Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
Having laid before the reader the principal improvements that have been
suggested, or made in the single microscope, it remains only to point
out those instruments of this kind, which, from the mode in which they
are fitted up, seem best adapted for general use; the peculiar
advantages of which, as well as the manner of using them, will be
described in the third chapter of this work.
Fig. 1. Plate VI. A botanical microscope, contrived by Dr. Withering.
Fig. 2. Plate VI. A botanical microscope, by Mr. B. Martin, being the
most universal pocket microscope.
Fig. 3. Plate VI, represents that which was used by M. Lyonnet for
dissecting the cossus.
Fig. 5. Plate VI. The tooth and pinion microscope, which is now
generally substituted in the room of Wilson’s. Fig. 1. Plate II. B.
Fig. 1. Plate VII. B. The aquatic microscope used by Mr. Ellis for
investigating the nature of coralline, and recommended to botanists by
Mr. Curtis, in his valuable publication, the “Flora Londinensis.”
Fig. 7. Plate VIII. A botanical magnifier, or hand megalascope, which by
the different combinations of its three lenses produces seven different
magnifying powers; when the three are used together, they are turned in,
and the object viewed through the apertures in the sides.
Fig. 8. Plate VIII. A botanical magnifier, having one large lens and two
small ones, but not admitting of more than three powers.
A COMPOUND MICROSCOPE, as it consists of two, three, or more glasses, is
more easily varied, and is susceptible of greater changes in its
construction, than the single microscope. The number of the lenses, of
which it is formed, may be increased or diminished, their respective
positions may be varied, and the form in which they are mounted be
altered almost ad infinitum. But among these varieties, some will be
found more deserving of attention than others; we shall here treat of
these only.
The three first compound microscopes deserving of notice, are those of
Dr. Hooke, Eustachio Divinis, and Philip Bonnani. Dr. Hooke gives an
account of his in the preface to his Micrographia, which has been
already cited; it was about three inches in diameter, seven long, and
furnished with four draw-out tubes, by which it might be lengthened as
occasion required: it had three glasses--a small object glass, a middle
glass, and a deep eye glass. Dr. Hooke used all the glasses when he
wanted to take in a considerable part of an object at once, as by the
middle glass a number of radiating pencils were conveyed to the eye,
which would otherwise have been lost: but when he wanted to examine with
accuracy the small parts of any substance, he took out the middle glass,
and only made use of the eye and object lenses; for the fewer the
refractions are, the clearer and more bright the object appears.
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