Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/60

48 remained visible, and were almost as bright as when the sun shone upon them.

I saw one of the globules lose its spurious diameter while the sun continued to shine. After some time the spurious diameter came on again, and very gradually grew brighter, but not larger. The colour of one of the globules being of a beautiful purple, changed soon after to a brilliant white.

The sun being obscured by some clouds, a globule lost its spurious diameter, and acquired the shape of an half moon, of the size of the real disk or diameter of the globule. I saw the sun break out again, and the half moon was gradually transformed into a much smaller spurious disk.

(10.) The spurious disks of globules are lost for want of proper illumination, but do not change their magnitude on that account. The brightness of the atmosphere in a fine day is sufficient to produce them; though the illumination of the sun is generally the principal cause of them.

(11.) The diameters of spurious disks are liable to change from various causes; an alteration in the direction of the illumination will make the reflection come from a different part of the globule, which can hardly be expected to be equally polished in its surface, or of equal convexity every where, being very seldom perfectly spherical; but as upon the whole the figure of them is pretty regular, the apparent diameter of the spurious disks wrill generally return to its former size.

At a time of the year when bright sun-shine is not very frequent, I found that my silver globules would seldom give