Reflecting Telescope

Description:

This equatorially mounted telescope, made in Paris around 1860, has a 4-inch aperture silvered-glass primary mirror of the sort proposed by the physicist J. B. L. Foucault. A small printed label on the square wooden tube carries the message “Les Télescopes à mirroir de verre qui se vendent dans la maison SECRETAN portent tous la signature ci-dessous” along with Foucault’s signature. A one-page lithographed “Instruction pour les Télescopes de verre argenté” carries the stamp of Lerebours et Secretan.

Marc François Louis Secretan was a scientific instrument maker in Paris who worked in partnership with, and then succeeded, Noel-Lean Lerebours.

"Telescope en verre argente," L'Annee Scientifique et Industrielle 2 (1857): 25-29.

"Le telescope de M. Foucault," L'Annee Scientifique et Industrielle 7 (1862): 28-31.

Date Made: after 1860

Maker: Secretan

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: France: Île-de-France, Paris

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences, Science & Mathematics

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: PH.330623Accession Number: 1979.0889Catalog Number: 330623

Object Name: telescope, reflecting

Measurements: overall: 27 3/4 in x 15 7/8 in x 19 1/2 in; 70.485 cm x 40.3225 cm x 49.53 cmoverall: 19 7/8 in x 15 3/4 in x 25 1/4 in; 50.4825 cm x 40.005 cm x 64.135 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-3909-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1183920

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