Developments in optical instruments and glassmaking technologies

The pace of optical technology accelerated tremendously in the seventeenth century, aided by theoretical works on the nature of hght (reported above). The 

With a prism and a telescope that he manufactured by himself, he discovered numerous black lines in the spectrum of sunlight thrown by a prism. He made use of these lines as wavelength markers when he was developing his new lenses. Subsequently they would be recognized as optical fingerprints for identifying individual elements whose atoms absorbed only certain wavelengths from the sun. Soon after, he became one of the world s premier scientific instrument makers.  

In characteristic fashion, Ahhe made a wide-ranging search of the available optical literature, hut found nothing of help. After numerous visits to the Zeiss workshop, Ahhe came to the conclusion that the main problem with existing 

With the lens design problem solved, Abbe turned his attention to the problem of how to get the right kind of glass. At that time, a lens designer had only two 

Gesammelte Abhanlurtder, Vol. 1, p. 159, G. Fisher Verlag, Jena (1906). P. Mason, The Light Fantastic, pp. 155 156, Penguin Books, Middlesex (1981). ibid., p. 157. 

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