Publisher's Synopsis
Everyone who has learnt the manipulation of light and of lenses by the practical use of a magic lantern or by photography which involves a little more than the pressing of buttons and the sending of films to be developed, knows enough to follow Mr. Bidwell's lectures on light and sight. Mr. Bidwell is an authority on his subject, but he has the special faculty of explaining technical matters in simple language, and he has devised a series of experiments which can be repeated or modified easily. After a general chapter on the nature of light, he shows the relation of the eye to radiations, and makes extremely plain the troublesome subjects of complementary colors, chromatic dispersion, astigmatism and so forth. Light, treated in this experimental fashion, forms an admirable introduction to science. There is a wide field for cultivating the powers of observation and for the faculties by which observations are combined and analyzed. In the interpretation of the knowledge gained in this way, the fundamental problem of science or of philosophy is raised in a direct fashion; the problem as to how far our perceptions correspond with what may be called objective facts, and how far they are merely functions of our perceiving apparatus.
