PREFACE

Summary

To satisfy a curiosity that is naturally excited by any thing new, great or uncommon, I tried to obtain all the information I could, connected with the Telescopes I endeavour to describe. To gratify a similar feeling in others, more remote from my opportunities of looking on, I venture to publish an account of what I have seen.

As I am hardy enough to do so without any assistance from, or even the cognizance of the noble projector of those instruments, whose liberality in diffusing his knowledge and wish for its promotion, leave me no uneasiness on this point, so I do not expect to give that information which men of deep research or mathematically close enquiry would desire. There are some particulars which might, perhaps, be more enlarged upon with advantage, but it has been my aim to place before the general reader such an account as will make the manufacture of the Specula, and the mechanism of the Telescopes, as plainly understood as could be expected, without entering with too much tediousness into minute details. I have been as explicit as possible in the history of the compound three foot Speculum, knowing that individuals whose inclination would lead them to construct Specula on a large scale, without possessing the pecuniary advantages of Lord Rosse, will be naturally led to adopt a course the most manageable and economical, and one which does not appear to be the less certain of success.