Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0004
S. R. Wilk
In the beginning of the 19th century, the theory arose that biological tissues were composed of spherical “globules,” probably of uniform size, much as solid matter was composed of relatively uniform atoms. Where did this notion come from? Was it strictly an analogy with physical science? Is it possible that it came from an underlying philosophy of uniformity of constituents? Or did it have its origins in the limitations of the microscopes and other optical devices used in studying the tissues? There are and have been proponents of each of these views. The timing of the resolution of the conflict may say something about its origins.
{"title":"Globulism","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"In the beginning of the 19th century, the theory arose that biological tissues were composed of spherical “globules,” probably of uniform size, much as solid matter was composed of relatively uniform atoms. Where did this notion come from? Was it strictly an analogy with physical science? Is it possible that it came from an underlying philosophy of uniformity of constituents? Or did it have its origins in the limitations of the microscopes and other optical devices used in studying the tissues? There are and have been proponents of each of these views. The timing of the resolution of the conflict may say something about its origins.","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133607426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0013
S. R. Wilk
Stylized drawings and carvings of the sun from long ago, from all around the world, often have apparently extraneous rays and circles associated with them. These make for esthetically pleasing graphics, but might they not also be that these added features represent actual optical phenomena associated with the sun? Arcs and circles associated with refraction through and reflection from ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere are well known and characterized, and may be the explanation behind the images. That these depictions are associated with religious imagery also implies that there is something special and out of the ordinary about the depiction.
{"title":"Sacred Sun","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"Stylized drawings and carvings of the sun from long ago, from all around the world, often have apparently extraneous rays and circles associated with them. These make for esthetically pleasing graphics, but might they not also be that these added features represent actual optical phenomena associated with the sun? Arcs and circles associated with refraction through and reflection from ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere are well known and characterized, and may be the explanation behind the images. That these depictions are associated with religious imagery also implies that there is something special and out of the ordinary about the depiction.","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"166 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121065135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0030
S. R. Wilk
A conundrum—you can estimate the focal length of a positive lens by using it to project the image of a distant scene onto the wall in a darkened room. But if you try to do it by placing the lens, a focal length away from an illuminated object and looking for the point where to produces a lens-filling collimated beam, you don’t get the correct length. When you’re figuring out the behavior of images in an optical system meant to be viewed with the human eye, don’t forget to include the optics of the eye itself.
{"title":"Infinitely Distant","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0030","url":null,"abstract":"A conundrum—you can estimate the focal length of a positive lens by using it to project the image of a distant scene onto the wall in a darkened room. But if you try to do it by placing the lens, a focal length away from an illuminated object and looking for the point where to produces a lens-filling collimated beam, you don’t get the correct length. When you’re figuring out the behavior of images in an optical system meant to be viewed with the human eye, don’t forget to include the optics of the eye itself.","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127057060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0031
S. R. Wilk
Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man of Universal horror films of the 1940s was played by Lon Chaney, Jr. Surprisingly, the character was an optical engineer in the original movie. He installed a telescope in the Talbot family home. In the original script, in fact, he is not even a relative of the family, but was brought in explicitly to install the telescope. Few things in a movie script are left to chance, but are either inspired by events, or else have some symbolic significance. Why did screenwriter Curt Siodmak settle upon someone in Optics for this role, when he might have used any profession as a means of inserting his character into the story?
{"title":"I Was a Teenage Optical Engineer","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0031","url":null,"abstract":"Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man of Universal horror films of the 1940s was played by Lon Chaney, Jr. Surprisingly, the character was an optical engineer in the original movie. He installed a telescope in the Talbot family home. In the original script, in fact, he is not even a relative of the family, but was brought in explicitly to install the telescope. Few things in a movie script are left to chance, but are either inspired by events, or else have some symbolic significance. Why did screenwriter Curt Siodmak settle upon someone in Optics for this role, when he might have used any profession as a means of inserting his character into the story?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127603901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0026
S. R. Wilk
Ted Serios claimed to have the psychic ability to produce “thoughtographs.” He claimed that by using the power of his mind alone he could impress images on film of things that were in his mind. It seems much more likely that he used some form of trickery. A home-built optical device similar to what is called a “Stanhope lens” could perform the feat, provided he was skillful enough to distract the experimenters long enough to employ the device. Skeptics have demonstrated how such a device could be constructed and used effectively. What is a Stanhope Imager, and how might Serios have come up with the idea of using one to produce his seeming miracle photos?
{"title":"Thoughtographs and the Stanhope Lens","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0026","url":null,"abstract":"Ted Serios claimed to have the psychic ability to produce “thoughtographs.” He claimed that by using the power of his mind alone he could impress images on film of things that were in his mind. It seems much more likely that he used some form of trickery. A home-built optical device similar to what is called a “Stanhope lens” could perform the feat, provided he was skillful enough to distract the experimenters long enough to employ the device. Skeptics have demonstrated how such a device could be constructed and used effectively. What is a Stanhope Imager, and how might Serios have come up with the idea of using one to produce his seeming miracle photos?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134418015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0008
Stephen R. Wilk
The Colmascope and the Polariscope are devices consisting of polarizers oriented with their polarization axes normal to each other andwith a gap between them that allows one to place objects in the gap in order to observe birefringence. It is useful for detecting stresses in glass and plastic, for identifying and orienting crystals, and for determining uniformity of transparent materials. The modern device uses two sheets of flat polarizing material. But the device predates George Eastman’s invention of Polaroid sheet. How did they use crossed polarizers before that time, and how did that differ from the current device? And what are Landolt fringes?
{"title":"Fringe Science","authors":"Stephen R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"The Colmascope and the Polariscope are devices consisting of polarizers oriented with their polarization axes normal to each other andwith a gap between them that allows one to place objects in the gap in order to observe birefringence. It is useful for detecting stresses in glass and plastic, for identifying and orienting crystals, and for determining uniformity of transparent materials. The modern device uses two sheets of flat polarizing material. But the device predates George Eastman’s invention of Polaroid sheet. How did they use crossed polarizers before that time, and how did that differ from the current device? And what are Landolt fringes?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117047612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0039
S. R. Wilk
In the 18th century, there was a craze for special viewing devices that used large lenses, through which viewers looked at engraved scenes. It was claimed that such devices could produce a lively and almost three-dimensional image. But how could they get a stereo effect with only a single picture and a single lens, and no way to provide perspective information? Several such elaborate and expensive items can still be found in several museums.
{"title":"Perspective Machines, Zograscopes, Megalethoscopes, and Boites d’Optiques","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0039","url":null,"abstract":"In the 18th century, there was a craze for special viewing devices that used large lenses, through which viewers looked at engraved scenes. It was claimed that such devices could produce a lively and almost three-dimensional image. But how could they get a stereo effect with only a single picture and a single lens, and no way to provide perspective information? Several such elaborate and expensive items can still be found in several museums.","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114435936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0007
S. R. Wilk
A monocle is a single lens contained within a decorated rim and held in place between the brow ridge and the cheekbone or suspended with one hand. They became very popular, starting in the eighteenth century as “quizzing glasses”. A monocle, being only a single lens, can at most correct the vision in one eye at a time. Yet virtually all monocle users require optical correction in both eyes. What good does it do to only correct one side and ignore the other? Wouldn’t this make one’s vision “unequal”? And why was this device so popular with the wealthy and powerful?
{"title":"The Monocle","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"A monocle is a single lens contained within a decorated rim and held in place between the brow ridge and the cheekbone or suspended with one hand. They became very popular, starting in the eighteenth century as “quizzing glasses”. A monocle, being only a single lens, can at most correct the vision in one eye at a time. Yet virtually all monocle users require optical correction in both eyes. What good does it do to only correct one side and ignore the other? Wouldn’t this make one’s vision “unequal”? And why was this device so popular with the wealthy and powerful?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125665309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0011
S. R. Wilk
In his famous book Walden, or Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau writes about the experience of walking through a rainbow. Since Thoreau is often praised for the accuracy of his observations of natural phenomena, what are we to make of this plainly unscientific description of a rainbow? A rainbow is a phenomenon that is always about 138 degrees (180 degrees – 42 degrees) away from the sun, and the impossibility of ever reaching it is enshrined in such stories as the Gold at the End of the Rainbow. Was he mistaken, or was he describing an emotional reaction to a natural wonder? And how critical should we be of him?
{"title":"Thoreau’s Rainbow","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518571.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"In his famous book Walden, or Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau writes about the experience of walking through a rainbow. Since Thoreau is often praised for the accuracy of his observations of natural phenomena, what are we to make of this plainly unscientific description of a rainbow? A rainbow is a phenomenon that is always about 138 degrees (180 degrees – 42 degrees) away from the sun, and the impossibility of ever reaching it is enshrined in such stories as the Gold at the End of the Rainbow. Was he mistaken, or was he describing an emotional reaction to a natural wonder? And how critical should we be of him?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131997276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.5040/9781472568083.article-030
S. R. Wilk
Purples and pinks and variations of these colors, which are not part of the spectrum, can be made by combining colors from the blue and the red end of the spectrum. All the other colors – blue, violet, indigo, green, yellow, orange, and red and the transitions between them -- ought to be represented, at some degree of saturation, by the spectrum itself. White, of course, is the combination of all spectal colors, and black is the complete absence of them. But if that’s the case, then where does one find brown on the spectrum? What color is brown? What colors must be combined to produce it?
{"title":"Brown","authors":"S. R. Wilk","doi":"10.5040/9781472568083.article-030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472568083.article-030","url":null,"abstract":"Purples and pinks and variations of these colors, which are not part of the spectrum, can be made by combining colors from the blue and the red end of the spectrum. All the other colors – blue, violet, indigo, green, yellow, orange, and red and the transitions between them -- ought to be represented, at some degree of saturation, by the spectrum itself. White, of course, is the combination of all spectal colors, and black is the complete absence of them. But if that’s the case, then where does one find brown on the spectrum? What color is brown? What colors must be combined to produce it?","PeriodicalId":211028,"journal":{"name":"Sandbows and Black Lights","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124002543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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