Micrographia. Robert Hooke

Glasses Elliptical, or of some more true shape; for though both Microscopes, and Telescopes, as they now are, will magnifie an Object about a thousand thousand times bigger then it appears to the naked eye; yet the Apertures of the Object-glasses are so very small, that very few Rays are admitted, and even of those few there are so many false, that the Object appears dark and indistinct: And indeed these inconveniences are such, as seem inseparable from Spherical Glasses, even when most exactly made; but the way we have hitherto made use of for that purpose is so imperfect, that there may be perhaps ten wrought before one be made tolerably good, and most of those ten perhaps every one differing in goodness one from another, which is an Argument, that the way hitherto used is, at least, very uncertain. So that these Glasses have a double defect; the one, that very few of them are exactly true wrought; the other, that even of those that are best among them, none will admit a sufficient number of Rayes to magnifie the Object beyond a determinate bigness. Against which Inconveniences the only Remedies I have hitherto met with are these.

      First, for Microscopes (where the Object we view is near and within our power) the best way of making it appear bright in the Glass, is to cast a great quantity of light on it by means of convex glasses, for thereby, though the aperture be very small, yet there will throng in through it such multitudes, that an Object will by this means indure to be magnifi'd as much again as it would be without it. The way for doing which is this. I make choice of some Room that has only one window open to the South, and at about three or four foot distance from this Window, on a Table, I place my Microscope, and then so place either a round Globe of Water, or a very deep clear plano convex Glass (whose convex side is turn'd towards the Window) that there is a great quantity of Rayes collected and thrown upon the Object: Or if the Sun shine, I place a small piece of oyly Paper very near the Object, between that and the light; then with a good large Burning-Glass I so collect and throw the Rayes on the Paper, that there may be a very great quantity of light pass through it to the Object; yet I so proportion that light, that it may not singe or burn the Paper. Instead of which Paper there may be made use of a small piece of Looking-glass plate, one of whose sides is made rough by being rubb'd on a flat Tool with very find sand, this will, if the heat be leisurely cast on it, indure a much greater degree of heat, and consequently very much augment a convenient light. By all which means the light of the Sun, or of a Window, may be so cast on an Object, as to make it twice as light as it would otherwise be without it, and that without any inconvenience of glaring, which the immediate light of the Sun is very apt to create in most Objects; for by this means the light is so equally diffused, that all parts are alike inlightned; but when the immediate light of the Sun falls on it, the reflexions from some few parts are so vivid, that they drown the appearance of all the other, and are themselves also, by reason of the inequality of light, indistinct, and appear only radiant spots.

      But because the light of the Sun, and also that of a Window, is in a continual variation, and so many Objects cannot be view'd long enough by them to be throughly examin'd; besides that, oftentimes the Weather is so dark and cloudy, that for many dayes together nothing can be view'd: And because also there are many Objects to be met with in the night, which cannot so conveniently be kept perhaps till the day, therefore to procure and cast a sufficient quantity of light on an Object in the night, I thought of, and often used this, Expedient.

      Schem. 1. Fig. 5.

      I procur'd me a small Pedestal, such as is describ'd in the fifth Figure of the first Scheme on the small Pillar AB, of which were two movable Armes CD, which by means of the Screws EF, I could fix in any part of the Pillar; on the undermost of these I plac'd a pretty large Globe of Glass G, fill'd with exceeding clear Brine, stopt, inverted, and fixt in the manner visible in the Figure; out of the side of which Arm proceeded another Arm H, with many joynts; to the end of which was fastned a deep plain Convex glass I, which by means of this Arm could be moved too and fro, and fixt in any posture. On the upper Arm was placed a small Lamp K, which could be to mov'd upon the end of the Arm, as to be set in a fit posture to give light through the Ball: By means of this Instrument duly plac'd, as is exprest in the Figure, with the small flame of a Lamp may be cast as great and convenient a light on the Object as it will well indure; and being always constant, and to be had at any time, I found most proper for drawing the representations of those small Objects I had occasion to observe.

      None of all which ways (though much beyond any other hitherto made use of by any I know) do afford a sufficient help, but after a certain degree of magnifying, they leave us again in the lurch. Hence it were very desirable, that some way were thought of for making the Object-glass of such a Figure as would conveniently bear a large Aperture.

      As for Telescopes, the only improvement they seem capable of, is the increasing of their length; for the Object being remote, there is no thought of giving it a greater light then it has; and therefore to augment the. Aperture, the Glass must be ground of a very large sphere; for, by that means, the longer the Glass be, the bigger aperture will it bear, if the Glasses be of an equal goodness in their kind. Therefore a six will indure a much larger Aperture then a three foot Glass, and a sixty foot Glass will proportionably bear a greater Aperture then a thirty, and will as much excel it also as a six foot does a three foot, as I have experimentally observ'd in one of that length made by Mr. Richard Reives here at London, which will bear an Aperture above three inches over, and yet make the Object proportionably big and distinct; whereas there are very few thirty foot Glasses that will indure an Aperture of more then two inches over. So that for Telescopes, supposing we had a very ready way of making their Object Glasses of exactly spherical Surfaces, we might, by increasing the length of the Glass, magnifie the Object to any assignable bigness. And for performing both these, I cannot imagine any way more easie, and more exact, then by this following Engine, by means of which, any Glasses, of what length soever, may be speedily made. It seems the most easie, because with one and the same Tool may be with care ground an Object Glass, of any length or breadth requisite, and that with very little or no trouble in fitting the Engine, and without much skill in the Grinder. It seems to be the most exact, for to the very last stroke the Glass does regulate and rectifie the Tool to its exact Figure; and the longer or more the Tool and Glass are wrought together, the more exact will both of them be of the desir'd Figure. Further, the motions of the Glass and Tool do so cross each other, that there is not one point of eithers Surface, but has thousands of cross motions thwarting it, so that there can be no kind of Rings or Gutters made either in the Tool or Glass.

      The contrivance of the Engine is, only to make the ends of two large Mandrils so to move, that the Centers of them may be at any convenient distance asunder, and that the Axis of the Mandrils lying both in the same plain produc'd, may meet each other in any assignable Angle; both which requisites may be very well Schem. 1. Fig. 3. perform'd by the Engine describ'd in the third Figure of the first Scheme: where AB signifies the Beam of a Lath fixt perpendicularly or Horizontally, CD the two Poppet heads, fixt at about two foot distance, EF an Iron Mandril, whose tapering neck F runs in an adapted tapering brass Collar; the other end E runs on the point of a Screw G; in a convenient place of this is fastned H a pully Wheel, and into the end of it, that comes through the Poppet head C, is screwed a Ring of a hollow Cylinder K, or some other conveniently shap'd Tool, of what wideness shall be thought most proper for the cize of Glasses, about which it is to be imploy'd: As, for Object glasses, between twelve foot and an hundred foot long, the Ring may be about six inches over, or indeed somewhat more for those longer Glasses. It would be convenient also and not very chargeable, to have four or five several Tools; as one for all Glasses between an inch and a foot, one for all Glasses between a foot and ten foot long, another for all between ten and an hundred, a fourth for all between a hundred and a thousand foot long; and if Curiosity shall ever proceed so far, one for all lengths between a thousand and ten thousand foot long; for indeed the principle is such, that supposing the Mandrils well made, and of a good length, and supposing great care be used in working and polishing them, I see no reason, but that a Glass of a thousand, nay of ten thousand foot long, may be as well made as one of ten; for the reason is the same, supposing the Mandrils and Tools be made sufficiently strong, so that they cannot bend; and supposing the Glass, out of which they are wrought, be capable of so great a regularity in its parts as to refraction: this hollow Cylinder K is to contain the Sand, and