Review: Perfect Mechanics: Instrument Makers at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century

Perfect Mechanics: Instrument Makers at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century by Richard Sorrenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



...This book could have benefited from an initial chapter of exposition. Too little is related in the challenges faced at the time, and also too little is offered early on in describing the taxonomy of instrumentation needed development and improvements to survey the globe and measure the solar system. A reader will come across the zenith sector, theodolite, pyrometer, and vitrometer without much benefit of introduction, illustration, or even a glossary. More clarification is given to how clarity and focus came to compound lenses by uniting spherical and concave lenses. This achromatic doublet makes up an eyepiece that limits the effects of both chromatic and spherical aberration. The third act of this book “Credit and Discredit” is a detailed look at the rival claims of priority here. The author largely discredits any role Chester Moor Hall may have had with discredit to spare for Jesse Ramsden, who is generally prominent in any history of the telescope. Much of this is the recounted efforts of Ramsden’s brother-in-law, Peter Dollond, to bring credit to his father John Dollond.

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