The History of the Telescope

1. The Beginnings of Astronomical Observation 2. Early References to Lenses and to Optics 3. The Application of the Telescope to Astronomy by Galileo 4. Descartes' Failure to Improve the Telescope 5. Newton's Dispersion Investigations 6. Gascoigne and Picard Use Telescopic Sights 7. The Telescopes Used by Herschel at Bath 8. Hall's Invention of the Achromatic Lens 9. Guinand's Contributions to Flint-glass Manufacture 10. Rosse's Experiments with Compound Specula 11. Cassini IV's Trouble at the Paris Observatory with French Instrument-workers 12. The First American Observatories 13. Liebig's Silvering Process 14. Early History of Spectrum Analysis 15. Visual, Photographic and Photovisual Refractors of the Late Nineteenth Century 16. Hale's Invention of the Spectroheliograph 17. The Zeiss Foundation--Interesting Zeiss Telescopes 18. The 74-inch Toronto Reflector and Smaller Grubb-Parsons Telescope 19. Large Telescopes Built by Amateurs Index