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Paper, 'Note on the necessity of using well-annealed and homo­geneous glass for the mirrors of telescopes' by Andrew Ainslie Common

Reference number: PP/18/12

Date: 1891

Description

Common writes: 'In 1880 I ordered of the St. Gobain Glassworks, through their London agent, M. de Grand Ry, a disk of glass for the mirror of a 5-foot telescope. The limit of weight imposed by the manufacturers permitted a disk of about 61 inches diameter and 5 inches thickness ; this was made with a hole through the middle of 10 inches, in order to enable the telescope to be used as a Cassegrain telescope if required.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Optics / Scientific apparatus and instruments

Received 18 November 1891. Read 10 December 1891.

A version of this paper was published in volume 50 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Note on the necessity of using well-annealed and homo­geneous glass for the mirrors of telescopes'.

Reference number
PP/18/12
Earliest possible date
1891
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
5 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Andrew Ainslie Common

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Citation

Andrew Ainslie Common, Paper, 'Note on the necessity of using well-annealed and homo­geneous glass for the mirrors of telescopes' by Andrew Ainslie Common, 1891, PP/18/12, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/pp_18_12/paper-note-on-the-necessity-of-using-well-annealed-and-homogeneous-glass-for-the-mirrors-of-telescopes-by-andrew-ainslie-common, accessed on 19 January 2026

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  • Proceedings Papers

    The archival collection known as 'Proceedings Papers' is comprised of manuscripts and occasional proofs of scientific papers sent to the Royal Society which were read before meetings of Fellows and printed in full in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

    Dates: 1882 - 1894

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