The same year he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society for
his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to
construct the stereoscope. He showed that our impression of solidity is
gained by the combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an
object taken by both of our eyes from different points of view. Thus,
in the stereoscope, an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two
photographs of the same object taken from different points are so
combined as to make the object stand out with a solid aspect. Sir David
Brewster improved the stereoscope by dispensing with the mirrors, and
bringing it into its existing form.
The 'pseudoscope' (Wheatstone was partial to exotic forms of speech) was
introduced by its professor in 1850, and is in some sort the reverse of
the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a
nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a
tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the
room.
On November 26, 1840, he exhibited his electro-magnetic clock in the
library of the Royal Society, and propounded a plan for distributing the
correct time from a standard clock to a number of local timepieces. The
circuits of these were to be electrified by a key or contact-maker
actuated by the arbour of the standard, and their hands corrected by
electro-magnetism.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49