WHEATSTONE, CHARLES. - STEREOSCOPIC VISION DISCOVERED.

Beiträge zur Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes. (Aus dem Englishen von dr. August Franz). Erster Theil (alles übersetzt): Ueber einige merkwürdige und bis jetzt unbeobachtete Erscheinuungen beim Sehen mit beiden Augen.

(Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1842).

No wrappers. In: In "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff", Ergänzungsband (Nach Bd. LI einzuschalten), Stück 1. With titlepage to the volume (Erg.-Bd.). Pp. 1-192 a. 3 plates. (Entire issue offered). Wheatstones paper: pp. 1-48. Brownspots to inner margin on the first page, otherwise clean. Stamp to titlepage and verso of plates.

First appearance in German of this classic paper in physiological optics in which Wheatstone discovered the stereoscopic vison of the human eye.
Stereopsis was first described by Wheatstone in 1838 (published first in the Transactions). In 1840 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society for his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to make stereoscopic drawings and 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 or 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 with lenses.

"As the inventor of the stereoscope, later developed by Brewster, Wheatstone found himself - to his own surprise - the first since Leonardo da Vinvi to discuss depth perception in terms of the different image received by the eye..."(DSB XIV, p. 290).
Garrison & Morton No. 1498.

Also with K.E. von baer "ueber das Klima von Sitcha und den russischen besitzungen an der Nordwestküste von Amerika", pp. 129-154.

Order-nr.: 49144