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Grinding of optical lenses
By the 1590s European spectacle makers and instrument makers could grind convex and concave glass lenses on rotating laps, laying the optical groundw…
Timeline
- 1590–1595Murano, Venice · VeniceIn the early 1590s, spectacle makers in Murano, Venice, and the Dutch Low Countries ground glass lenses by hand on rotating laps with abrasives such as grit and rouge, controlling spherical curvature to meet refractive needs and supplying the market for reading and myopia spectacles.
- c. 1596–1600Middelburg and Delft · Dutch RepublicIn the mid-to-late 1590s, spectacle makers in Zeeland and Holland provinces improved lens thickness and edge polishing, and some workshops began supplying custom convex and concave lenses for navigational instruments and early experimental optics, laying the component groundwork for the telescope combination around 1608.
Sources
- The History of the Telescope — Henry C. King (1955)
- Eyeglasses and Concave Lenses in Fifteenth-Century Florence and Milan — Vincent Ilardi (2007)