The stereoscope : $b its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to educationBrewster, David
History
The stereoscope : $b its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to education
Brewster, David
Stereoscope
Upon the receipt of this letter I transmitted a copy of it to the Abbé
Moigno, to shew him how he had been misled into the statement, “that
Mr. Wheatstone had caused a stereoscope with prisms to be constructed
for me;” but neither he nor Mr. Wheatstone have felt it their duty to
withdraw that erroneous statement.
In reference to the comments of the Abbé Moigno, it is necessary to
state, that when he wrote them he had in his possession my printed
description of the single-prism, and other stereoscopes,[29] in which
I mention my belief, now proved to be erroneous, that Mr. Wheatstone
had used achromatic prisms, so that he had, on my express authority,
the information which surprised him in my letter. The Abbé also must
bear the responsibility of a glaring misinterpretation of my letter
of 1838. In that letter I say that Mr. Wheatstone promised _to order
certain things from Mr. Ross_, and the Abbé declares, contrary to the
express terms of the letter, as well as to fact, _that these things
were actually constructed for me_. The letter, on the contrary, does
not even state that Mr. Wheatstone complied with my request, and it
does not even appear from it that the reflecting stereoscope was made
for me by Mr. Ross.
[29] The Abbé gave an abstract of this paper in the French journal _La
Presse_, December 28, 1850.
Such is a brief history of the lenticular stereoscope, of its
introduction into Paris and London, and of its application to
portraiture and sculpture. It is now in general use over the whole
world, and it has been estimated that upwards of half a million
of these instruments have been sold. A Stereoscope Company has
been established in London[30] for the manufacture and sale of the
lenticular stereoscope, and for the production of binocular pictures
for educational and other purposes. Photographers are now employed
in every part of the globe in taking binocular pictures for the
instrument,—among the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum—on the glaciers
and in the valleys of Switzerland—among the public monuments in the
Old and the New World—amid the shipping of our commercial harbours—in
the museums of ancient and modern life—in the sacred precincts of
the domestic circle—and among those scenes of the picturesque and the
sublime which are so affectionately associated with the recollection of
our early days, and amid which, even at the close of life, we renew,
with loftier sentiments and nobler aspirations, the youth of our being,
which, in the worlds of the future, is to be the commencement of a
longer and a happier existence.
[30] No. 54, Cheapside, and 313, Oxford Street. The prize of twenty
guineas which they offered for the best short popular treatise on the
Stereoscope, has been adjudged to Mr. Lonie, Teacher of Mathematics in
the Madras Institution, St. Andrews. The second prize was given to the
Rev. R. Graham, Abernyte, Perthshire.
CHAPTER II.
ON MONOCULAR VISION, OR VISION WITH ONE EYE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account