Copper condenser

[Copper condenser]

Copper condenser, clear, mirror diameter 30.5 cm. Made in Europe. The old collection of the Qing Palace
The mirror is made of copper, the mirror is concave (but the inner surface has been lost) and can focus light. It is decorated with a wooden frame with European patterns, 132 cm high
In 1679, the French scientist Edme Mariotte found that when a fire was placed in front of a concave metal condenser and then put his hand on the focus of fire formed by the condenser, the heat at the focus was the highest. When a transparent glass was used to shield the fire, the heat at the focus decreased, which was the earliest proof that the radiation heat of fire was separated from the propagation of light. This condenser is the echo of the new discovery of physics in the Chinese court in the second half of the 17th century