In this video I do my best to recreate a "Burning Glass" in the style of Joseph Priestley's from 1774. while I do this we talk about the long history of the tool, and finally test the glass by attempting to reproduce some alchemical processes such lenses may have been turned to in the past.
Sources:
(Contemperary)
Dr. Principe lecture on Fransiscan Science:
https://youtu.be/WpPzZFILFpw?si=Zz2XFlN-7H_bz4fv
Adrienne Mayor 'Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world'
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691211084/greek-fire-poison-arrows-and-scorpion-bombs
(Primary)
Aristophenes the clouds:
http://www.faenumpublishing.com/uploads/2/3/9/8/23987979/aristophanes_clouds_a_dual_language_edition_-_johnston.pdf
Plutarch life of numa: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Numa*.htm
Polybius account of the siege of syracuse
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/8*.html
Livy history of rome book 24
https://www.yorku.ca/pswarney/Texts/livy-24.htm
Plutarch life of marcellus
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marcellus*.html
Cassius dio roman history
https://archive.org/details/DioCassiusRomanHistory9books7180WithIndices/Dio%20Cassius%20Roman%20History%202%20%28books%2012-25%29/page/170/mode/2up?q=archimedes
Roger Bacon Opus Majus https://archive.org/details/opusmajusofroger0001robe/page/135/mode/1up
Della Porta Natural Magic 1658 English edition:
https://archive.org/details/naturalmagick00port/page/370/mode/2up?view=theater
Galen on temperments
https://www.amazon.com/Galen-Mixtures-Temperamentis-Cambridge-Translations/dp/1107023149 (this is not an affiliate link)
Priestley 'Observations and Experiments on Different Kinds of Air'
https://www.loc.gov/item/15006259/