Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries ThereuponHooke, Robert
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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
Take a small Glass-Cane about a foot long, seal up one end of it
_hermetically_, then put in a very small bubble of Glass, almost of the
shape of an Essence-viol with the open mouth towards the sealed end, then
draw out the other end of the Pipe very small, and fill the whole Cylinder
with water, then set this Tube by the Fire till the Water begin to boyl,
and the Air in the bubble be in good part rarified and driven out, then by
sucking at the smalling Pipe, more of the Air or vapours in the bubble may
be suck’d out, so that it may sink to the bottom; when it is sunk to the
bottom, in the flame of a Candle, or Lamp, nip up the slender Pipe and let
it cool: whereupon it is obvious to observe, first, that the Water by
degrees will subside and shrink into much less room: Next, that the Air or
vapours in the Glass will expand themselves so, as to buoy up the little
Glass: Thirdly, that all about the inside of the Glass-pipe there will
appear an infinite number of small bubbles, which as the Water grows colder
and colder will swell bigger and bigger, and many of them buoy themselves
up and break at the top.
From this _Disceding_ of the heat in Glass drops, that is, by the quenching
or cooling Irradiations propagated from the Surface upwards and inwards, by
the lines CT, CT, DT, DE, &c. the bubbles in the drop have room to expand
themselves a little, and the parts of the Glass contract themselves; but
this operation being too quick for the sluggish parts of the Glass, the
contraction is performed very unequally and irregularly, and thereby the
Particles of the Glass are bent, some one way, and some another, yet so as
that most of them draw towards the Pith or middle TEEE, or rather from that
outward: so that they cannot _extricate_ or unbend themselves, till some
part of TEEE be broken and loosened, for all the parts about that are
placed in the manner of an Arch, and so till their hold at TEEE be loosened
they cannot fly asunder, but uphold, and shelter, and fix each other much
like the stones in a Vault, where each stone does concurre to the stability
of the whole Fabrick, and no one stone can be taken away but the whole Arch
falls. And wheresoever any of those radiating wedges DTD, &c. are removed,
which are the component parts of this Arch, the whole Fabrick presently
falls to pieces; for all the Springs of the several parts are set at
liberty, which immediately extricate themselves and fly asunder every way;
each part by its spring contributing to the darting of it self and some
other contiguous part. But if this drop be heat so hot as that the parts by
degrees can unbend themselves, and be settled and annealed in that posture,
and be then suffered gently to subside and cool; The parts by this nealing
losing their springiness, constitute a drop of a more soft but less brittle
texture, and the parts being not at all under a flexure, though any part of
the middle or Pith TEEE be broken, yet will not the drop at all fly to
pieces as before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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