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OBJECTS AND INSTRUMENTS92 Instruments of Vision
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS by their very nature must gauge found among his letters. It is a diagrammatic explanation
or chronicle precision. Their delicate construction is only of how to catch and magnify a star in a mirrored tube.
as valuable as the measurements they make. In the graphic
work of these two great men of science, we see drawing Hooke's head of a drone fly seen through a microscope
shape the very cause and effect of investigatory thought. may represent the first time man and insect came face to
From the concept of capturing the infinite to the mapping face. The power of this drawing reflects the pure passion
of microscopic sight, drawing is there to pin the moment of discovery. He counted 14,000 perfect hemispheres,
down. Newton's drawing of his first reflecting telescope is each reflecting a view of his own world—his window,
a tree outside, and his hand moving across the light.
ISAAC NEWTON
English scientist, alchemist,
mathematician, astronomer,
and philosopher Newton was
President of the Royal Society,
and Fellow of the University
of Cambridge, where he
developed his three greatest
theories: the law of motion,
the law of gravity, and the
nature of light and color.
Transparent view Newton's
reflecting telescope focused light
in a parabolic mirror. It was then
reflected up inside the tube and.
via a second mirror, into the eye-
piece. With dotted lines Newton
has drawn his arrangement of
elements inside the tube, offering
a transparent view. A disembodied
eye at the top of the drawing
indicates where to look.
Ink lines Several drawings appear
among Newton's letters, each
one skillfully rendered with the
alarmingly matter-of-fact ease of
explaining the commonplace. Look
how confidently he draws with ink
the sphere of this wooden globe by
which his telescope rotates. Newton
used this instrument to calculate
the speed required to escape
earth's gravity.
Newton's Telescope
1672
ISAAC N E W T O N
