Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries ThereuponHooke, Robert
History
Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
Hooke, Robert
Magnifying glasses -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800; Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
And secondly, That it is not meerly the colour of the Air interpos’d, will,
I suppose, without much more difficulty be yielded, seeing that we may
observe a very great _interstitium_ of Air betwixt the Object, and the Eye,
makes it appear of a dead blew, far enough differing from a red, or yellow.
But thirdly, That it proceeds from the refraction, or inflection, of the
rays by the _Atmosphere_, this following Experiment will, I suppose,
sufficiently manifest.
Take a sphærical Crystalline Viol, such as is describ’d in the fifth Figure
ABCD, and, having fill’d it with pure clear Water, expose it to the Sun
beams; then taking a piece of very fine _Venice_ Paper, apply it against
that side of the Globe that is opposite to the Sun, as against the side BC,
and you shall perceive a bright red Ring to appear, caus’d by the
refraction of the Rays, AAAA, which is made by the Globe; in which
Experiment, if the Glass and Water be very cleer, so that there be no Sands
nor bubbles in the Glass, nor dirt in the Water, you shall not perceive any
appearance of any other colour. To apply which Experiment, we may imagine
the _Atmosphere_ to be a great transparent Globe, which being of a
substance more dense then the other, or (which comes to the same) that has
its parts more dense towards the middle, the Sun beams that are tangents,
or next within the tangents of this Globe, will be refracted or inflected
from their direct passage towards the center of the Globe, whence,
according to the laws of refractions made in a triangular _Prism_, and the
generation of colour set down in the description of Muscovi-glass there
must necessarily appear a red colour in the _transitus_ or passage of those
tangent Rays. To make this more plain, we will suppose (in the sixth
_Figure_) ABCD, to represent the Globe of the _Atmosphere_, EFGH to
represent the opacous Globe of the Earth, lying in the midst of it, neer to
which, the parts of the Air, sustaining a very great pressure, are thereby
very much condens’d, from whence those Rays that are by inflection made
tangents to the Globe of the Earth, and those without them, that pass
through the more condens’d part of the _Atmosphere_, as suppose between A
and E, are by reason of the inequality of the _medium_, inflected towards
the center, whereby there must necessarily be generated a red colour, as is
more plainly shewn in the former cited place; hence whatsoever opacous
bodies (as vapours, or the like) shall chance to be elevated into those
parts, will reflect a red towards the eye; and therefore those evenings and
mornings appear reddest, that have the most store of vapours and halituous
substances exhaled to a convenient distance from the Earth; for thereby the
inflection is made the greater, and thereby the colour also the more
intense; and several of those exhalations being opacous, reflect several of
those Rays, which, through an _Homogeneous_ transparent _medium_ would pass
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