Ɛpsilon

From David Brewster   Feb. 13th. 1856

St. Leonard’s College | St. Andrews | Feb. 13th. 1856.

My dear Mr Tyndall,

Having agreed to write a short Report for the Board of Trade,1 on certain Optical Instruments in Class VIII, you would oblige me much if you could give me any information on the following points.

  • Why was no medal adjudged to Lord Ross2 and Mr Lerebours3 who exhibited their telescopes in models because they could not do it otherwise.

  • Can you give me the dimensions of Lerebours object glass4 which received a great Medal of honour? Was it tested by the jury?

  • Was Lerebours telescope tested by the jury?

  • Why did Dr. A. Steinheil telescopes get no medal nor even honorable mention? They were superior and cheap Instruments.

  • Why did Merz of Munich5 get no medal for his Achromatic object-glass, he being one of the first makers in Europe.

If you could give me any memoranda you may have on these Instruments, or refer me to any sources of information you would oblige me greatly.

I hope to send you soon, by a private hand, if possible, a packet of my papers.

I am, | My dear Mr Tyndall | Ever most truly yours | D. Brewster.

RI MS JT/1/1/156

LT Transcript Only

1

Report for the Board of Trade: D. Brewster, Paris Universal Exhibition. Report on certain Optical and other Instruments (London: George E. Eyre & William Spottiswoode, 1857). (Copy among Brewster’s papers in private possession.)

2

Lord Ross: Lord Rosse, William Parsons, Third Earl of Rosse (1800-67), astronomer noted for his ‘Leviathan of Parsontown’ at Birr Castle in Ireland completed in 1845. He was President of the Royal Society 1848 to 1854.

3

Mr Lerebours: Nicolas Lerebours (1807–73) inherited the optical workshop that his father Noel Lerbours (1761–1840) had founded in 1789. The firm became the Maison Lerebours & Secretan in 1845 when the Swiss mathematician Marc Secretan became a partner. The firm was also involved in photography.

4

Lerebours object glass: According to Rapports du Jury Mixte International, 2 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1856), vol. 1, p. 403, the objective was 38 cm in diameter.

5

Merz of Munich: Either Siegmund Merz or his brother Ludwig Merz, owners of the Munich optical firm that had been founded by Fraunhofer (d. 1826). Ludwig Merz also taught at the University of Munich.

Please cite as “Tyndall1191,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall1191