Editing Charles Wheatstone (section)

== Optics ==
[[File:Charles Wheatstone-mirror stereoscope XIXc.jpg|thumb|Charles Wheatstone mirror stereoscope]]
[[Stereopsis]] was first described by Wheatstone in 1838.<ref>See Wheatstone's 1838 paper "Contributions to the Physiology of Vision. – Part the First. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision" at [http://www.stereoscopy.com/library/wheatstone-paper1838.html this site.]</ref> 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.

The '[[pseudoscope]]' (Wheatstone coined the term from the Greek ψευδίς σκοπειν) was introduced in 1852,<ref>See Wheatstone's 1852 Bakerian Lecture "Contributions to the Physiology of Vision. – Part the Second. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision (continued)" at [http://www.stereoscopy.com/library//wheatstone-paper1852.html this site.]</ref> and is in some sort the reverse of the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a nearer one to be farther off; thus, a bust appears to be a mask, and a tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the room. Its purpose was to test his theory of stereo vision and for investigations into what would now be called experimental psychology.