Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.13557

    Burning glass

    Date
    1799
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN30834
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 206mm
    width (print): 132mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Study of a circular, concave burning glass, or Archimedes’ mirror, with a central screw and presented on a tripod mount. The reverse of the mirror is shown leaning against a pillar.

    Plate 10 from the book Histoire naturelle, généralle et particuliére…Nouvelle edition, by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and C.S. Sonnini, volume 5 (Paris 1799).

    Inscribed above: ‘Planche X.’

    The accompanying text describes the mechanism as: ‘Miroir de réflexion rendu concave par la pression d'une vis appliquée au centre’. (Reflecting mirror made concave by the pressure of a screw applied to its centre).

    Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), French naturalist and man of science, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1740.

    Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1751-1812), French naturalist.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > France
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