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Optical instrument makers and brands Telescopes Binoculars Microscopes Cameras |
Navigation instruments Surveying instruments Military optical ordnance Laboratory & educational instruments Optical terminology |
There are appendices containing information on selected related subjects such as optical glass and eyepiece designs.
The inspiration for the book came from my interests in stargazing, photography, microscopy and bird-watching. These involve using telescopes, microscopes, binoculars and cameras, and soon I began to take an interest in classic and vintage optical instruments. I found the lack of reference material frustrating - I would see an interesting looking vintage telescope at auction, but to find out more about the maker I would have to buy extraordinarily expensive reference books, many of which are out of print. Further, the information I sought was frequently scattered around multiple sources, and time-consuming to collate. I wanted an affordable, simple, encyclopaedic reference in which I could find the name of the maker or optical instrument and a concise, but informative article about them. This book is my attempt to remedy that gap in the literature.
Since the invention of the telescope and the microscope in the early seventeenth cetury there have been countless makers of optical instruments. It would be impossible to include an entry for every one of them. However, most makers the general reader will encounter are currently included, and new entries will be added in future editions.
