Memoir of Rev. John Prince, LL. D. 20^ 



self upon a simple plan, the effects of which are surprisingly mag- 

 nificent and beautiful. It is also a noble megaloscope as well as 

 microscope, the field of view being an inch and a half diameter, with 

 considerable magnifying power. The body of the instrument is 

 four feet and a half in length, including the brass tubes at the end 

 for the magnifiers. It is made in the form of an obelisk, and when 

 it is not in use as a microscope it stands upright on its base ; the 

 tube in its top is unscrewed and a small urn is put in its place, so 

 that it makes a handsome ornament in a room, and is more out of 

 the way than if laid in a horizontal case." 



In a letter, dated March 2d, 1801, he gives the Messrs. Jones a 

 particular account, accompanied by models and diagrams, of addi- 

 tional improvements, made by him in the magic lantern. 



In a letter to the same persons, Nov. 24, 1818, he describes a 

 very important and beautiful improvement he had just made on Dr. 

 Brewster's kaleidoscope. He constructed it in such a manner that 

 it was brought to bear upon opake objects, and most splendid and 

 magnificent were the combinations of dazzling colors thus brought 

 to light — a world of wonders, th,e brilliancy and glory of which tran- 

 scended all that the eye of man ever contemplated, or his imagina- 

 tion conceived, was revealed to view, as existing in the darkest and 

 roughest metals and rocks beneath our feet. 



The following extract is from a letter to the Messrs. Jones, Oct. 

 28, 1823. " I have sent you, in the same box with the telescope, 

 part of a hydrostatic instrun)ent which I began to make with some 

 others several years ago, and now my health and age will not allow 

 me to finish it. It is a combination of several instruments. I have 

 made three of them for different colleges. It is much approved, and 

 more are wanted. I thought that by sending the parts done, with 

 ■their description and uses, and some models of the parts to be added, 

 it would give you a better idea of it than a mere description alone." 

 Dr. Prince continued his labors, as a philosophical mechanician, 

 to a very advanced age. He thus alludes to them, in a letter to the 

 Messrs. Jones, May 26, 1826 : " I have been so much pleased 

 with the large solar microscope I made, of which I wrote you some 

 account, that I am making another with a large enlightening lens. 

 My age and infirmities will not permit me to make another after I 

 have finished this. One experiment I make with it is very pleasing 

 and much admired. It is an imitation of an eruption of a volcano, 

 by burning Dutch sealing wax, which melts but does not run freely. 

 Vol. XXXI.— No. 2. 27 



