of great learning. The proceeds from this tour were put into trust for the advancement of American science. Tyndall remained a bachelor until he was 56, when in 1876 he married Louisa Hamilton. Their marriage, although childless, was an extremely happy one. Although the major part of Tyndall's scientific work was completed by the time he married, he continued his research on spontaneous generation, the germ theory and the propagation of science for many years after and his lectures and essays continued to preach the cause of science. In 1881 he delivered the final blow to the long held idea that germ free air does not lead to food decay. His discovery of organic germ spores in even the most carefully cleaned and filtered air propelled into the current dispute over spontaneous and the germ theory of disease. Tyndall was an outspoken advocate of the work of Louis Pasteur. Tyndall's meticulous research in the laboratory not only refuted the arguments of Pasteur's opponents, but also extended and refined the work of Pasteur himself. By the mid-1880's ill health and the sleeplessness that had plagued Tyndall since his days in Germany began to take their toll and in 1887 he resigned from his professorship at the Royal Institution. He retired to Hampshire, but kept himself occupied with politics campaigning against Gladstone and the Home Rule bill. His health deteriorated and in 1891 he was unable to go to the Alps in the summer for the first time in more than 30 years. As his sleeplessness became worse he experimented more and more with drugs until tragically in 1893 Tyndall died from an overdose of chloral accidentally administered by his wife Louisa. Sources: Much of this biography was based on Burchfield, J. A 1981 John Tyndall - a biographical sketch. In John Tyndall, Essays on a Natural Philosopher Royal Dublin Society. (Book ID 22628) $145.00