The Era of Newton, Herschel and Lord Rosse

Abstract

In the eighteenth century England was dominant in building telescopes and instrumentation. This paper describes the contributions of the most important opticians and telescope builders, from Newton’s Opticks and the telescope design that bears his name, through various instrument makers who constructed ‘popular’ telescopes and published descriptions of mirror grinding (Smith, the Dollonds and their patent on achromatic lenses), to Herschel, who refined the description of his polishing procedures, and Lord Rosse, who attempted to communicate his through publication. The narrative of theory, practice and communication takes unexpected turns.