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Reflecting telescope (detail)

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made in London

Reflecting telescope (detail)
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This photograph shows the signature on a reflecting telescope made around 1760 in London. The signature on the mirror retention plate reads: 'JAMES SHORT LONDON 180/1098 = 18.'

There was a long tradition in the making of reflecting telescopes, both for the dilettante market as well as for the more serious scientist, and the finest instruments during the 18th century were produced in London. The quality of optical glass at this period meant that the image seen through the refracting image remained comparatively poor at high magnifications. James Short (1710-68), the renowned telescope maker, made only reflecting telescopes, and in fact his skill lay in the polishing of metal specula (mirrors) of these instruments.

James Short's skills in polishing metal specula, ground to the correct curvature to provide an erect image, without chromatic aberration, was largely self-taught. He left Edinburgh in 1738 for London, where the quality of his work rapidly established an international reputation for him. The coding on his instruments establishes their date and place in his sequence. This one has a nominal focal length of 18 inches; it was the 180th he had made of that focal length; and it was the 1098th telescope that he had made.

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