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When the scientific revolution began in the ·1600s. the lathe reshaped our view of the universe. By Robert O. Woods

t some point in any scientific en­ center of the universe; astronomy left the realm of super­ deavor it becomes necessary to stition and became a real science. And the revolution was bring philosophy into contact sparked by a few crude fabricated with tools made with the real world. The tools for in a renaissance machine shop. Manufacturing technolo­ doing this are the scientific instru- gy redrew our view of the universe. ments that can be used to perform critical e"xperiments. These instru­ ments are tangible hardware, not abstract thought. The Telescopes Pave the Way theoretician is thus, sooner or later, at the mercy of the The story of progress in early astronomy is the history instrument maker. of making for telescopes. Advances were initially In the case of astronomy, instrumentation has come confined to increasing magnification. Later, better reso­ to mean better and bigger telescopes. Today, the in­ lution became critical. Each refinement in lens quality strument makers include the thousands who con­ led to another discovery-the lunar mountains, the tributed to the Hubble space telescope and the thou­ Milky Way, Jovian satellites, Saturn's rings. The list grows sands more who are working on the Webb telescope. today with Hubble's observations. In the early days, the astronomer depended on the Having Galileo's work as catalyst, many natural phi­ craftsmen who fabricated the astrolabes that gave nu­ losophers became involved in advancing the science of merical precision to naked-eye observations. astronomy, which meant advancing the technology of A clean break in the path between the naked eyeball . Researchers brought with them knowledge of and the present-day satellite-borne engineering marvels physics and mathematics, which had previously been occurred in the 17th century. It was more of a change in only of academic interest. When enough of those paradigm than anything that will ever be revealed by philosophers became involved, the scientific revolution satellites, and the hardware that did it was a few grams of had begun. -wielded with genius by Galileo Galilei. Accounts of astronomy in the 17th century typically In 1609, Galileo published the results of observations describe complete telescopes. Lenses are mentioned, but he had made using a primitive three-power telescope. At attention is rarely given to the methods that produced a stroke, he removed man from his previous place at the them. Shaping lenses involved increasingly sophisticated use of primitive tools, all of which were some variation Robert O. Woods is a Fellow of ASME and a frequent contributor to on the basic lathe. Mechanical Engineering. As a youth. he was involved in amateur telescope making. More recently. he has designed mechanical parts The use of rotating equipment was an important inno­ for spaceborne optical systems. vation in lens making, although it is possible to grind lenses entirely by. hand and, in fact, that was done in the earliest stages. It is not known how long lenses have existed. It is possible that Egypt­ ian statues dated to 2600 B.C.E. were the earliest examples. Some statues have remarkably lifelike eyes, which incorporate lenses that may have been hand ground or turned on primitive lathes like those that were then being used to turn axles. The earliest clearly documented reference to lenses­ burning , in that case-oc­ Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/128/10/38/6356294/me-2006-oct4.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 curred in The Clouds, a satire by Aristophanes dated 4