| §1. | Grinding and Polishing the Mirrors | 2 |
| 1. Experiments on a metal speculum. Corrosion by aqua regia; voltaic grinding | 2 |
| 2. Silvering glass. Foucault’s and Cimeg’s processes; details of silvering a mirror; thickness and durability of silver films; their use in daguerreotyping | 2 |
| 3. Grinding and polishing glass. Division of subject | 6 |
| a. Peculiarities of glass; effects of pressure; effects of heat; oblique mirrors | 6 |
| b. Emery and rouge; elutriation of emery | 10 |
| c. Tools of iron, lead, pitch; the gauges; the leaden tool; the iron tool; the pitch polisher | 10 |
| d. Methods of examination; two tests, eyepiece and opaque screen; appearance of spherical surface; oblate spheroidal surface; hyperbolic surface; irregular surface; details of tests; atmospheric movements; correction for parallel rays by measure; appearances in relief on mirrors | 13 |
| e. Machines; Lord Rosse; Mr. Lassell; spiral stroke machine; its construction and use; the foot-power; method of local corrections; its advantages and disadvantages; machine for local corrections; description and use | 19 |
| 4. Eyepieces, plane mirrors, and test objects | 26 |
| §2. | The Telescope Mounting | 27 |
| Stationary eyepiece; method of counterpoising | 27 |
| a. The tube; the mirror support; air sac; currents in the tube | 28 |
| b. The supporting frame | 31 |
| §3. | The Clock Movement | 33 |
| a. The sliding plateholder; the frictionless slide | 33 |
| b. The clepsydra; the sand-clock | 36 |
| c. The sun camera | 40 |
| §4. | The Observatory | 41 |
| a. The building | 41 |
| b. The dome; its peculiarities | 44 |
| c. The observer’s chair | 45 |
| §5. | The Photographic Laboratory | 46 |
| a. Description of the apartment | 46 |
| b. Photographic processes; washed plates; difficulties of celestial photography | 47 |
| §6. | The Photographic Enlarger | 51 |
| a. Low powers; use of a concave mirror, its novelty and advantages; of the making of reverses | 51 |
| b. High powers; microscopic photography | 54 |
