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
Now, because that heat and cold are equally diffus’d every way; and that
the further it is spread, the weaker it grows; hence it will follow, that
the most part of the under Region of the Air will be made up of several
kinds of _lentes_, some whereof will have the properties of _Convex_,
others of _Concave_ _glasses_, which, that I may the more intelligibly make
out, we will suppose in the eighth _Figure_ of the 37. _Scheme_, that A
represents an ascending vapour, which, by reason of its being somewhat
_Heterogeneous_ to the ambient Air, is thereby thrust into a kind of
Globular form, not any where terminated, but gradually finished, that is,
it is most rarify’d in the middle about A. somewhat more condens’d about
BB, more then that about CC; yet further, about DD, almost of the same
density with the ambient Air about EE;, and lastly, inclosed with the more
dense Air FF, so that from A, to FF, there is a continual increase of
density. The reason of which will be manifest, if we consider the rising
vapour to be much warmer then the ambient heavie Air; for by the coldness
of the ambient Air, the shell EE will be more refrigerated then DD, and
that then CC, which will be yet more then BB, and that more then A; so that
from F to A, there is a continual increase of heat, and consequently of
rarity; from whence it will necessarily follow, that the Rays of light will
be inflected or refracted in it, in the same manner as they would be in a
_Concave-glase_; for the Rays _GKI_, _GKI_ will be inflected by _GKH_,
_GKH_, which will easily follow from what I before explained concerning the
inflection of the _Atmosphere_.
On the other side, a descending vapour, or any part of the air included by
an ascending vapour, will exhibit the same effects with a _Convex lens_;
for, if we suppose, in the former Figure, the quite contrary constitution
to that last describ’d; that is, the ambient Air FF being hotter then any
part of that matter within any circle, therefore the coldest part must
necessarily be A, as being farthest remov’d from the heat, all the
intermediate spaces will be gradually discriminated by the continuall
mixture of heat and cold, so that it will be hotter at EE, then DD, in DD
then CC, in CC then BB, and in BB then A. From which, a like refraction and
condensation will follow, and consequently a lesser or greater refraction,
so that every included part will refract more then the including, by which
means the Rays, GKI, GKI, coming from a Starr, or some remote Object, are
so inflected, that they will again concurr and meet, in the point M. By the
interposition therefore of this desending vapour the visible body of the
Star, or other Object, is very much augmented, as by the former it was
diminished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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