In The invented eye Edward Lucie-Smith surveys, from an art critic's point of view, the pioneer period of photography. Against the cultural and artistic background of the 19th century world he discusses the broad implications of early photography and many of its most important practitioners. Taking as it does an art-critical point of view, The invented eye is not a technical book (though there is a brief section explaining the major techniques of early photography). Its emphasis is on understanding the photographs as visual images. More than 150 photographs provide a magnificent complement to the lucid and perceptive text, and make The invented eye a journey through time, to the beginnings of "a new way of seeing the world."
A fascinating A-Z history written by Private Eye journalist Adam Macqueen with a wealth of new material forming an in-depth, witty and sometimes critical appraisal of Britain's favourite satirical magazine. Featuring extensive exclusive interviews with the Eye's editors - Ian Hislop, Richard Ingrams and Christopher Booker - and a host of other key figures past and present, along with rare material and photographs featuring former contributors including Peter Cook, Auberon Waugh and Willie Rushton.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series continues with this “engrossing” novel (USA Today) as brilliant hacker Lisbeth Salander teams up with journalist Mikael Blomkvist to uncover the secrets of her childhood and take revenge. • Also known as the Millennium series Lisbeth Salander—obstinate outsider, volatile seeker of justice for herself and others—seizes on a chance to unearth her mysterious past once and for all. And she will let nothing stop her—not the Islamists she enrages by rescuing a young woman from their brutality; not the prison gang leader who passes a death sentence on her; not the deadly reach of her long-lost twin sister, Camilla; and not the people who will do anything to keep buried knowledge of a sinister pseudoscientific experiment known only as The Registry. Once again, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are the fierce heart of a thrilling full-tilt novel that takes on some of the world's most insidious problems. Look for the latest book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, The Girl in the Eagle's Talons, coming soon!
This is the inspiring story of Dr. Patricia Bath, a groundbreaking ophthalmologist who pioneered laser surgery--and gave her patients the gift of sight. Dr. Bath's interest in helping blind people started when she was six years old. All the doctors she knew were men, but she saw possibility when others couldn't. Her remarkable story is sure to inspire and empower kids around the world.
The remarkable story of how an artist and a scientist in seventeenth-century Holland transformed the way we see the world. On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek—a cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopher—gazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby attic, the painter Johannes Vermeer was using another optical device, a camera obscura, to experiment with light and create the most luminous pictures ever beheld. “See for yourself!” was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effects of light, shadow, and color. By extending the reach of sight the new optical instruments prompted the realization that there is more than meets the eye. But they also raised questions about how we see and what it means to see. In answering these questions, scientists and artists in Delft changed how we perceive the world. In Eye of the Beholder, Laura J. Snyder transports us to the streets, inns, and guildhalls of seventeenth-century Holland, where artists and scientists gathered, and to their studios and laboratories, where they mixed paints and prepared canvases, ground and polished lenses, examined and dissected insects and other animals, and invented the modern notion of seeing. With charm and narrative flair Snyder brings Vermeer and Van Leeuwenhoek—and the men and women around them—vividly to life. The story of these two geniuses and the transformation they engendered shows us why we see the world—and our place within it—as we do today. Eye of the Beholder was named "A Best Art Book of the Year" by Christie's and "A Best Read of the Year" by New Scientist in 2015.
Deals with the history of eyeglasses from their invention in Italy ca. 1286 to the appearance of the telescope three cent. later. "By the end of the 16th cent. eyeglasses were as common in western and central Europe as desktop computers are in western developed countries today." Eyeglasses served an important technological function at both the intellectual and practical level, not only easing the textual studies of scholars but also easing the work of craftsmen/small bus. During the 15th cent. two crucial developments occurred: the ability to grind convex lenses for various levels of presbyopia and the ability to grind concave lenses for the correction of myopia. As a result, eyeglasses could be made almost to prescription by the early 17th cent. Illus.
A comprehensive collection of fun facts about the origins of pretty much everything, from windows to washing machines to websites. This fact-packed collection recounts the origins, invention, and discovery of just about everything, from the big bang to driverless cars. With sections covering topics such as the arts, sports, weapons, buildings, medicine, food, and many more, you can find out intriguing answers to questions like: What material was the first clothing made out of? Who invented bathtubs? Who paved the first road? What came first: wine or whiskey? Perfect for history buffs, science lovers, or all-around trivia junkies, this entertaining and enlightening collection is for curious minds wondering about the mysteries of the beginning of all things.
From monocles to pince-nez and goggle-eyes, a cultural and technological history of glasses in fact and fiction. This book examines those who wore glasses through history, art, and literature, from the green emerald through which Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights to Benjamin Franklin’s homemade bifocals, and from Marilyn Monroe’s cat-eye glasses to the famed four-eyes of Emma Bovary and Harry Potter. Spectacles are objects that seem commonplace, but In the Blink of an Eye shows that because they fundamentally changed people’s lives, glasses were the wellspring of a quiet social, cultural, and economic revolution. Indeed, one can argue that modernity itself began with the paradigm shift that transformed poor eyesight from a severely limiting disease—treated with pomades and tinctures—into a minor impairment that can be remedied with mechanisms constructed from lenses and wire.
