parts of the whitest kind I have yet observ’d
with the
Microscope appearing white, like flaw’d
Horn or Glass, rather then clear, like clear Horn
or Glass. Next that, the filaments should each
of them be
rounded, if that could be done,
which yet is not so very necessary, if the first be
perform’d, and this third, which is, that each
of the small filaments be
stifned; for though
they be square, or flat, provided they be
transparent
and stiff, much the same appearances must necessarily
follow. Now, though I have not yet made trial,
yet I doubt not, but that both these proprieties may
be also induc’d upon the Flax, and perhaps too
by one and the same Expedient, which some trials may
quickly inform any ingenious attempter of, who from
the use and profit of such an Invention, may find
sufficient argument to be prompted to such Inquiries.
As for the
tenacity of the substance of Flax,
out of which the thread is made, it seems much inferiour
to that of Silk, the one being a
vegetable,
the other an
animal substance. And whether
it proceed from the better concoction, or the more
homogeneous constitution of
animal substances
above those of
vegetables, I do not here determine;
yet since I generally find, that
vegetable
substances do not equalize the
tenacity of
animal,
nor these the
tenacity of some purified
mineral
substances; I am very apt to think, that the
tenacity
of bodies does not proceed from the
hamous,
or
hooked particles, as the
Epicureans
and some modern
Philosophers have imagin’d;
but from the more exact
congruity of the constituent
parts, which are contiguous to each other, and so bulky,
as not to be easily separated, or shatter’d,
by any small pulls or concussion of heat.
* * * *
*
Observ. IV. Of fine waled Silk, or Taffety.
This[5] is the appearance of a piece of very fine
Taffety-riband in the bigger magnifying Glass, which
you see exhibits it like a very convenient substance
to make Bed-matts, or Door-matts of, or to serve for
Beehives, Corn-scuttles, Chairs, or Corn-tubs, it
being not unlike that kind of work, wherewith in many
parts in England, they make such Utensils of
Straw, a little wreathed, and bound together with
thongs of Brambles. For in this Contexture, each
little filament, fiber, or clew of the Silk-worm, seem’d
about the bigness of an ordinary Straw, as appears
by the little irregular pieces, ab, cd, and ef; The
Warp, or the thread that ran crossing the Riband,
appear’d like a single Rope of an Inch Diameter;
but the Woof, or the thread that ran the length
of the Riband, appear’d not half so big.
Each Inch of six-peny-broad Riband appearing no less
then a piece of Matting Inch and half thick, and twelve
foot square, a few yards of this, would be enough
to floor the long Gallery of the Loure at Paris.