Descartes and the Hyperbolic Quest: Lens Making Machines and Their Significance in the Seventeenth CenturyIn 1629, the natural philosopher René 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Context for the Cartesian Machine | 19 |
In Pursuit of the Curve | 55 |
Copyright | |
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abrasive Adam and Tannery anaclastic artisan astronomers Auzout Beaune Bedini Beeckman Besson's Cambridge Campani cartes Cartesian Caus claimed Constantijn Huygens context convex Correspondence of Descartes craft practice craftsman curve cutting D'Orleans Descartes wrote Dioptrique Oculaire Discourse on Method discussion Divini Eustachio Divini Ferrier Figure Florimond De Beaune forming pan Galileo Gaukroger geometry Giuseppe Campani glass blank grinding machine grinding wheel hand handcraft Helden Henry Oldenburg Hevelius Hooke Huygens hyperbolic doubt hyperbolic form hyperbolic lenses idea instrument makers Intellectual Biography Isaac Beeckman Kepler lens grinding machine lens makers lens making machine letter Magic of Numbers Maignan mathematical instrument mechanical lens mechanical philosophy mechanical systems Meditations Mersenne Mydorge natural philosophers Newton Oeuvres Complètes Oeuvres de Descartes optical Paris perfect Perspectiva Horaria plate polishing Porta precision problem promise refraction relationship Rheita savants Science Scientific Instrumentation seventeenth century shape spectacle spherical aberration spherical lenses telescope theory tion tool tradition turner Wren's