Skip to content

Please be aware that some material may contain words, descriptions or illustrations which will not reflect current scientific understanding and may be considered in today's context inaccurate, unethical, offensive or distressing.

Paper, 'An account of a remarkable seeming alteration in the size and shape of objects at a distance, from the exhalations from the Earth' by Peter Collinson

Reference number: CLP/2/37

Date: 1732

Description

Collinson writes of the deception of sight from the refraction of air in the appearance of objects on the earth seen from a great distance - witnessed when travelling over Ottmoor [Otmoor] Plain not far from Oxford [England] on 15 June 1731.

Subject: Optics

Read to the Royal Society on 23 March 1731 [1732?].

Reference number
CLP/2/37
Earliest possible date
1732
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
3 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Peter Collinson

View page for Peter Collinson

Use this record

Citation

Peter Collinson, Paper, 'An account of a remarkable seeming alteration in the size and shape of objects at a distance, from the exhalations from the Earth' by Peter Collinson, 1732, CLP/2/37, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/clp_2_37/paper-an-account-of-a-remarkable-seeming-alteration-in-the-size-and-shape-of-objects-at-a-distance-from-the-exhalations-from-the-earth-by-peter-collinson, accessed on 15 February 2025

Link to this record

Embed this record

<iframe src="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/embed/items/clp_2_37/paper-an-account-of-a-remarkable-seeming-alteration-in-the-size-and-shape-of-objects-at-a-distance-from-the-exhalations-from-the-earth-by-peter-collinson" title="Paper, 'An account of a remarkable seeming alteration in the size and shape of objects at a distance, from the exhalations from the Earth' by Peter Collinson" allow="fullscreen" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>

Related Fellows

Explore the collection

  • Classified Papers

    Dates: 1592-1741

    The 'Classified Papers' of the Royal Society are papers from British and international natural philosophers and scholars categorised according to subject areas.

    View collection