- A short general account is given by Winderlich R. Brenngläser als Hilfsmittel chemischen Forschens Chymia 1949 2 37 43
- Daumas , M. 1953 . Les instruments scientifiques au XVIIe et XVIII e siècles 112 – 112 . Paris footnote 8. The engraving, incorrectly stated by Daumas to show Louis XIV visiting the Observatory, is reproduced in R. Hahn, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803 (Berkeley, 1971), facing p. 19. The French inch was equal to 2·7 cm, the English inch was 2·54 cm. Conversions have been made from French or English inches, as appropriate, throughout this paper
- von Tschirnhaus , E.W. 1687 . Acta Eruditorum , : 52 – 54 . He published several other papers on mirrors and lenses, which I am not considering.
- Homberg , W. 1702 . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences , second edition 147 – 155 . 1720 E. F. Geoffroy, ibid. (1709, pub. 1711), 162–76. Geoffroy (p. 164) noted that in the summer of 1708 there were hardly two or three days with the prolonged strong sunshine that was needed for most experiments. This is probably the reason why the lens ceased to be used.
- Guerlac , H. 1961 . Lavoisier—The Crucial Year 157 – 157 . Ithaca Macquer, with A. Baumé, had already (in 1758) used a large concave mirror in a partially successful attempt to melt platinum: see W. A. Smeaton, ‘Pierre Joseph Macquer. Early attempts to melt platinum’, Platinum Metals Review, 28 (1984), 25–30.
- Macquer's notes, nearly all in his own hand and ending on 18 October 1772, are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS. français 9132, ff. 261–90. Lavoisier's notes, which are copies in the hand of a scribe, ending on 13 October 1772, are in the archives of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, Lavoisier dossier 1389* bis. The same Lavoisier dossier includes rough notes in several hands, including Macquer's and Lavoisier's, of experiments in July and August 1773 and October 1774. The notes for 1772 and 1773 were published in Oeuvres de Lavoisier, III (Paris, 1865), pp. 284–348. For the report to the Academy, see Macquer P.J. Observations sur la Physique 1772 December 93 106 reprinted in Introduction aux Observations sur la Physique, 2 (1777), 612–6. Macquer read this to the Academy on 14 December 1772. When it was first published, the date was incorrectly given as 14 September, and a correction appeared on p. 213 of the December issue
- Guerlac . 1961 . Lavoisier—The Crucial Year 159 – 161 . Ithaca
- Lavoisier suggested this in a memorandum addressed to E. S. Jeaurat (1724–1803), the astronomer, dated 31 August 1772, published in Oeuvres (footnote 6), III, 269–73. A draft of this memorandum, in which the recipient is not named and has not been identified by the editor, is in Correspondance de Lavoisier Paris 1957 374 376 fascicule 1 Jeaurat's unpublished reply in which he recommends a large water-filled lens with a solid auxiliary lens made of two different kinds of glass in close contact, dated 12 December 1772, is in the library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, Jeaurat letter-file, no. 63439. Jeaurat's detailed discussion of the refractive indexes of the various types of glass required is beyond the scope of this paper.
- Leclerc de Buffon , G.L. 1748 . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 308 – 309 . pub. 1752 I am not considering Buffon's many other publications on mirrors and lenses.
- N. de Bernieres was the author of Abrégé des propriétés des miroirs concaves, des loupes à eau et des autres ouvrages qui se fabriquent dans la manufacture des dits miroirs concaves et glaces courbées établie par arrêt du Conseil d'État du Roi, du 8 septembre 1756, dont le Bureau est à Paris, rue des Prouvaires Paris 1763 I have not consulted this 32-page booklet, which is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. There is a short biography of Bernieres by J. Lamoureux in F. Hoefer (ed.), Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Paris, 1866), vol. 5, cols. 629–30. He is named, with Charpentier, in the caption of the illustration of the lens (see footnote 11, below), where his name is given as Berniere.
- Trudaine de Montigny , J.C.P. , Macquer , P.J. , Cadet de Gassicourt , L.C. , Lavoisier , A.L. and Brisson , M.J. 1774 . Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 62 – 72 . pub. 1778 reprinted in Oeuvres (footnote 6), III, 274–83. The paper was read to the Academy by Brisson. The illustration of the lens, and the elaborate equipment which enabled it to follow the sun's motion across the sky, did not accompany the original paper in the Mémoires de l'Académie but was published separately about 1775 and later reprinted in Oeuvres, III, plate 9.
- Macquer , P.J. 1776 . Journal des Sçavans , : 561 – 563 . Macquer complained about inaccurate accounts of the lens that had appeared in the press, but I have not seen any of these.
- Macquer , P.J. 1778 . “ Verre ardent ” . In Dictionnaire de chimie , second edition , Vol. IV , Paris : Didot . in pub. 1780), 141–94. This edition was reprinted several times, with different publishers, volume numbers and pagination: see R. G. Neville and W. A. Smeaton, ‘Macquer's Dictionnaire de Chimie: a bibliographical study’, Annals of Science, 38 (1981), 613–62
- Macquer . “ Verre ardent ” . In Dictionnaire de chimie , second edition , Vol. IV , 162 – 162 . Paris : Didot . in Writing to T. O. Bergman on 28 March 1775, Macquer said that since the great lens was made [in October 1774] there had been almost no good sunshine: see G. Carlid and J. Nordström (eds.), Torbern Bergman's Foreign Correspondence (Stockholm, 1965), I, 246.
- Priestley , J. 1774 . Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air Vol. I , 13 – 13 . London This method succeeded only with substances which were less dense than quicksilver (mercury), and therefore rose to the sealed end of the inverted phial, and which did not react with quicksilver.
- Priestley , J. 1775 . Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air Vol. II , 33 – 33 . London
- Gibbs , F.W. 1965 . Joseph Priestley 119 – 119 . London
- McKie , D. 1956 . Priestley's laboratory and library… . Notes & Records of the Royal Society , 12 : 114 – 136 . p. 119
- Smeaton , W.A. 1968 . Is water converted into air? Guyton de Morveau acts as arbiter between Priestley and Kirwan . Ambix , 15 : 73 – 83 . In that paper I incorrectly named the maker of the 36-inch lens as John Parker (p. 79).
- The ‘excellent lens’ was wrongly thought to be Priestley's 12-inch lens by McKie D. An unpublished letter from Priestley to John Parker Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 1956 9 117 124 120
- Abraham , Rees , ed. Cyclopaedia 39 – 39 . London unpaginated volumes + 6 volumes of plates. The title-pages are all dated 1819 (text) and 1820 (plates), but the work was in fact published irregularly in parts between 1802 and 1820. A full list of parts, with contents and dates of publication, appeared under the heading ‘Account of Dr. Rees's Cyclopaedia’ in the ‘Notices respecting New Books’ in Philosophical Magazine, 56 (1820), 218–224. It was probably written by the editor, Alexander Tilloch. This list shows that the article ‘burning glasses’ was published in volume 5, part 10, dated 26 December 1805, but the relevant plate is dated 1 February 1806. A list of authors, also included in the Philosophical Magazine (pp. 219–221) shows that the Rev. Dr William Pearson (1767–1847) was responsible for articles on ‘Astronomical, Chronometrical, Optical &c Instruments, Horology, Planetary Machines, Watch &c.’, so he probably wrote the account of burning glasses. Later in the nineteenth century, B. D. Jackson, secretary of the Linnean Society, attempted to date the parts of the Cyclopaedia, but he was unaware of the account in the Philosophical Magazine and published only an incomplete list in a pamphlet, An attempt to Ascertain the Actual Dates of Publication of the Various Parts of Rees's Cyclopaedia (London, 1895), reprinted with additions in Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 34 (1896), 307–311. I am indebted to Mr N. B. Harte for drawing my attention to these references. He has examined a copy of the Cyclopaedia in its original parts and has found the dates in Philosophical Magazine to be ‘fully reliable’. For further details see N. B. Harte, ‘On Rees's Cyclopaedia as a source for the history of the textile industries in the early nineteenth century’, Textile History, 5 (1974), 119–27.
- W. Parker to Banks British Library, Add. MS. 33977 1782 July 155 155 4 and 16 and 160
- Smeaton . 1984 . Pierre Joseph Macquer. Early attempts to melt platinum . Platinum Metals Review , 28 : 29 – 29 .
- August 1783 . Nouvelles de la République des Lettres et des Arts August , 275 – 275 . no. 31, 6
- For Argand, see Schrøder M. The Argand Burner, its Origin and Development… Odense 1969 with additional information in a review by W. A. Smeaton, Ambix, 19 (1972), 61–2; E. Robinson and D. McKie (editors), Partners in Science, Letters of James Watt and Joseph Black (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), pp. 150–1; C. C. Gillispie, The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation (Princeton, 1983), passim
- February 1787 . Archives of the Académie des Sciences , February , ff. 37 – ff. 37 . Paris : Procès-verbaux . 17 (verso)–40 (verso)
- Lavoisier , A.L. 1789 . Traité élémentaire de chimie Vol. II , 552 – 553 . Paris
- Staunton , G. 1797 . An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China Vol. II , 324 – 324 . London Mackintosh is named as a member of the expedition (ibid., I, 43–4). In Rees's Cyclopaedia he is stated to be the purchaser of the lens; other sources show that he sold it to the East India Company after abandoning his original plan to dispose of it at a handsome profit. See J. L. Cranmer-Byng and T. H. Levere, ‘A Case Study in Cultural Collision: Scientific Apparatus in the Macartney Expedition to China, 1793’, Annals of Science, 38 (1981), 503–25 (p. 511).
- Parker's invoice of 20 September 1786, shows that the 14-inch lens, with foot and cone, cost £31·10s.0d. In a letter of 1 November 1786, he told Hall that he had sent a small lens to fit the cone. I thank Dr J. A. Chaldecott for drawing my attention to these documents in the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, Dunglass papers GD 237, box 37, items 1 (invoice) and 5 (letter). William Hall was the uncle of Sir James Hall, who helped to introduce Lavoisier's antiphlogistic theory to Edinburgh: see Eyles V.A. Annals of Science 1963 19 153 182 pub. 1967 and J. A. Chaldecott, ibid., 24 (1968), 21–52
- Priestley to John Parker, 8 June 1789: Musée de Mariemont, Belgium, Inv. 989, published by McKie D. An unpublished letter from Priestley to John Parker Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 1956 9 117 124 (text of letter on p. 117). The diameter is stated to be 16 inches by Priestley, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 179 (1789), 296
- Priestley to Samuel Parker, 27 June 1794, quoted by McKie An unpublished letter from Priestley to John Parker Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 1956 9 121 121
- Chaldecott , J.A. 1972 . Studies in the history of pyrometry , 182 – 183 . University of London . Ph.D. thesis McKie (footnote 35, 118) stated that from 1774 to 1794 the directories ‘give the name as William Parker and Sons' (my italics), but did not state which directories he consulted. Chaldecott found references to only one son.
- Priestley to Samuel Parker, 27 June 1794, and 20 January 1795: in Schofield R.E. A Scientific Autobiography of Joseph Priestley…Selected Scientific Correspondence… Cambridge, Mass. 1966 280 281 and 284–5. See also footnote 36
- William Parker died at an advanced age in 1817, according to Rutt J.T. The Life and Correspondence of Joseph Priestley London 1831 I 216 216
- Bolton , J.C. 1892 . Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley 40 – 40 . New York repeated by McKie (footnote 35), 119
- A Catalogue of Priestley Apparatus at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle no date This 15-page brochure is said (p. 15) to be largely a reprint of a pamphlet prepared by the late Dr Charles F. Himes, a member of the faculty at Dickinson College from 1865 to 1896. I am grateful to Danna Spitzform, Assistant Curator, Special Collections, of Dickinson College, for sending me this brochure, confirming that the Priestley apparatus is still in Dickinson College, and informing me of the dimensions of the lens.
- Two illustrations, photographed from different angles, are in Winderlich Brenngläser als Hilfsmittel chemischen Forschens Chymia 1949 2 40 40 facing and Catalogue (footnote 43), 4. The latter is reproduced as Figure 3, below
- Hamilton , James . December 1815 . “ Experiments made with the large burning-glass of Dickinson College, under the direction of Professor Cooper ” . In The Port-Folio Vol. 6 , December , 628 – 630 . 3rd series (conducted by Oliver Oldschool, Esq.) 6 reprinted in Catalogue (footnote 43), 12–14. In the reprint, which is presumably copied from Himes's text (footnote 43), the maker of the lens is incorrectly stated to be ‘Mr. Samuel Parker of London’, while the original version in The Port-Folio names him as ‘Mr. Parker of Fleet-Street, London’. By incorrectly quoting The Port-Folio Himes contributed to the general confusion about the correct name of the maker
- Guyton , L.B. 1799 . Extrait du procès-verbal des expériences faites à l'École Polytechnique dans les années V et VI sur la combustion du diamant . Annales de Chimie , 31 : 72 – 112 . an VII
- et al. Nouvelles expériences sur la combustion du diamant Annales de Chimie 1812 84 20 33
- See Partington J.R. History of Chemistry 1964 IV 61 61
- Donati , G.B. 1863 . On the fixed lines of stellar spectra . Chemical News , 7 : 117 – 117 . I thank Dr M. A. Sutton for drawing my attention to this reference, which is cited in his ‘Spectroscopy and the structure of matter’ (Oxford University D.Phil thesis, 1972), p. 212.
- The lens, adapted for use in the spectroscope, is described and illustrated in the catalogue of the museum: Il Museo di Storia della Scienza a Firenze Bonelli Maria Luisa Righini Milan 1968 197 197 and plate 101. I thank Dr G. L'E. Turner for this reference and for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper
- Parkes , S. 1815 . Chemical Essays , III : 404 – 404 . (note). Parkes briefly describes this instrument and several other large lenses and mirrors, ibid., I, 181–9 and v, 31.
Annals of Science
Volume 44, 1987 - Issue 3
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