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The stereoscope; its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to education
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250 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2008
6 people want to read
About the author
David Brewster
539 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA(Scot) FSSA MICE was a Scottish scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy.
Brewster was born at Jedburgh, where his father, a teacher, was rector of the grammar school. At the age of twelve, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh, being intended for the clergy. However, he had already shown a strong inclination for natural science, and this had been fostered by his intimacy with a "self-taught philosopher, astronomer and mathematician," as Sir Walter Scott called him, of great local fame—James Veitch of Inchbonny, who was skilful in making telescopes.
Among the non-scientific public his fame spread more effectually by his rediscovery in about 1815 of the kaleidoscope, for which there was a great demand in both the United Kingdom and the United States. An instrument of greater interest, the stereoscope, which, though of much later date (1849 – 1850), and along with the kaleidoscope did more than anything else to popularize his name, was not, as has often been asserted, the invention of Brewster. Sir Charles Wheatstone discovered its principle and applied it as early as 1838 to the construction of a cumbersome but effective instrument, in which the binocular pictures were made to combine by means of mirrors. Brewster's contribution was the suggestion to use lenses for uniting the dissimilar pictures; and accordingly the lenticular stereoscope may fairly be said to be his invention.
A much more valuable and practical result of Brewster's optical researches was the improvement of the British lighthouse system. Although Fresnel, who had also the satisfaction of being the first to put it into operation, perfected the dioptric apparatus independently, Brewster was active earlier in the field than Fresnel, describing the dioptric apparatus in 1812. He pressed its adoption on those in authority at least as early as 1820, two years before Fresnel suggested it and it was finally introduced into lighthouses mainly through his persistent efforts.
In estimating his place among scientific discoverers, the chief thing to be borne in mind is that his genius was not characteristically mathematical. His method was empirical, and the laws that he established were generally the result of repeated experiment. To the ultimate explanation of the phenomena with which he dealt he contributed nothing, and it is noteworthy although he did not maintain to the end of his life the corpuscular theory he never explicitly adopted the wave theory of light. In addition to the various works of Brewster already mentioned, the following may be added: Notes and Introduction to Carlyle's translation of Legendre's Elements of Geometry (1824); Treatise on Optics (1831); Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott (1832); The Martyrs of Science, or the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler(1841); More Worlds than One (1854)
(source: Wikipedia)
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA(Scot) FSSA MICE was a Scottish scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy.
Brewster was born at Jedburgh, where his father, a teacher, was rector of the grammar school. At the age of twelve, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh, being intended for the clergy. However, he had already shown a strong inclination for natural science, and this had been fostered by his intimacy with a "self-taught philosopher, astronomer and mathematician," as Sir Walter Scott called him, of great local fame—James Veitch of Inchbonny, who was skilful in making telescopes.
Among the non-scientific public his fame spread more effectually by his rediscovery in about 1815 of the kaleidoscope, for which there was a great demand in both the United Kingdom and the United States. An instrument of greater interest, the stereoscope, which, though of much later date (1849 – 1850), and along with the kaleidoscope did more than anything else to popularize his name, was not, as has often been asserted, the invention of Brewster. Sir Charles Wheatstone discovered its principle and applied it as early as 1838 to the construction of a cumbersome but effective instrument, in which the binocular pictures were made to combine by means of mirrors. Brewster's contribution was the suggestion to use lenses for uniting the dissimilar pictures; and accordingly the lenticular stereoscope may fairly be said to be his invention.
A much more valuable and practical result of Brewster's optical researches was the improvement of the British lighthouse system. Although Fresnel, who had also the satisfaction of being the first to put it into operation, perfected the dioptric apparatus independently, Brewster was active earlier in the field than Fresnel, describing the dioptric apparatus in 1812. He pressed its adoption on those in authority at least as early as 1820, two years before Fresnel suggested it and it was finally introduced into lighthouses mainly through his persistent efforts.
In estimating his place among scientific discoverers, the chief thing to be borne in mind is that his genius was not characteristically mathematical. His method was empirical, and the laws that he established were generally the result of repeated experiment. To the ultimate explanation of the phenomena with which he dealt he contributed nothing, and it is noteworthy although he did not maintain to the end of his life the corpuscular theory he never explicitly adopted the wave theory of light. In addition to the various works of Brewster already mentioned, the following may be added: Notes and Introduction to Carlyle's translation of Legendre's Elements of Geometry (1824); Treatise on Optics (1831); Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott (1832); The Martyrs of Science, or the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler(1841); More Worlds than One (1854)
(source: Wikipedia)
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