In the two first Columns are express'd the Obliquities of the incident and emergent Rays to the Plate of the Air, that is, their Angles of Incidence and Refraction. In the third Column the Diameter of any colour'd Ring at those Obliquities is expressed in Parts, of which ten constitute that Diameter when the Rays are perpendicular. And in the fourth Column the Thickness of the Air at the Circumference of that Ring is expressed in Parts, of which also ten constitute its Thickness when the Rays are perpendicular.
And from these Measures I seem to gather this Rule: That the Thickness of the Air is proportional to the Secant of an Angle, whose Sine is a certain mean Proportional between the Sines of Incidence and Refraction. And that mean Proportional, so far as by these Measures I can determine it, is the first of an hundred and six arithmetical mean Proportionals between those Sines counted from the bigger Sine, that is, from the Sine of Refraction when the Refraction is made out of the Glass into the Plate of Air, or from the Sine of Incidence when the Refraction is made out of the Plate of Air into the Glass.
Obs. 8. The dark Spot in the middle of the Rings increased also by the Obliquation of the Eye, although almost insensibly. But, if instead of the Object-glasses the Prisms were made use of, its Increase was more manifest when viewed so obliquely that no Colours appear'd about it. It was least when the Rays were incident most obliquely on the interjacent Air, and as the obliquity decreased it increased more and more until the colour'd Rings appear'd, and then decreased again, but not so much as it increased before. And hence it is evident, that the Transparency was not only at the absolute Contact of the Glasses, but also where they had some little Interval. I have sometimes observed the Diameter of that Spot to be between half and two fifth parts of the Diameter of the exterior Circumference of the red in the first Circuit or Revolution of Colours when view'd almost perpendicularly; whereas when view'd obliquely it hath wholly vanish'd and become opake and white like the other parts of the Glass; whence it may be collected that the Glasses did then scarcely, or not at all, touch one another, and that their Interval at the perimeter of that Spot when view'd perpendicularly was about a fifth or sixth part of their Interval at the circumference of the said red.
Obs. 9. By looking through the two contiguous Object-glasses, I found that the interjacent Air exhibited