This 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.
But to return to our piece of Riband: It affords us a not unpleasant
object, appearing like a bundle, or wreath, of very clear and transparent
Cylinders, if the Silk be white, and curiously ting’d; if it be
colour’d, each of those small horney Cylinders affording in some
place or other of them, as vivid a reflection, as if it had been sent
from a Cylinder of Glass or Horn. Insomuch, that the reflections
of Red, appear’d as if coming from so many Granates, or
Rubies. The loveliness of the colours of Silks above those of
hairy Stuffs, or Linnen, consisting, as I else-where intimate, chiefly in
the transparency, and vivid reflections from the Concave, or inner
surface of the transparent Cylinder, as are also the colours of
Precious Stones; for most of the reflections from each of these
Cylinders, come from the Concave surface of the air, which
is as ’twere the foil that incompasses the Cylinder. The colours
with which each of these Cylinders are ting’d, seem partly to be
superficial, and sticking to the out-sides of them; and partly, to be
imbib’d, or sunck into the substance of them: for Silk, seeming to be
little else then a dried thread of Glew, may be suppos’d to be very
easily relaxt, and softened, by being steeped in warm, nay in cold, if
penetrant, juyces or liquors. And thereby those tinctures, though they
tinge perhaps but a small part of the substance, yet being so highly
impregnated with the colour, as to be almost black with it, may leave an
impression strong enough to exhibite the desir’d colour. A pretty kinde
of artificial Stuff I have seen, looking almost like transparent
Parchment, Horn, or Ising-glass, and perhaps some such thing it may be
made of, which being transparent, and of a glutinous nature, and easily
mollified by keeping in water, as I found upon trial, had imbib’d, and
did remain ting’d with a great variety of very vivid colours, and to the
naked eye, it look’d very like the substance of the Silk. And I have
often thought, that probably there might be a way found out, to make an
artificial glutinous composition, much resembling, if not full as good,
nay better, then that Excrement, or whatever other substance it be out of
which, the Silk-worm wire-draws his clew. If such a composition were
found, it were certainly an easie matter to find very quick ways of
drawing it out into small wires for use. I need not mention the use of
such an Invention, nor the benefit that is likely to accrue to the
finder, they being sufficiently obvious. This hint therefore, may, I
hope, give some Ingenious inquisitive Person an occasion of making some
trials, which if successfull, I have my aim, and I suppose he will have
no occasion to be displeas’d.