There are but few _Artificial_ things that are worth observing with a
_Microscope_, and therefore I shall speak but briefly concerning them. For
the Productions of art are such rude mis-shapen things, that when view’d
with a _Microscope_, is little else observable, but their deformity. The
most curious Carvings appearing no better then those rude _Russian_ Images
we find mention’d in _Purchas_, where three notches at the end of a Stick,
stood for a face. And the most smooth and burnish’d surfaces appear most
rough and unpolisht: So that my first Reason why I shall add but a few
observations of them, is, their mis-shapen form; and the next, is their
uselessness. For why should we trouble our selves in the examination of
that form or shape (which is all we are able to reach with a _Microscope_)
which we know was design’d for no higher a use, then what we were able to
view with our naked eye? Why should we endeavour to discover mysteries in
that which has no such thing in it? And like _Rabbins_ find out
_Caballisms_, and _ænigmâs_ in the Figure, and placing of Letters, where no
such thing lies hid: whereas in _natural_ forms there are some so small,
and so curious, and their design’d business so far remov’d beyond the reach
of our sight, that the more we magnify the object, the more excellencies
and mysteries do appear; And the more we discover the imperfections of our
senses; and the Omnipotency and Infinite perfections of the great Creatour.
I shall therefore onely add one or two Observations more _artificial_
things, and then come to the Treaty concerning such matters as are the
Productions of a more curious Workman. One of these, shall be that of a
piece of water’d Silk, represented in the second Figure of the third
_Scheme_,[6] as it appear’d through the least magnifying Glass. _AB_
signifying the long way of the Stuff, and _CD_ the broad way. This Stuff,
if the right side of it be looked upon, appears to the naked eye, all over
so waved, undulated, or grain’d, with a curious, though irregular variety
of brighter and darker parts, that it adds no small gracefulness to the
Gloss of it. It is so known a propriety, that it needs but little
explication, but it is observable, which perhaps everyone has not
considered, that those parts which appear the darker part of the wave, in
one position to the light, in another appears the lighter, and the
contrary; and by this means the undulations become transient, and in a
continual change, according as the position of the parts in respect of the
incident beams of light is varied. The reason of which odd _phænomena_, to
one that has but diligently examin’d it even with his naked eye, will be
obvious enough. But he that observes it with a _Microscope_, may more
easily perceive what this _Proteus_ is, and how it comes to change its
shape. He may very easily perceive, that it proceeds onely from the variety
of the _Reflections_ of light, which is caus’d by the various _shape of the
Particles_, or little protuberant parts of the thread that compose the
surface; and that those parts of the waves that appear the brighter, throw
towards the eye a multitude of small reflections of light, whereas the
darker scarce afford any. The reason of which reflection, the _Microscope_
plainly discovers, as appears by the Figure. In which you may perceive,
that the brighter parts of the surface consist of an abundance of large and
strong reflections, denoted by a, a, a, a, a, &c. for the surfaces of those
threads that run the _long way_, are by the Mechanical process of watering,
_creas’d_ or _angled_ in another kind of posture then they were by the
weaving: for by the weaving they are onely _bent round_ the warping
threads; but by the watering, they are _bent with an angle, or elbow_, that
is in stead of lying, or being bent _round_ the threads, as in the third
Figure, a, a, a, a, a, are about b, b, b (b, b, b representing the ends, as
’twere, of the cross threads, they are bent about) they are creas’d on the
top of those threads, with an _angle_, as in the fourth Figure, and that
with all imaginable variety; so that, whereas before they reflected the
light onely from one point of the round surface, as about c, c, c, they now
when water’d, reflect the beams from more then half the whole surface, as
de, de, de, and in other postures they return no reflections at all from
those surfaces. Hence in one posture they compose the brighter parts of the
waves, in another the darker. And these reflections are also varied,
according as the particular parts are variously bent. The reason of which
creasing we shall next examine; and here we must fetch our information from
the Mechanism or manner of proceeding in this operation; which, as I have
been inform’d, is no other then this.
They double all the Stuff that is to be water’d, that is, they crease it
just through the middle of it, the whole length of the piece, leaving the
right side of the Stuff inward, and placing the two edges, or silvages just
upon one another, and, as near as they can, place the wale so in the
doubling of it, that the wale of the one side may lie very near parallel,
or even with the wale of the other; for the nearer that posture they lie,
the greater will the watering appear; and the more obliquely, or across to
each other they lie, the smaller are the waves. Their way for folding it
for a great wale is thus: they take a Pin, and begin at one side of the
piece in any wale, and so moving it towards the other side, thereby direct
their hands to the opposite ends of the wale, and then, as near as they
can, place the two opposite ends of the same wale together, and so double,
or fold the whole piece, repeating this enquiry with a Pin at every yard or
two’s distance through the whole length; then they sprinkle it with water,
and fold it the long-ways, placing between every fold a piece of Pastboard,
by which means all the wrong side of the water’d Stuff becomes flat, and
with little wales, and the wales on the other side become the more
protuberant; whence the creasings or angular bendings of the wales become
the more perspicuous. Having folded it in this manner, they place it with
an interjacent Pastboard into an hot Press, where it is kept very violently
prest, till it be dry and stiff; by which means, the wales of either
contiguous sides leave their own impressions upon each other, as is very
manifest by the second Figure, where ’tis obvious enough, that the wale of
the piece ABCD runs parallel between the pricked lines ef, ef, ef, and as
manifest to discern the impressions upon these wales, left by those that
were prest upon them, which lying not exactly parallel with them, but a
little athwart them, as is denoted by the lines of, oooo, gh, gh, gh,
between which the other wales did lie parallel; they are so variously, and
irregularly creas’d that being put into that shape when wet, and kept so
till they be drie, they so let each others threads, that the Moldings
remain almost as long as the Stuff lasts.
Hence it may appear to any one that attentively considers the Figure, why
the parts of the wale a, a, a, a, a, a, should appear bright; and why the
parts b, b, b, b, b, b, b, should appear shadowed, or dark; why some, as d,
d, d, d, d, d, should appear partly light, and partly dark: the varieties
of which reflections and shadows are the only cause of the appearance of
watering in Silks, or any other kind of Stuffs.
From the variety of reflection, may also be deduc’d the cause why a small
breez or gale of wind ruffling the surface of a smooth water, makes it
appear black; as also, on the other side, why the smoothing or burnishing
the surface of whitened Silver makes it look black; and multitudes of other
phænomena might hereby be solv’d, which are too many to be here insisted
on.
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