THE OPTICIAN.
1. The word optician is applicable to persons who are particularly skilled in the science of vision, but especially to those who devote their attention to the manufacture of optical instruments, such as the spectacles, the camera obscura, the magic lantern, the telescope, the microscope, and the quadrant.
2. Light is an emanation from the sun and other luminous bodies, and is that substance which renders opaque bodies visible to the eye. It diverges in a direct line, unless interrupted by some obstacle, and its motion has been estimated at two hundred thousand miles in a second.
3. A ray of light is the motion of a single particle: and a parcel of rays passing from a single point, is called a pencil of rays. Parallel rays are such as always move at the same distance from each other. Rays which continually approach each other, are said to converge; and when they continually recede from each other, they are said to diverge. The point at which converging rays meet is called the focus.
4. Any pellucid or transparent body, as air, water, and glass, which admits the free passage of light, is called a medium. When rays, after having passed through one medium, are bent out of their original course by entering another of different density, they are said to be refracted; and when they strike against a surface, and are sent back from it, they are said to be reflected.
5. A lens is glass ground in such a form as to collect or disperse the rays of light which pass through it. These are of different shapes; and they have, therefore, received different appellations. A plano-convex lens has one side flat, and the other convex; a plano-concave lens is flat on one side, and concave on the other; a double convex lens is convex on both sides; a double concave lens is concave on both sides; a meniscus is convex on one side, and concave on the other. By the following cut, the lenses are exhibited in the order in which they have been mentioned.
6. An incident ray is that which comes from any luminous body to a reflecting surface; and that which is sent back from a reflecting surface, is called a reflected ray. The angle of incidence is the angle which is formed by the incident ray with a perpendicular to the reflecting surface; and the angle of reflection is the angle formed by the same perpendicular and the reflected ray.
7. When the light proceeding from every point of an object placed before a lens is collected in corresponding points behind it, a perfect image of the object is there produced. The following cut is given by way of illustration.
8. The lens, a, may be supposed to be placed in the hole of a window-shutter of a darkened room, and the arrow at the right to be standing at some distance without. All the light reflected from the latter object towards the lens, passes through it, and concentrates, within the room, in a focal point, at which, if a sheet of paper, or any other plane of a similar color, is placed, the image of the object will be seen upon it.
9. This phenomenon is called the camera obscura, or dark chamber, because it is necessary to darken the room to exhibit it. The image at the focal point within the room is in an inverted position. The reason why it is thrown in this manner will be readily understood by observing the direction of the reflected rays, as they pass from the object through the lens. In the camera obscura, it is customary to place a small mirror immediately behind the lens, so as to throw all the light which enters, downwards upon a whitened table, where the picture may be conveniently contemplated.
10. From the preceding explanation of the camera obscura, the theory of vision may be readily comprehended, since the eye itself is a perfect instrument of this kind. A careful examination of the following representation of the eye will render the similarity obvious. The eye is supposed to be cut through the middle, from above downwards.
a a, the sclerotica; b b, the choroides; c c, the retina; d d, the cornea; e, the pupil; f f, the iris; g, the aqueous humor; h, the crystalline humor; i i, the vitreous humor.
11. The sclerotica is a membranous coat, to which the muscles are attached which move the eye. The cornea is united to the sclerotica around the circular opening of the latter, and is that convex part of the eye, which projects in advance of the rest of the organ. The space between this and the crystalline lens is occupied by the aqueous humor and the iris. The iris is united to the choroides, and it possesses the power of expanding and contracting, to admit a greater or less number of rays.
12. The crystalline lens is a small body of a crystalline appearance and lenticular shape, whence its name. It is situated between the aqueous and vitreous humors, and consists of a membranous sack filled with a humor of a crystalline appearance. The vitreous humor has been thus denominated on account of its resemblance to glass in a state of fusion. The retina is a membrane which lines the whole cavity of the eye, and is formed chiefly, if not entirely, by the expansion of the optic nerve.
13. The rays of light which proceed from objects pass through the cornea, aqueous humor, crystalline lens, and vitreous humor, and fall upon the retina in a focal point, to which it is brought, chiefly by the influence of the cornea and the crystalline lens. The image, in an inverted position, is painted or thrown on the cornea, which perceives its presence, and conveys an impression of it to the brain, by means of the optic nerve.
14. Optical instruments.—The art of constructing optical instruments is founded upon the anatomical structure, and physiological action of the eye, and on the laws of light. They are designed to increase the powers of the eye, or to remedy some defect in its structure. In the cursory view which we may give of a few of the many optical instruments which have been invented, we will begin with the spectacles, since they are the best known, and withal the most simple.
15. The visual point, or the distance at which small objects can be distinctly seen, varies in different individuals. As an average, it may be assumed at eight or nine inches from the eye. In some persons, it is much nearer, and in others, considerably more distant. The extreme, in the former case, constitutes myopy, or short-sightedness, and, in the latter case, presbyopy, or long-sightedness.
16. Myopy is chiefly caused by too great a convexity of the cornea and the crystalline lens, which causes the rays to converge to a focus, before they reach the retina. Objects are, therefore, indistinctly seen by myoptic persons, unless held very near the eye to throw the focus farther back. This defect may be palliated by the use of concave glasses, which render the rays proceeding from objects more divergent.
17. Presbyopy is principally caused by too little convexity of the cornea and crystalline lens, which throws the focal point of rays reflected from near objects, beyond the retina. This defect is experienced by most people, to a greater or less degree, after they have advanced beyond the fortieth year, and occasionally even by youth. A remedy, or, at least, a palliation, is found in the use of convex glasses, which render the rays more convergent, and enable the eye to refract them to a focus farther forward, at the proper point.
18. The opticians have their spectacles numbered, to suit different periods of life; but, as the short-sighted and long-sighted conditions exist in a thousand different degrees, each person should select for himself such as will enable him to read without effort at the usual distance.
19. The great obstacle to viewing small objects at the usual distance, arises from too great a divergence of the light reflected from them, which causes the rays to reach the retina before they have converged to a focus. This defect is remedied by convex lenses, which bring the visual point nearer to the eye, and consequently cause the rays to concentrate in a large focus upon the retina. The most powerful microscopic lenses are small globules of glass, which permit the eye to be brought very near to the object.
20. Microscopes are either single or double. In the former case, but one lens is used, and through this the object is viewed directly; but, in the latter case, two or more glasses are employed, through one of which a magnified image is thrown upon a reflecting surface, and this is viewed through the other glass, or glasses, as the real object is seen through a single microscope.
21. The solar microscope, on account of its great magnifying powers, is the most wonderful instrument of this kind. The principles of its construction are the same with those of the camera obscura. The difference consists chiefly in the minor circumstance of placing the object very near the lens, by which a magnified image is thrown at the focal point within the room.
22. In the case of the camera obscura, the objects are at a far greater distance from the glass on the outside than the images, at the focal point, on the inside. The comparatively great distance of the object, in this case, causes the image to be proportionably smaller. In the solar microscope, a small mirror is used to receive the rays, and to reflect them directly upon the object.
23. The magic lantern is an instrument used for magnifying paintings on glass, and for throwing their images upon a white surface in a darkened room. Its general construction is the same with that of the solar microscope; but, in the application, the light of a lamp is employed instead of that from the sun.
24. Telescopes are employed for viewing objects which from their distances appear small, or are invisible to the naked eye. They are of two kinds, refracting and reflecting. The former kind is a compound of the camera obscura and the single microscope. It consists of a tube, having at the further end a double convex lens, which concentrates the rays at a focal point within, where the image is viewed through a microscopic lens, placed at the other end.
25. In the construction of reflecting telescopes, concave mirrors, or specula, are combined with a double convex lens. A large mirror of this kind is so placed in the tube, that it receives the rays of light from objects, and reflects them upon another of a smaller size. From this they are thrown to a focal point, where the image is viewed through a double convex lens. The specula are made of speculum metal, which is a composition of certain proportions of copper and tin.
26. Many optical appearances are of such frequent recurrence, that they could not have escaped the earliest observers; nevertheless, ages appear to have elapsed, before any progress was made towards an explanation of them. Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, born at Agrigentum in Sicily, 460 years before Christ, is the first person on record who attempted to write systematically on light.
27. The subject was successively treated by several other philosophers; but the ancients never attained to a high degree of information upon it. We have reason to believe, however, that convex lenses were, in some cases, used as magnifiers, and as burning glasses, although the theory of their refractive power was not understood.
28. The magnifying power of glasses, and some other optical phenomena, were largely treated by Al Hazen, an Arabian philosopher, who flourished about the year 1100 of our era; and, in 1270, Vitellio, a Polander, published a treatise on optics, containing all that was valuable in Al Hazen's work, digested in a better manner, and with more lucid explanations of various phenomena.
29. Roger Bacon, an English monk, who was born in 1214, and who lived to the age of seventy-eight, described very accurately the effects of convex and concave lenses, and demonstrated, by actual experiment, that a small segment of a glass globe would greatly assist the sight of old persons. Concerning the actual inventor of spectacles, however, we have no certain information; we only know that these useful instruments were generally known in Europe, about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
30. In the year 1575, Maurolicus, a teacher of mathematics, at Messina, published a treatise on optics, in which he demonstrated that the crystalline humor of the eye is a lens, which collects the rays of light from external objects, and throws them upon the retina. Having arrived at a knowledge of these facts, he was enabled to assign the reasons why some people were short-sighted, and others long-sighted.
31. John Baptista Porta, of Naples, was contemporary with Maurolicus. He invented the camera obscura, and his experiments with this instrument convinced him, that light was a substance, and that its reception into the eye produced vision. These discoveries corresponded very nearly with those by Maurolicus, although neither of these philosophers had any knowledge of what the other had done. The importance of Porta's discoveries will be evident, when it is observed, that, before his time, vision was supposed to be dependent on what were termed visual rays, proceeding from the eye.
32. The telescope was invented towards the latter end of the sixteenth century. Of this, as of many other valuable inventions, accident furnished the first hint. It is said, that the children of Zacharias Jansen, a spectacle-maker, of Middleburg in Holland, while playing with spectacle-glasses in their father's shop, perceived that, when the glasses were held at a certain distance from each other, the dial of the clock appeared greatly magnified, but in an inverted position.
33. This incident suggested to their father the idea of adjusting two of these glasses on a board, so as to move them at pleasure. Two such glasses inclosed in a tube completed the invention of the simplest kind of the refracting telescope. Galileo greatly improved the telescope, and constructed one that magnified thirty-three times, and with this he made the astronomical discoveries which have immortalized his name.
34. John Kepler, a great mathematician and astronomer, who was born at Weir, in Wurtemburg, in the year 1571, paid great attention to the phenomena of light and vision. He was the first who demonstrated that the degree of refraction suffered by light in passing through lenses, corresponds with the diameter of the circle of which the concavity or convexity is the portion of an arch. He very successfully pursued the discoveries of Maurolicus and Porta, and asserted that the images of external objects were formed upon the optic nerve by the concentration of rays which proceed from them.
35. In 1625, the curious discovery of Scheiner was published, at Rome, which placed beyond doubt the fact, that vision depends upon the formation of the image of objects upon the retina. The fact was demonstrated by cutting away, at the back part, the two outside coats of the eye of an animal, and by presenting different objects before it. The images were distinctly seen painted on the naked retina.
36. Near the middle of the seventeenth century, the velocity of light was discovered by Roemer; and, in 1663, James Gregory, a celebrated Scotch mathematician, published the first proposal for a reflecting telescope. But, as he possessed no mechanical dexterity himself, and as he could find no workman capable of executing his designs, he never succeeded in carrying his conceptions into effect. This was reserved for Sir Isaac Newton; who, being remarkable for manual skill, executed two instruments of this kind, in the year 1672, on a plan, however, somewhat different from that proposed by Gregory.
37. In the course of the year 1666, the attention of Sir Isaac Newton was drawn to the phenomena of the refraction of light through the prism; and, having observed a certain surprising fact, he instituted a variety of experiments, by which he was brought to the conclusion, that light was not a homogeneous substance, but that it is composed of particles, which are capable of different degrees of refrangibility.
38. By the same experiments, he also proved, that the rays or particles of light differ from each other in exhibiting different colors, some producing the color red, others that of yellow, blue, &c. He applied his principles to the explanation of most of the phenomena of nature, where light and color are concerned; and almost every thing which we know upon these subjects, was laid open by his experiments.
39. The splendor of Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries obscures, in some measure, the merits of earlier and subsequent philosophers; yet several interesting discoveries in regard to light and color, as well as many important improvements of optical instruments, have been made since his time, although the light by which these have been achieved, was derived principally from his labors.
