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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished paper, 'Observations and experiments on the solar rays that occasion heat; with the application of a remarkable property of these rays to the construction of the solar and oxy-hydrogen gas microscopes' by J B [Joseph Bancroft] Reade

Reference number: AP/20/14

Date: 09 December 1836

Description

Reade shares a method for obtaining, by a combination of lenses, the convergence to foci of the coloured solar light rays, together with the dispersion of the energetic rays. He suggests that this method might be useful in the construction of solar and oxy-hydrogren gas microscopes due to the fact that it produces bright light without an excess of heat. Includes two figures, one showing a design for a microscope and one demonstrating the mechanism of condensing lenses. Marked on back as 'archives'.

Subject: Astronomy

Read 22 December 1836. Communicated by J G [John George] Children.

Written by Reade in Peckham [London].

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 3 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'Observations and experiments on the solar rays that occasion heat; with the application of a remarkable property of these rays to the construction of the solar and oxy-hydrogen gas microscopes'.

Reference number
AP/20/14
Earliest possible date
09 December 1836
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
31 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Joseph Bancroft Reade

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Citation

Joseph Bancroft Reade, Unpublished paper, 'Observations and experiments on the solar rays that occasion heat; with the application of a remarkable property of these rays to the construction of the solar and oxy-hydrogen gas microscopes' by J B [Joseph Bancroft] Reade, 09 December 1836, AP/20/14, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_20_14/unpublished-paper-observations-and-experiments-on-the-solar-rays-that-occasion-heat-with-the-application-of-a-remarkable-property-of-these-rays-to-the-construction-of-the-solar-and-oxy-hydrogen-gas-microscopes-by-j-b-joseph-bancroft-reade, accessed on 11 July 2025

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https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_20_14/unpublished-paper-observations-and-experiments-on-the-solar-rays-that-occasion-heat-with-the-application-of-a-remarkable-property-of-these-rays-to-the-construction-of-the-solar-and-oxy-hydrogen-gas-microscopes-by-j-b-joseph-bancroft-reade

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    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

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