Home

Presentation

Exhibition

Information

Credits

GALILEO'S FOLLOWERS

Related objects

Telescope for Torricelli lens

Inv. 2554 V.26 Telescope Objective: 1647 / Tube: second half of the eighteenth century? Objective: Evangelista Torricelli / Tube: unsigned Brass Length 1115 mm

Description Telescope with a single brass tube, made from two sections soldered together. About halfway along the tube is placed a wooden diaphragm. The biconvex objective by Evangelista Torricelli is inserted in a cardboard ring in which is inscribed: "V. Torr. in Fior. 1647. Br 1 ¾" (i.e. focal length 1 ¾ braccia, corresponding to 1022 mm). The eyepiece is plano-convex, with focal length 32 mm. The glass quality of the two lenses is very different: the objective, typical of the first half of the seventeenth century, shows many small bubbles and inclusions as well as a slight yellow tint, whereas the eyepiece glass, certainly later, appears clear and homogeneous. This instrument can enlarge objects 32 times. Mentioned for the first time in the Medici-Lorraine inventory of 1776-1779, it was probably made in the second half of the eighteenth century to host the Torricelli objective.