296 Report upon the Construction of [No. 124. 



From their unimpassioned character, their slow and quiet habits, their 

 delicate appreciation of touch, and their untiring application, it is pro- 

 bable that a clever Native, if once taught properly the art of dividing 

 the circumference of a circle, might very probably surpass the best 

 effects of the most celebrated workmen of London. 



It is supposed by many, that modern discoveries in Optics have im- 

 proved refracting telescopes by the lenses being better made ; but such 

 is not the fact, the lenses of the present day are not in the least better 

 than that Galileo and Heygens were able to make, and it is probable 

 there is hardly a Chinese workman, who does not possess a great deal 

 more skill in polishing a lens, than the best optician in London. 

 I once bought in London a Chinese toy, an imitation of a compound 

 microscope, from which I took lenses so beautifully polished, as to be 

 admired by one of the first opticians in London ; and I have little doubt, 

 that a clever workman in India could fashion lenses, with which a refract- 

 ing telescope could be put together, quite as good as the best which 

 Tully or Dolland ever made. 



The above may appear a startling assertion, but no optician will 

 deny the possibility of its being correct ; for the fact is, that workmen 

 are totally unable to give a particular required figure to a lens, and 

 lenses of required focal distance for forming the achromatic object 

 glasses of the best telescope, can only be procured by selecting the best 

 among numerous failures, (whence the high price), and modern science 

 has only improved these instruments, by teaching the proper theoretical 

 principles upon which to compound their various parts. 



In the above, it is by no means my intention to attempt to detract 

 from the merit of the constructions of our best artists, but merely to 

 shew, that the perfection of modern instruments is due more to the skill 

 by which their parts are contrived and arranged, than to the mechanical 

 skill by which the parts are executed. 



It is generally imagined by Native workmen, and by many gentle- 

 men in India, that with a pattern to copy it is easy to make any thing, 

 this is, however, very far from correct ; for unless shewn how to do it, 

 it would be as impossible to construct the simplest philosophical instru- 

 ment, as it would be to copy a telescope, or a chronometer, by the aid of 

 a pattern only. 



It is possible, besides, that the country may afford many advantages 



