DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6094#0328
SICILY AND MALTA. 3o5
Near this port, they shew the spot where
Archimedes' house slood ; and likewise the
tower from whence he is said to have set
fire to the Roman galleys with his burning
glasses; a story which is related by several
authors, but which is now almost univer-
sally exploded, from the difficulty to con-
ceive a burning-glass, or a concave spe-
culum, with a focus of such an immense
length as this must have required.
However, I mould be apt to imagine if
this be not entirely a fiction, (of which there
is some probability) that it was neither
performed by refracting burning-glasTes nor
speculums, but only by means of common
looking-glasles, or very clear plates of
metal. Indeed, from the situation of the
place it must have been done by reflection;
for Archimedes' tower slood on the north
of the little port where the Roman sseet
are said to have been moored; so that their
Vol. I. X vesscls
Near this port, they shew the spot where
Archimedes' house slood ; and likewise the
tower from whence he is said to have set
fire to the Roman galleys with his burning
glasses; a story which is related by several
authors, but which is now almost univer-
sally exploded, from the difficulty to con-
ceive a burning-glass, or a concave spe-
culum, with a focus of such an immense
length as this must have required.
However, I mould be apt to imagine if
this be not entirely a fiction, (of which there
is some probability) that it was neither
performed by refracting burning-glasTes nor
speculums, but only by means of common
looking-glasles, or very clear plates of
metal. Indeed, from the situation of the
place it must have been done by reflection;
for Archimedes' tower slood on the north
of the little port where the Roman sseet
are said to have been moored; so that their
Vol. I. X vesscls