Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/249

234 always evinced to assist in the advancement of science; and the readiness with which the application was granted, showed that no mistaken notion had been formed in this respect, As a member of both bodies, I felt much anxiety that the investigation should be successful. A room and furnaces were built at the Royal Institution in September 1827, and an assistant was engaged, Sergeant Anderson of the Royal Artillery, whose steady and intelligent care has been of the greatest service to me in the experiments that have been proceeding constantly from that time to the present. At first, the inquiry was pursued principally as related to flint and ground glass; but in September 1828 it was directed exclusively to the preparation and perfection of peculiar heavy and fusible glasses, from which time to the present continual progress has been made.

I have thought it right to give this brief explanatory statement of the manner in which it has happened to become my duty, on the present occasion, to give an account of what has been done in the improvement of glass for optical purposes by the Committee of the Royal Society, working at the Royal Institution. I would willingly have deferred this account until the inquiry were more complete than at present; for though glass has been made, and telescopes manufactured, yet I have no doubt that much more of improvement will be effected. It may be said that a long time has elapsed since the experiments were first instituted; and that if anything could be done, it should have been effected in so long a period, But be it remembered, that it is not a mere analysis, or even the development of philosophical reasoning, that is required: it is the solution of difficulties, which, as in the cases of Guinand and Fraunhofer, required many years of a practical life to effect, if it was ever effected. It is the foundation and development of a manufacturing process, not in principle only, but thogugh all the difficulties of practice, until it is competent to give constant success: and I may be allowed to plead the acknowledged difficulty and importance of the subject as a reason, both why it may not yet have obtained perfection, and why it should still be pursued.

My wish, however, to delay the account of the researches until I could have carried the experiments further, is overcome by the conviction that. much more time must be expected to