Kepler

Work

Kepler's next work was on measurement. Kepler, buying wine for his household in 1613, observed at first hand the standard method of determining the volume of a barrel, by inserting a measuring rod diagonally from the opening to the bottom of the cask. This led him to an analysis of the volumes of various shaped containers. Finding that no printer in Augsburg was willing to publish a book in Latin, he brought the printer Johannes Plank from Erfurt to Linz. Plank printed Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum in 1615, the first book to be printed in Linz, at Kepler's own expense. A shortened German version was published the following year. Kepler's next work was his Epitome Astronomia Copernicae, a summary of Copernican theory, published in two volumes in 1618. In the following year, Kepler's work on Comets, De cometis libelli tres, was published in Augsburg. This book included much observational data and calculation, as well as astrological interpretation.