These intense powers upon light are not accompanied by any circumstance rendering the glass optically unfit for the compensation of the dispersive powers of crown or plate glass.
Three object-glasses have been constructed for the express purpose of ascertaining this point; and all of them tend to demonstrate that the compensation or correction may be effected with equal if not greater facility than with flint glass.
98. One important circumstance connected with the application of these glasses to the purposes for which they are designed, is their colour. The great power they have of developing strong tints from metallic impurities, has been already described and illustrated (22, 23), and creates a difficulty in the way of obtaining them unobjectionable free from colour. The usual colour is more or less of yellow, and is perhaps almost altogether, if not quite, dependent upon the presence of a little iron. Like many of those dependent upon mineral substances, it is very much heightened by elevation, and lessened by diminution of temperature. It is rapidly and permanently diminished by increasing the proportions either of the silica or the boracic acid. The silicated borate of lead has latterly been obtained of such faint tint by the precautions, relative to impurities, already described, that when 9 inches in thickness, white paper looked at through it in open daylight resembled in appearance and depth of tint the surface of a lemon. Glass consisting of 1 proportional=112 oxide of lead, 1 proportional: 16 silica, and 1½ proportional=36 boracic acid, when 7 inches in thickness and examined in the same manner, did not give a colour surpassing that of pale roll sulphur. The triborate-of-lead glass is almost as colourless as good flint glass, but might perhaps be found objectionable on other accounts.
99. As there is a certain quantity of light intercepted by glass which is altogether dependent upon and in proportion to its colour, it is evident that this property of the heavy glasses must be considered in relation to their use in telescopes; but there appears no reason for supposing they will ultimately prove inapplicable on this account. The colour of the glass already obtained is far less in depth than that of the crown glass constantly used in the construction of telescopes, which yet intercepts by its colour no important quantity of
