Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/152

144 lens, which causes them to spread out still more before they reach the eye. Consequently we not only

see the image of the object magnified by the lens b, but still more enlarged by the action of the lens, and appearing considerably enlarged at. The lens placed in front of the object is called the objective or object-glass; that placed nearest the eye, the eye-piece. These names apply equally to the similar lenses used in telescopes and other optical instruments. The instrument shown in fig. 38 is the simplest possible compound microscope, and is very rarely used. The eye-piece is generally constructed of two lenses, and the object-glass of as many as eight; the object in multiplying the lenses being, not only to increase the magnifying power, but to decrease certain defects inherent in all lenses whose surfaces are parts of spheres.

The amplification depends mainly upon the power of the objective, but different eye-pieces are also used to increase the apparent size of the objects to be examined. Thanks to the investigations of modern philosophers, we are enabled to magnify objects to 2,000 times their diameter with perfect distinctness; that is to say, the surface of the object appears to occupy 4,000,000 times its natural extent. Under such a power a hair would appear about six inches thick, a fine needle would look like a street post, and a grain of sand like a mass of rock. Although it is possible to employ compound microscopes