Sketch Book for the Artist

OBJECTS

AND

INSTRUMENTS

Instruments of Vision

SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS by their very nature must gauge

or chronicle precision. Their delicate construction is only

as valuable as the measurements they make. In the graphic

work of these two great men of science, we see drawing

shape the very cause and effect of investigatory thought.

From the concept of capturing the infinite to the mapping

of microscopic sight, drawing is there to pin the moment

down. Newton's drawing of his first reflecting telescope is

found among his letters. It is a diagrammatic explanation

of how to catch and magnify a star in a mirrored tube.

Hooke's head of a drone fly seen through a microscope

may represent the first time man and insect came face to

face. The power of this drawing reflects the pure passion

of discovery. He counted 14,000 perfect hemispheres,

each reflecting a view of his own world—his window,

a tree outside, and his hand moving across the light.

ISAAC NEWTON

English scientist, alchemist,

mathematician, astronomer,

and philosopher Newton was

President of the Royal Society,

and Fellow of the University

of Cambridge, where he

developed his three greatest

theories: the law of motion,

the law of gravity, and the

nature of light and color.

Transparent view Newton's

reflecting telescope focused light

in a parabolic mirror. It was then

reflected up inside the tube and.

via a second mirror, into the eye-

piece. With dotted lines Newton

has drawn his arrangement of

elements inside the tube, offering

a transparent view. A disembodied

eye at the top of the drawing

indicates where to look.

Ink lines Several drawings appear

among Newton's letters, each

one skillfully rendered with the

alarmingly matter-of-fact ease of

explaining the commonplace. Look

how confidently he draws with ink

the sphere of this wooden globe by

which his telescope rotates. Newton

used this instrument to calculate

the speed required to escape

earth's gravity.

Newton's Telescope

1672

ISAAC NEWTON