Many take the character of eggs, pointed at one end, and large and blunt at the other extremity. The leaves of trees [p014] have the oval shape more than any other; the bend of the branches, and the whole external form of many trees is oval.
There is no form of created things which may not be found to correspond in all its dependent shapes to ovals and ellipses of various disks, even objects which at first sight seem to contradict the possibility of meeting this system.
The lecture was closed by some extracts and quotations from Lomazzo, Dryden, Hogarth, Du Fresnoy, and the Abbé du Bos; the tendency of which was to show that lines had been mentioned, and had been written upon without any explanation given that could lead to certain conclusions. That all these authors attributed to supreme genius alone, and something of the divinely inspired character in artists, the power to produce those indescribable lines that affect the human eye so strongly. These lines I described as belonging to the oval and the ellipsis, and the confluent lines by conjunction and combination; that these indescribable lines, which from Plato to Dryden had never been detected or obtained a name; that puzzled all equally alike, are those alone I attempted, and I believe proved in this lecture, to be the elliptic combinations.
I stated that the great Greek artists confined themselves to certain rules and principles of unerring consequences in the production of beauty, grace, or grandeur in their figures; that all their compositions depended upon the same species of rule and order. I pointed out, that fashion is in all countries the destroyer of taste, that it unfits the mind for fixed principles; that where it dominates, there taste will be always fluttering and never settle, nor have a sure dominion. The Greeks, having no such vile tormentor to divert them from a pure course in their progress, arrived at the summit of perfection in every scientific pursuit, by following sure principles as their guides, and by never abandoning a path traced by nature, and matured by the most sublime philosophy.
[1] A great number of geometrical diagrams were exhibited, from a single line, to angles, squares, oblongs, circles, ovals, cones, cylinders, spiral lines, and various serpentine lines, &c.
[2] The whole extent of the tazza, including the projection of the handles, should be seven parts; and the height of the vase two of such seven parts.
[p015]
On the Art of forming Diamonds into single Lenses for Microscopes.—By Mr. A. Pritchard. [◊] [Communicated by Dr. GORING.]
OF the various improvements in Microscopes originated by Dr. Goring, that which he conceives to be the most important is the construction of single magnifiers from adamant. The details relative to this novel class of instruments, I have been induced to lay before the public. Single microscopes naturally aplanatic, or at least sufficiently so for practical purposes, possess an incontestable superiority over all others, and must be recognised by the scientific as verging towards the ultimatum of improvement in magnifying glasses. The advantages obtained by the most improved compound engiscopes over single microscopes resolve themselves into the attainment of vision without aberration with considerable angles of aperture; but against this must be set the never-to-be-forgotten fact, that they only show us a picture of an object instead of nature itself; now a Diamond Lens shows us our real object without any sensible aberration like that produced by glass lenses; and we are entitled, I think, to expect new discoveries in miscrosopic science, even at this late period, from very deep single lenses of adamant[3]. I shall not fatigue my [p016] readers by describing the difficulties which were encountered in the prosecution of the design of making diamond lenses. Nature does not seem to permit us to produce any thing of surpassing excellence without proportional effort, and I shall simply say, that in its infancy the project of grinding and polishing the refractory substance of Adamant was far more hopeless than that of making achromatic glass lenses of 0.2 of an inch focus. I conceive it just to state that Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, of Ludgate-hill, had, at the time of the commencement of my labours, many Dutch diamond cutters at work, and that the foreman, Mr. Levi, with all his men, assured me, that it was impossible to work diamonds into spherical curves; the same opinion was also expressed by several others who were considered of standard authority in such matters.
Notwithstanding this discouragement, in the summer of the year 1824, I was instigated by Dr. Goring (at his expense) to undertake the task of working a diamond lens: (being then under the tuition of Mr. C. Varley, who was however at that time absent.) For this purpose, Dr. G. forwarded to me a brilliant diamond, which, contrary to the expectation of many, was at length ground into a spherical [p017] figure, and examined by Mr. Levi, who expressed great astonishment at it, and added that he was not acquainted with any means by which that figure could have been effected: unfortunately this stone was irrecoverably lost. Mr. Varley having returned from the country, becoming now thoroughly heated with the project, permitted me to complete another diamond, which had been presented to me by Dr. G.: this is a plano-convex of about the 120th of an inch focus: it was not thought advisable to polish it more than sufficed to enable us to see objects through it, because several flaws, before invisible, made their appearance in the process of polishing. In spite of all its imperfections, it plainly convinced us of the superiority which a perfect diamond lens would possess by its style of performance, both as a single magnifier and as the object lens of a compound microscope. After the completion of my articles with Mr. V., being entirely under my own command, I devoted some time to the formation of a perfect diamond lens, and have at length succeeded in completing a double convex of equal radii of about 125th of an inch focus, bearing an aperture of 130th of an inch with distinctness on opaque objects, and its entire diameter on transparent ones; it was finished at the conclusion of last year. The date of its final completion has by many been considered a remarkable epoch in the history of the microscope, being the first perfect one ever made or thought of in any part of the world[4]. I think it sufficient to say of this adamantine lens that it gives vision with a trifling chromatic aberration, but in other respects exceedingly like that of Dr. G.’s Amician reflector, but without its darkness: for it is quite evident that its light must be superior to that of any compound microscope whatever, acting with the same power and the same angle of aperture. The advantage of seeing an object without aberration by [p018] the interposition of but a single magnifier, instead of looking at a picture of it (however perfect) with an eye-glass, must surely be duly appreciated by every person endowed with ordinary reason. It requires little knowledge of optics to be convinced that the simple unadulterated view of an object must enable us to look farther into its real texture, than we can see by any artificial arrangement whatever; it is like seeing an action performed instead of a scenic representation of it, or being informed of its occurrence by the most indisputable and accurate testimony.