 Optics experiments in the XVIII century |
This room contains optical apparatus. Optics was one of the disciplines where progress was most sensational in the seventeenth century, especially as far as the definition of the nature of light, its characteristics and the measurement of its speed was concerned. Analysis of white light through the prism, definition of the geometric laws governing the transmission of light rays, the ingenious utilization of "optical" illusions, to be restructured under the form of optical games and anamorphoses, are only a few aspects of the radical transformation undergone by the science of optics during these decades, thanks especially to the work of Kepler (1571-1630), Descartes (1596-1650) and Newton (1642-1727). Optics, with its rigorous geometric structure, was taken as a model by other fields of scientific research. An extremely rare and beautiful lathe used for grinding lenses in the eighteenth century is also displayed in this room. |