CHAPTER XII 

 BRIEF HISTORY OF LENSES AND MICROSCOPES 



In works and papers dealing with the history of the microscope, it 

 seems to the writer that undue prominence is given to the mere me- 

 chanical supports and arrangements for focusing the optical parts. 

 These were legion, and they are being improved year by year even 

 faster than the optical parts. The mechanical parts are not to be 

 belittled, but after all it is the optical parts that make a microscope, 

 and some of the most fundamental work of the world in the microscopi- 

 cal field has been accomplished with instruments which now seem very 

 unattractive mechanically. 



The mechanical parts of the microscope have been figured and 

 described fully in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society; 

 in Harting's work on the microscope, and in the histories of Mayall 

 and Petri. 1 



It is hoped that by dealing with the optical parts only the reader 

 will gain a connected and comprehensive view of the main steps which 

 have been taken in bringing about the optical instruments of the 

 present day. 



§ 690. Lenses. — It is difficult to think of a world without lenses. 

 All apparatus like the moving picture machine, magic lantern, photo- 

 graphic camera, the microscope and telescope and spectacles, would 

 be no more. But it is not to be forgotten that the most splendid 

 creations in the world of art, as that of the Greeks; and in the world 

 of literature, as that of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans; 

 the architecture of the Orient, of Egypt, Greece and Rome; and the 

 feats of engineering of the ancient world were all independent of 



1 The author wishes to express his appreciation of the help given by Dr. A. C. 

 White, of the Cornell University Library, in translating passages from the Greek 

 and Latin works bearing upon optics and vision. 



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