The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours, Plate II
Description:
"Plate II" features seven illustrations to accompany Priestley’s text, including: a parabolic or burning mirror; a diagram of a convex lens used for magnification; a diagram of how light passes through the eye; a drawing of a room-sized camera obscura in which the image outside the chamber is shown projected onto the wall of the room; an illustration of a hollow polished cylinder copied from Kircher’s Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (1646); and the formation of a rainbow with light.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours
Accession Number:
RE26 O6 P75 H57 1772
Height (in centimeters):
22
Width (in centimeters):
19
Marks Description
Inscr. top right with “Pl. II”Printing Context
“Plate II” appears in the original text by Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours.Associated Events
Priestley received the LL.D. degree of Edinburgh University on December 4, 1764 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on June 12, 1766. In addition to the publication of The History and Present State of Discoveries, Priestley also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1773 for his paper “Observations on Different Kinds of Air,” published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (R. Schofield, “Priestley, Joseph”).Associated Places
The Royal Society of London and the Lunar Society of Birmingham (J. Uglow, “Lunar Society”)Associated Texts
Figure 15 on “Plate II” is from Kircher’s Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (1646). A German language translation of the text was published in 1774, but no other English versions were published (W. Brock, “Enlightened Experimentalist,” 56).Subject
“Plate II” features seven illustrations to accompany the sections of Priestley’s text, entitled “Period I: The Revival of Letters in Europe,” and “Period II: From the Revival of letters in Europe to the discoveries of Snellius and Descartes.” Figure 10 illustrated a parabolic mirror or burning mirror, the type of which was used to light fires in ancient times by focusing the sun’s rays; Priestly notes, “this was the form of mirror with which Archimedes burned the Roman fleet” (History and Present State, 14). Figure 11 is a diagram of a convex lens used for magnification as an optical phenomenon. Figure 12 illustrates the anatomy of the human eye, explicating the components essential to “this instrument of vision” (J. Priestley, History and Present State, 32). Figure 13 is a diagram demonstrating how light passes through the eye, using the “crystalline humour” as the lens that focuses the light on the retina (J. Priestley, History and Present State, 34). Figure 14 is a drawing of a room-sized camera obscura in which the image outside the chamber is shown projected, inverted, on the wall of the room after passing through a small aperture with a lens (J. Priestley, History and Present State, 37). Figure 15 is an illustration, copied from Kircher’s Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (1646), of a polished hollow cylinder. An image placed at the bottom of the cylinder will appear “like a real solid substance, suspended within the mouth of the vessel” (J. Priestly, History and Present State, 47). Figure 16 tracks “the progress of a ray of light in the formation of a rainbow” (J. Priestley, History and Present State, 52).Theme
The history of scientific inquiry, especially concerning such subjects as optics, light, mirrors, vision, anatomy of the eye, lenses, and optical equipment.Significance
Theologian, natural philosopher, dissenter, and polymath, Joseph Priestley situated this work within a centuries-long lineage of observation and experimentation in the natural sciences. He considered this text the first volume of his intended, extensive work to be entitled The History of all the Branches of Experimental Philosophy; the work was ultimately not completed due to his increasing preoccupation with the Unitarian ministry and the tumult created by his theological and political beliefs, including the Birmingham Riots of 1791 and his eventual emigration to the United States (R. Schofield, “Priestley, Joseph”).Function
A history of the natural science of optics.Bibliography
Brock, W.H. “Joseph Priestley, Enlightened Experimentalist.” Joseph Priestley, Scientist, Philosopher, and Theologian. Ed. Isabel Rivers and David Wykes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 49-79.Long Title
Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light, and Colours, Plate II: Optical and image making technologies, engraving, 22.2 x 19.4 cm, inscr. top right with “Pl. II,” UW Department of Special Collections, Gift of Daniel and Eleanor Albert.Featured in Exhibit:
Artist Unknown
Image Date:
1772