Illustrations of Natural Philosophy, Plate No. 32
Description:
“Plate No. 32 Optics” features thirty-four color illustrations which refer to a range of scientific diagrams and to popular knowledge on the general topic of optics. This variety of illustrations includes images of simple and complex lenses and their use in optical machines, the refraction and reflection of light, the color spectrum, and the anatomy of the human eye, as well as figures of a simple portable camera obscura and a magic lantern. There is no accompanying text bound with the plates to identify or explicate the images.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
Illustrations of Natural Philosophy
Accession Number:
Thordarson T3349
Height (in centimeters):
28
Width (in centimeters):
22
Marks Description
Inscr. top center, “Illustrations of Natural Philosophy. Optics”; lower left, “Popular Diagrams, No. 32”; lower center, “London. Published by James Reynolds. 174 Strand. Dec. 10, 1850”; and lower right, “Drawn & Engraved by John Emslie.”Printing Context
“Plate No. 32” is one of eleven engraved and colored plates bound together under the title Illustrations of Natural Philosophy.Associated Events
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, a major international trade exhibition and the first world’s fair, was held in London in 1851, the year following the publication of these plates. Although there is not a direct correlation between The Great Exhibition and the Illustrations of Natural Philosophy series, both indicate the increased interest in technological innovation and its industrial applications prevalent in this period.Associated Texts
It seems likely that the eleven plates were produced and printed separately and bound together later, since they all bear the same inscription and are consecutively numbered from 25-35, perhaps as part of a larger series of instructive plates. The other plates are entitled, “Mechanical Powers,” “Motion and Machinery,” “Hydrostatics,” “Hydraulics,” “Pneumatics,” “Acoustics,” “Electricity,” “Magnetism,” and “Chemistry.”Subject
Illustrations of Natural Philosophy highlights the continued amateur interest in investigations of the natural sciences during the Romantic period. The camera obscura is positioned in the lower right corner, near two illustrations of the human eye, as well as the magic lantern and the “Endless Gallery” optical illusion. The camera obscura is aimed at a classical marble bust; the placement of the camera obscura oddly links it to both the decidedly more illusion-oriented optical devices and the more objective human eye, while the inclusion of the classical bust signals its applications in the visual arts as a mimetic instrument.Theme
Optics, vision, light, lenses, optical instruments and related scientific experimentsSignificance
The set of eleven engraved and colored plates feature an expanded range of scientific topics, topics which had not been thoroughly disccused or illustrated in previous recreational texts: hydrostatics, hydraulics, mechanical powers and pneumatics, as well as the the application of these principles to manufacture. These additional scientific topics suggest the connection of modern science to the needs of the escalating Industrial Revolution as well as to the upcoming Great Exhibition in London, both of these being significant events of the mid-nineteenth century. Published almost fifty years after Charles Hutton’s translated and expanded edition of Jacques Ozanam’s Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Four Volumes (1803), Illustrations of Natural Philosophy highlights the continued amateur interest in investigations of the natural sciences during the later Romantic period. The lack of explanatory text to accompany the images, however, might suggest a decline in the emphasis on intellectual edification with such recreational interests.Function
To illustrate a wide variety of items related to the subject of optics as a branch of natural philosophy.Bibliography
Bizup, Joseph. “`What You Ought to Learn’: Industrial Culture and the Exhibition of 1851.” Manufacturing Culture: Vindications of Early Victorian Industry. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2003.Long Title
Plate No. 32 “Optics,” from Illustrations of Natural Philosophy, engraving, 28.1 x 22.1 cm, inscr. top center, “Illustrations of Natural Philosophy. Optics,” lower left, “Popular Diagrams, No. 32,” lower center, “London. Published by James Reynolds. 174 Strand. Dec. 10, 1850,” and lower right, “Drawn & Engraved by John Emslie,” Thordarson Collection, UW Department of Special Collections.Featured in Exhibit:
Engraver:
Delineator:
Image Date:
10 December 1850
Publisher:
James Reynolds