long, another for all between ten and an hundred, a
fourth for all between a hundred and a thousand
foot long; and if Curiosity shall ever proceed
so far, one for all lengths between a thousand and
ten thousand foot long; for indeed the principle
is such, that supposing the
Mandrils well
made, and of a good length, and supposing great
care be used in working and polishing them, I see no
reason, but that a Glass of a thousand, nay of
ten thousand foot long, may be as well made as
one of ten; for the reason is the same, supposing the
Mandrils and Tools be made sufficiently
strong, so that they cannot bend; and supposing
the Glass, out of which they are wrought, be capable
of so great a regularity in its parts as to refraction:
this hollow
Cylinder K is to contain the
Sand, and by being drove round very quick to and
fro by means of a small Wheel, which may be mov’d
with ones foot, serves to grind the Glass:
The other
Mandril is shap’d like
this, but it has an even neck instead of a taper one,
and runs in a Collar, that by the help of a Screw
and a joynt made like M in the Figure, it can
be still adjustned to the wearing or wasting neck:
into the end of this
Mandril is screwed a Chock
N on which with Cement or Glew is fastned the
piece of Glass Q that is to be form’d; the
middle of which Glass is to be plac’d just on
the edge of the Ring and the Lath OP is to be
set and fixt (by means of certain pieces and screws
the manner whereof will be sufficiently evidenc’d
by the Figure) in such an Angle as is requisite
to the forming of such a Sphere as the Glass is
design’d to be of; the geometrical ground of
which being sufficiently plain, though not heeded
before, I shall, for brevities sake, pass over.
This last
Mandril to be made (by means of the
former, or some other Wheel) to run round very
swift also, by which two cross motions the Glass
cannot chuse (if care be us’d) but be wrought
into a most exactly spherical Surface.
But because we are certain, from the Laws of refraction
(which I I have experimentally found to be so, by
an Instrument I shall presently describe) that the
lines of the angles of Incidence are proportionate
to the lines of the angles of Refraction, therefore
if Glasses could be made of those kind of Figures,
or some other, such as the most incomparable Des
Cartes has invented, and demonstrated in his Philosophical
and Mathematical Works, we might hope for a much greater
perfection of Opticks then can be rationally expected
from spherical ones; for though, caeteris paribus,
we find, that the larger the Telescope Object
Glasses are, and the shorter those of the Microscope,
the better they magnify, yet both of them, beside
such determinate dimensions, are by certain inconveniences
rendred unuseful; for it will be exceeding difficult
to make and manage a Tube above an hundred
foot long, and it will be as difficult to inlighten
an Object less then an hundred part of an inch distant
from the Object Glass.