demonstrated of late that all the whole Earth is nothing but a great and Globular Loadstone and that all the Circles of the Armillary Sphaere are really truly and naturally inhaerent in the Earth by virtue of the transcurrent Atoms How can we conclude otherwise but with Gilbert Quis in posterum eum de facto moveri dubitabit quum ei omnia ad motum planè requisita dedit natura i. e. figuram rotundam pendulam in medio Fluido positionem omnes terminos motui Circulari inservientes polos nempè aequatorem meridianos polares circulos parallelos Lastly As for his Universal Meridian it is likewise deduced from his Anti Copernican Experiment of the Loadstone swimming in a Boat with its Poles vertically erected For saith he Since the Stone being Horizontally-placed does not shew the true Meridian but with an Angle of Variation in most if not in all places of the Earth if you set it with its Axis perpendicular as before it will after some undulations to and fro rest quietly with certain parts facing the Meridian which points must be exactly marked and through them a Circle drawn round about the Stone by help of which you may strike a true Meridian-Line when and where you please Now though we grant this Experiment to be true and probably to hold good in all Longitudes and Latitudes yet he that shall perpend how many ticklish Curiosities and nice Circumstances there are to perform this Experiment exactly will find the Invention only pleasing in the Theory but not in the Practice For 1. It is very difficult to place the Terrella in an exact perpendicular 2. When 't is so 't is as difficult to keep it invariable under the same Zenith 3. Most difficult to draw an exact meridian-Meridian-Line from it Not to mention how hard a thing it is first to find the two Polary points in a Globe-Loadstone also to keep the Boat in a Fluctuation parallel to the Horizon The end of Magnetical Experiments Subterraneous Experiments OR OBSERVATIONS About COLE-MINES BY HENRY POWER M ae D r. A The Cole-pit B The Vent-pit CC The Sow that drains all the heads from water DDD c. The Vent-head not above two yards broad EEEE The Lateral Heads which are not above two yards broad FFF The prick'd lines the Thurl-vent that is a Vent driven through the lateral heads GGGG Is Walls or Pillars of the whole Cole-Bed remaining which with us is not above two foot thick to hinder the roof of the pit for falling The Roof and Seat is the Top and Bottom of the Works wherein they get Coles which is about two foot or more distant the one from the other Experiment 1. AT the top of the Cole-pit we took the Weather-Glass AB whose shank EB was about 2 ½ foot long of a small bore and the Head AE 2 ◠◠inches in Diameter and heating the Head thereof and immerging it presently in the Glass ful of water B the water after a competent time rose up to the point C where we let it stand for a while till we saw that the External and Internal Ayr were come to the same Temper and Elasticity Then carrying the Weather-Glass so prepared in a Scoop down to the bottom of the Cole-pit which was not above 35. yards deep there the Water in the Weather-Glass did rise up to the point D viz. very near 3. Inches higher than its former Standard C. Experiment 2. THe sixth day of November 1662. we repeated the same Experiment as before in a pit of 68. yards deep and there we found that at the bottom of the said pit the water in the Weather-Glasse did rise very near four inches higher than the point C viz. one inch higher than the point D to F. Now we observ'd that in carrying down of the said Glass in a Scoop from the top to the middle of the Pit there the water did not rise so much as it did from the middle to the bottom by half an inch so that it seems the rise of the water was not proportional to the Glasse's descent in the Pit Experiment 3. WE took a very good arm'd Loadstone of an Oval figure whose poles lay in the long Diameter and at the top of the Coal-pit we loaded the North-pole of it with the greatest weight it was able to carry even to a Scruple then taking the Stone down to the bottom of the pit and hanging on the same weight again we could perceive no difference in the power of the Stone at the one place from the other for it would neither lift more nor less there than above though to try this Experiment precisely and to minute weights is very ticklish for the same Stone in any place will sometimes lift a little more and sometimes a little less Experiment 4. WE took a thread of 68. yards long which is as long as the deepest pit is with us and fastening a Brass lump of an exact pound weight to it we counterpoiz'd both it and the thread with a weight in the other Scale then fastning the other end of the thread to one of the Scales we let down the pendent weight near to the bottom and there we found it to weigh lighter by an ounce at least than it did at the top of the said pit We had tryed this with a Bladder full of water and other substances also but that our thread by often untwining broke it self Experiment 5. THe Collyers tell us That if a Pistol be shot off in a head remote from the eye of a pit it will give but a little report or rather a sudden thump like a Gun shot off at a great distance but if it be discharg'd at the eye of the pit in the bottom it will make a greater noise than if shot off above-ground But these Experiments are of a dangerous trial in our pits and the Collyers dare not attempt them by reason of the craziness of the roof of their works which often falls in of its own accord without any Concussion at all Every Cole-pit hath its Vent-pit digg'd down at a competent distance from it as 50. or 80. paces one from another They dig a Vault under-ground from one pit to another which they call the Vent-pit that the Ayr may have a free passage from the one pit to the other so that both pits with that Subterraneous intercourse or vault do exactly represent a Syphon invers'd Now the Ayr always has a Motion and runs in a stream from one pit to the other for if the Ayr should have no Motion or Vent as they call it but Restagnate then they could not work in the pits It is not requisite that the Vent-pit should be as deep as the Cole-pit Now the Vent or Current of Subterraneous Ayr is sometimes one way and sometimes another sometimes from the Vent-pit to the Cole-pit and sometimes contrariwise as the Winds above ground do alter and also weaker and stronger at sometimes than at
Insect I have observ'd to turn into a small yellow Locust with two white wings longer than the body and to skip up and down the Rose-tree-leaves in August and then when she was metamorphos'd into a Locust I could discern no Mouth in the Microscope but onely two pointers like a pair of closed Compasses in her snout which cannot be seen on her till she be winged and then laid on the object-plate with her belly upwards OBSERVAT. XXV Of Cuckow-Spitt and the little Insect bred therein in May. THat spumeous froth or dew which here in the North we call Cuckow Spittle and in the South Woodsear and which is most frequently found in Lavander-Beds Hors mint c. looks like a heap of glass-bubbles or a knob'd drinking-glass in which you shall always find a little Grub or Animal which in the Microscope seems a pretty golden-coloured Insect with three leggs on each side and two horns and two round fair goggle-eyes of a duskish red colour like polish'd Rubies which you may also see latticed and perforated in a clear light Her tayl is all jemmar'd with Annulary divisions which at last end in a stump which she often draws up or thrusts out at her pleasure Muffet cals this Insect Locustellam or a puny-Locust and saith That first it creepeth then leapeth and at last flyeth She has two blackish claws or pounces at the ends of her feet which she can open and shut at her pleasure We could discover no mouth at all but a long reddish Probe between the fore-legs through which perchance she suck'd her froathy nourishment Now what this spumeous matter is and into what Animal this Insect is at last shaped or transpeciated are Doubts that as yet have found no clear and experimental Decision That the Spattle is a froathy kind of dew that falls from the Air I doubt not whatsoever my Lord Bacon say to the contrary For first It is found upon most if not all Plants whatsoever but most copiously amongst our Whinns or prickly Broom and generally about the joynts and ramulous divisions because there it is best secured from the heat of the Sun which licks it off the open leaves or else probably it is imbibed by the full grown and porous leaves of Plants as the Mill-dew and other honey-Dews are Secondly That it is the sole exudation and secrement of Plants I cannot believe First because it is never found upon their Second growth nor in Eddish Secondly How should an excrement of so many several Plants still breed one and the same Animal when as we see that all Vegetables whatsoever produce their several Insects as Muffet in his 19. and 20. Chapters has particularly enumerated I shall not deny but the Effluvium's that continually perspire out of all Plants whatsoever may advantage and promote the nutrition of the little Insect that breeds therein For that all Vegetables have a constant perspiration the continual dispersion of their odour makes out besides an experimental eviction I shall give you by this singular Experiment 23. of Feb. 61. we weighed an Onyon exactly to two ounces two scruples and a half and hanging it up till the 6. of May next following at which time it had sprouted out a long shoot we then upon a re-ponderation of it had lost near two drams of its former weight which was exhaled by insensible Transpiration OBSERVAT. XXVI The Cow-Lady or Spotted Scarabee IT is a very lively and nimble Animal Cut off the head and erect it perpendicular upon the neck which must be fasten'd to a bit of soft Wax and then you shall see those two little small black eyes it hath sett upon a little short neck which is moveable within the former either eye sett between three white plates like polish'd Ivory two little ones on the one side and one great one on the other her eyes are also foraminulous and curiously lattic'd like those in a Fly formerly describ'd If you unsheath her body and take off her spotted short crustaceous wings you shall find under them another pair of filmy Tiffany long wings like those of Flyes which lye folded up and cased within the former of both which pair she makes use in flying which being removed nothing remains to secure the bulk of the body but a thin tender black skin under which you might most lively see the pulsation of her Heart for twelve or fourteen hours after the head and neck was separated OBSERVAT. XXVII The Water-Insect or Water-Spider THere is a black crustaceous Insect with an Annular body and six hairy legs which moves nimbly upon the water the two foremost legs are shorter than the rest by one half and serve instead of hands to reach any thing to the mouth She hath two hairy geniculated horns knotted or joynted at several divisions like Knot-grass or Hors-tayl Her body is like Frost-work in silver Her eyes black globular and foraminulous OBSERVAT. XXVIII The Wasp-like Locust THere is a little small long black Insect which you shall find creeping and leaping amongst Pinks Gillyflours Rose-leaves c. which in the Microscope hath two fair long wings and is bodied just like a Wasp from whence I have given her the name of the Wasp-Locust with six or seven Annulary divisions of jett-black and yellow wings She hath two horns made of five or six white and black internodium's very pretty to behold either of them arising from a black knobb'd root with three black legs on either side and two little black eyes and as I ghessed latticed though what Art can present distinct parts in that eye which is sett in an Animal so small that the whole bulk of it is no bigger then a little bit of black thread or hair They are kill'd with the least touch imaginable I took them with a Pint point dipp'd in spattle and so glew'd them to the object-plate as I do stronger Insects with a touch of Turpentine OBSERVAT. XXIX The Sycomore-Locust THere is a pretty little yellow Insect which is bred and feeds on the Sycomore-leaves which at first hath no wings but six leggs and two horns and runs nimbly up and down In the Glass I could not onely see its eyes which are red globular goggled and prominent but also I could see them very perfectly latticed She had two horns which at the ends were slit and bi-furcated I could near her shoulders see the stumps of her growing wings This at last is transpeciated into a Fly with two long wings or rather a Locust it consists of Annulary Circles and has hairs towards the tayl OBSERVAT. XXX Of the little white Eels or Snigs in Vineger or Aleger THey appear like small Silver-Eels or little Snigs and some of them as long as my little finger constantly wrigling and swimming to and fro with a quick smart and restless motion In which smallest of Animals these things are most remarkable First They are not to be found in all sorts of Vineger nor Aleger but onely in such
them see that even the greatest Oculists and Dioptrical Writers that the World ever saw Kepler Des-Cartes Schemar and Hugenius have not yet discovered all Nature's Curiosities even in that Organ I will here deliver one or two Optical Experiments The first hints whereof I must ingeniously confess I received from some Fragments and Papers of our famous and never to be forgotten Country-man Master Gascoign of Midleton near Leeds who was unfortunately slain in the Royal Service for His late Majesty a Person he was of those strong Parts and Hopes that not onely we but the whole World of Learning suffered in the loss of him Take a fresh Eye and in a frosty Evening place it with the Pupil upwards where it may be frozen through then in the Morning you may cut it as you please If you cut it with a plain Parallel to the Optick Axis which Section Des-Cartes thought impossible then shall you see all the Parts as he has pictured them pag. 92. and each part will be very different in colour and remain in their natural Site which may be pricked forth in an oyled Paper By this trick also you shall find that there is a double Crystalline humour one circum-included within the other if you do but thaw the Crystalline you shall see the outward will pill off from the inward The right Figures of both which Crystallines are monstrous difficult if not impossible to find out hence it follows that every Ray of incidence is seven times refracted in the Eye before it reach the Retina whatsoever Scheinar says to the contrary The second Experiment is one of the ingenious Excogitations of M. Gascoign's and it is to delineate the prime parts of the Eye after this manner Having a Glass and Table fitted to observe the Eye's spots place an Eye with the Horny Tunicle either upwards or downwards between the inmost Glass and Table so near the Glass as the Eye will almost fill up the compass of the Eye's Image then the representation of the Eye will be very large proportionable to the Eye's Image upon the Table and thus you may prick out the three Figures of the Cornea and the outward and inward Crystallines Many other neat wayes with my Dioptrical Glasses can I take the Figures of the prime Parts of the Eye which shall be discovered in their fit places And now having done with the Fabrick the Observations lead us to the Consideration of the Number and Plurality of Eyes that Nature hath afforded some Creatures I must confess though I have been very curious and critical in observing yet I could never find any Animal that was monocular nor any that had a multiplicity of Eyes except Spiders which indeed are so fair and palpable that they are clearly to be seen by any man that wants not his own And though Argus has been held as prodigious a fiction as Polypheme and a plurality of Eyes in any Creature as great a piece of monstrosity as onely a single one yet our glasses have refuted this Errour as Observat. viii and ix will tell you so that the Works of Nature are various and the several wayes and manifold Organization of the Body inscrutable so that we had need of all the advantages that Art can give us to discover the more mysterious Works of that divine Architectress but especially when she draws her self into so narrow a Shop and works in the retiring Room of so minute an Animal Lastly Many more hints might be taken from the former Observations to make good the Atomical Hypothesis which I am confident will receive from the Microscope some further advantage and illustration not onely as to its first universal matter Atoms but also as to the necessary Attributes or essential Properties of them as Motion Figure Magnitude Order and Disposition of them in several Concretes of the World especially if our Microscopes arise to any higher perfection and if we can but by any artificial helps get but a glimpse of the smallest Truth it is not to tell what a Fabrick of Philosophy may be raised from it for to conclude with that Patriark of Experimental Philosophy the Learned Lord Bacon The Eye of the Understanding saith he is like the Eye of the Sense for as you may see great Objects through small Cranies or Levels so you may see great Axioms of Nature through small and contemptible Instances and Experiments These are the few Experiments that my Time and Glass hath as yet afforded me an opportunity to make which I hasten out into the World to stay the longing thereof But you may expect shortly from Doctor Wren and Master Hooke two Ingenious Members of the Royal Society at Gresham the Cuts and Pictures drawn at large and to the very life of these and other Microscopical Representations The End of the Microscopical Observations EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY In three Books Containing New Experiments Microscopical Mercurial Magnetical With some Deductions and probable Hypotheses raised from them in Avouchment and Illustration of the now famous ATOMICAL HYPOTHESIS By HENRY POWER D r. of Physick LONDON Printed in the Year 1663. Liber Secundus Mercuriall Experiments Begun Anno Domini 1653. By HENRY POWER M ae D r. Itaque sperandum omnino est esse adhuc in Naturae sinu multa excellentis usus Recondita quae nullam cum jam Inventis Cognationem habent aut parallelismum sed omnino sita sunt extra vias phantasiae quae tamen adhuc Inventa non sunt quae proculdubio per multos saeculorum circuitus ambages ipsa quandoque prodibunt Fr. Verulam lib. 1. Novi Organi sect 109. The Second Book These Physico-Mechanical Experiments are of four sorts Hydrargyral Hydraulical Pneumatical and Mixt. Such things as are requisite for the triall of these Experiments are 1. A Quart at least of ☿ Quicksilver 2. Several Glass-Trunks or Cylindrical Glass-Tubes some open at both ends and some exactly closed or as they phrase it Hermetically sealed at the one end All of several Lengths and Bores 3. A Glass-Tunnel or two with wooden dishes and spoons for filling of the Glass-Tubes with Mercury 4. You must have no Metalline Vtensils about you for fear they be spoiled with the Mercury 5. Spread a Blanket or Carpet on the ground when you try these Experiments that so none of the Mercury may be lost but may be taken up again with wooden spoons 6. You may have by you also Glass-Syphons Weather-Glasses of several right and crooked shapes c. the more to advantage the Experiments MERCURIAL EXPERIMENTS CHAP. I. Experiment 1. TAke a Glass-Tube of above 29 inches in length as AB closed at the end B and open at A fill it full of Quicksilver and so close the end A exactly with the thumb as with a stoppel then reverse it and putting it and your finger together into the wooden vessel D fill'd about two inches deep with Quicksilver erect it perpendicularly therein then drawing away your finger from the
partly arise from the variations of the Climates the Air being more thin and hot then ours partly from the difference and altitude of the Atmosphere here and there as shall hereafter be made more intelligible and partly from the diversity of our measures and theirs or from the club and combination of all these causes joyned together To which I may well super-add the negligence or inconsideration of those that try this Experiment for you may alter the height of the Mercurial Cylinder as you do rudely or cautiously tunnel in the Quicksilver into the Tube for I have some time with exact caution made it to rise to 30. inches in altitude from the Surface of the restagnant Quicksilver in the Vessel I set down 29. inches as its determinate height to which it will for the most mount though you use but a careless kind of carefulness in the management of the Experiment CHAP. II. That in the superiour part of the Tube there is no absolute Vacuity BEfore we proceed to any further Experiments we will first canvass the Cause of this Primitive one of Torricellius which has given occasion of trying all the rest and then we wilâ— deliver our Hypothesis which I hope will salve all the strange appearances not onely in this but in those stranger that follow Valerianus Magnus and some others are so fond to believe this deserted Cylinder to be an absolute Vacuity which is not only non-philosophical but very ridiculous 1. For the Space deserted hath both Longitude Latitude and Profundity therefore a Body for the very nature of a Body consists onely in extension which is the essential and unseparable property of all Bodies whatsoever 2. Again we have the sensible eviction of our own eyes to confute this Suppositional Vacuity for we see the whole Space to be Luminous as by Obser. Now Light must either be a Substance or else how should it subsist if a bare Quality in a Vacuity where there is nothing to support it 3. Again the Magnetical Efluxions of the Earth are diffused through that seeming Vacuity as per Experiment 4. There is some Air also interspersed in that seeming Vacuity which cannot be expelled upon any inclination of the Tube whatsoever as by Obser. is manifest 5. The most full Evidence against this pretended Vacuity is from the returgenscency of the empty Bladder suspended in this Vacuity for how should it be so full blown from nothing as is by Exp. most incomparably evinced CHAP. III. That it is not the Efluviums of Mercury that fill up that seeming Vacuity BEfore we come positively to declare what it is that supplies this seeming Vacuity let us draw some negative Conclusions and see if we can prove that it is not supplied with any Spirits Mercurial or Exhalations and this we shall most fully do by an ingenious Experiment borrowed from the Mechanical Wit of Doctor Pascal which shall passe for the second in the Bedroll of our Experiments Doctor Pascal's Experiment 2. THat the deserted part of the Tube is not filled up with any Hydrargyral emanations may be thus evinced because he hath found the same Experiment to succeed in water onely without any Quicksilver at all for he took a Tube or Lead-Pipe of 46. foot in length made close at the one end in casting of it and having filled it full of water and reversed it into a paile of water underneath about a foot deep he found the water to fall within 32. foot of that in the Vessel so that the deserted part of the Pipe was 13. foot so tall a Cylinder of that Liquor being it seems but aequi-ponderous to a Mercurial Cylinder of 28. inches Kircher and Birthius it seems also have tried the like in a Lead-Pipe of a 100. foot long and an inch diameter into which at the top was let in a short neck'd weather-glass or bolt-head and fastned so to that no Air could pierce the coement that luted the Glass and Lead-Pipe together which Lead-Pipe at the bottome was also fitted with a Turn-cock which when it was once filled with water would keep it in till they had reversed it into a Hogshead of water underneath and then by a turn of the Cock letting out the water it deserted the Bolt head and superiour part of the Tube wherein appeared this seeming Vacuity Experiment 3. BUt for a further Confirmation of this Truth let me subjoyn another Experiment which shall here pass for our third of the same Author 's Take a Glass-Syringe or Squirt of what length you please exactly fitted with a Squirt-staff stop the mouth of your Syringe close with your finger and so drown it over head and ears with hand and all in a large Vessel of water then draw back the Squirt staff and the Syringe will appear a Vacuity which will pain your finger by an Introsuction of it in at the Orifice but if then you erect the Syringe perpendicular and draw it all out of the water excepting that end closed by your finger and then open the Orifice you shall see the water suddainly arise and fill the deserted Cavity of the Syringe Both which Experiments do sufficiently prove that this seeming Vacuity may be exhibited without the help of any Quicksilver at all and therefore this imaginary Space in the Torricellian-Experiment aforesaid cannot rationally be supposed to be repleated with any Mercurial Effluviums CHAP. IV. Experiment 4. That it is not Light onely which supplies this seeming Vacuity TAke the Barrel of a long Gun about 4. foot long and Bunging up the Touch-Hole fill it easily with Mercury and reversing of it into the Vessel'd Quicksilver as before you may measure it to observe the determinate height aforesaid which you may easily perceive First By the flushing out of the Quicksilver upon removal of your finger into the Vessel where the restagnant Quicksilver receives it Secondly By the re-ascent of the Quicksilver upon tilting or plucking the Gun quite out of the restagnant Mercury as also by the forceable introsuction of your finger if you close the muzzle of the Barrel within the Vessel'd Mercury and so draw it out and reverse it as also by the plucks and shogs it will give in that action Thirdly and most perceptibly By the repletion of it with water if you draw the Tube gently out of the Quicksilver in the Vessel into a super-incumbent region of water which you first poured into the same Vessel for then if you stop the Orifice with your finger whilst it stands immers'd in the region of water and so draw it out and reverse it you shall perceive it full of water The like no doubt will succeed in Tubes of other Mettals Again if Light onely onely I say because we do not deny light to be there fill up that empty Cylinder it would be certainly far more Luminous as containing nothing but the pure Solary Atoms than the external medium and region of the Air about it which is confusedly intermixed both with
these divisions 17 8 and then the Cylinder l B was in perpendicular height 13 86. inches We brought this Tube with the same Mountain-Ayr in it by the help of a long Tube of wood having a dish fastned to the open end of it and both full of Quicksilver into which we put our Tube AB which Instrument you have here represented and at the bottom of the Hill the Quicksilver rose up unto the mark m under the 17. division So that the Ayr dilated fill'd of the equal parts 17 35 and the Quicksilver in B was in height 14 31. inches Then we put out this Mountain-Ayr and let into the Tube the same quantity of Valley-Ayr which fill'd the part A E containing also 9. of the equal divisions aforesaid and then the end of the Tube B opened the Ayr dilated to the mark n. So that it contain'd 17 58. parts and the Quicksilver in perpendicular height 14 2. That you may at one glance behold all the varieties of these Dilatations of Ayr and height of the Mercurial Standard I have supposed the line AB to represent all the Tubes AE still represents the Ayr left in them AD the Ayr dilated BD the Quicksilver In the long Tube At the top of the Hill At the bottom of it at Barlow AE 50 15 50 15 Equal parts of Spaces Inches AD 84 75 83 8 BD 11 26 11 78 In the lesser Tube At the top of the Hill At Barlow with Ayr. At Barlow with Valley-Ayr AE 9 9 9 AD 17 8 17 35 17 58 BD 13 86 14 31 14 02 Now before we pass to any further Experiment we think it fit to make and denominate several considerable Spaces of the Tube in the Mercurial Experiments which will avoid both confusion and multiplicity of terms for the future Let AB be the Tube in which Quicksilver in case it were totally void of Ayr would stand in a perpendicular Cylinder above the Quicksilver in the Vessel from B to C. So we shall call that line or space BC The Mercurial Standard But if in the Tube there be left as much external Ayr as would fill the Tube from A to E and that then the Quicksilver would fall from C to D and the Ayr be dilated to fill the space AD then we shall call BD The Mercury CD The Mercurial Complement AE The Ayr. ED The Ayr 's Dilatation AD The Ayr Dilated Where note That the measure of the Mercurial Standard and Mercurial Complement are measured onely by their perpendicular heights over the Surface of the restagnant Quicksilver in the Vessel But Ayr the Ayr 's Dilatation and Ayr Dilated by the Spaces they fill So that here is now four Proportionals and by any three given you may strike out the fourth by Conversion Transposition and Division of them So that by these Analogies you may prognosticate the effects which follow in all Mercurial Experiments and predemonstrate them by calculation before the senses give an Experimental thereof Experiment 12. WE tried the Pascalian-Experiment in a Tin-Tube of 33. foot long made of several sheets of Tin and closely soddered up with Peuter To the upper end whereof we fastned a long Glass-Tube open at both ends then having soddered up the lower end we reared the Tube to a Turret at Townley-Hall and fill'd it with water then closing the top of the Glass-Pipe and immersing the other end of the Tin-Tube into a cistern of water a foot deep we opened the lower end and perceived the water to fall out of the Glass-Tube into the Tin but how far we could not tell onely we conjectured to be about the proportion given by Doctor Pascal viz that a Cylinder of water stood in a Tube about 32 foot high but presently our Glass-tube at the juncture to the Tin began to leak and let in Ayr so we could make no further process in the Experiment onely one thing we observed in filling of the Tube that after the water which we tunnelled in had gone down a pretty way into the Tube part of it by the rebounding Ayr was violently forced up again and shot out at the upper end of our Glass-tube two or three foot high into the open Ayr Which Experiment may be a caution to Pump-makers all Artificers that deal in Water-works that they attempt not to draw water higher then 33 foot its Standard-Altitude left they lose both their credit cost and pains in so unsuccessful a design For I remember in my Lady Bowles her new Water-work at Heath-Hall near Wakefield where the Water is raised at least 16. yards high the simple workman undertook first to do it by a single Pump but seeing his endevours were frustrated he was forced to cut his Cylinder in two Pumps and to raise it first eight yards into a Leadcistern and then by another Pump to raise it out of that other eight yards into a cistern above CHAP. X. NOw to salve all these Mercurial Phaenomena as also those mixed Experiments of Quicksilver and Water Quicksilver and Ayr Ayr and Water in single and double Tubes and Syphons of all Bores divers learned and ingenious Heads have excogitated several neat though different Hypotheses For to omit the whimsies of two Grandees that is Valerianus and Hobbs which so grosly Philosophize the former affirming the deserted space in the Tube to be an absolute Vacuity the latter to be replenished with this very Common Ayr which we breathe in which creeping up 'twixt the Contiguity of the Glass and Quicksilver fills up that conceited Vacuity To omit these exorbitant Conceits I find two or three more intelligible and rational Hypotheses The first is of Roberual and Pecquet of the Ayr 's Elasticity and Gravitation which we have formerly embrac'd onely with this addition That whereas they will have Rarefaction and Condensation to be performed without any increase or loss of quantity which can never be conceived we admit of an aetherial Substance or Matter intromitted and excluded the Bodies so chang'd as we formerly explicated The second Hypothesis is of the Vacuist's such I mean as though they hold this Spring of Ayr yet in its dilation will admit of no aether or forrain Substance to enter the pores thereof but the particles so dilated to remain so with interspersed Vacuities and this opinion hath many eminent Advocates and Avouchers Gassend Doctor Ward Doctor Charleton c. The latest Novellist that hath undertaken this Experimental Philosophy is one Linus aliâs Hall who hath excogitated a new Principle of his own whereby he not onely salves all the Phaenomena in the Torricellian-Experiments formerly delivered but also all those stranger Experiments discovered since by Gerricus and Boyl's Pneumatical Engines His Principles he thus layes down 1. That there is an inseparability of Bodies so that there can be no Vacuities in rerum natura 2. That the deserted Space of the Tube in the Torricellian-Experiment is fill'd with a small film of Quicksilver which being taken off the
Water as in the former Experiment at the top of the said Hill respectively to what it was at the bottom with this Observable That in the greatest-Headed Weather-Glass which included most Ayr in it the descent of the Water was greater as being most depress'd by the greatest quantity of the included Ayr. CHAP. XII Experiments in Capillary Tubes and Syphons Experiment 1. TAke a small Capillary Glass-pipe or Tube open at both ends and dipping the one extreme perpendicular into the water you shall see the water spontaneously arise to a competent height in the Tube with a quick and smart ascent Note first That the inside of the Pipe ought to be very clean as well from dust and little bubbles as films of water which will remain in the Pipe when the water is blown or suck'd out of it Secondly It must be perfectly dry from any other Liquors which will not mingle with water as Oyl c. Thirdly If you moisten the Pipe first with water before you try the Experiment the ascent of the water will be more quick and lively Fourthly That not onely Water but Milk Wine Oil and other Liquors except Quicksilver will likewise rise to a certain height in the said Pipes Fifthly After the Water has risen to its Standard-height if you take it out of the Liquor it shall not fall out at all if you invert the Pipe the included Cylinder of water will fall down also to the other extreme also the deeper you immerge it in the vessel of water the higher still will it rise in the Pipe still keeping its Standard-Altitude above the surface of the water in the vessel also if you suck it above the Standard it will still fall back to its wonted Altitude Sixthly That not onely Water but Milk Wine Oyl and all other Liquors will spontaneously arise in the said Pipes but with this difference That the heavier the Liquors are the lower their Standard is and the slower is their Ascent to it thus you shall see Oyl of Tartar will not rise by one third so high as water nor Oyl of Vitriol by â…“ so high as it which may alter more or less according to the goodness of the said Oyls Seventhly Now if you take out a Pipe wherein in either of the said Oyls has first risen up to its wonted Standard and immerge the end thereof into a lighter Liquor as water you shall see the Oyl fall gradually out into the water and the Pipe gradually fill with water and arise to its own Standard which is higher a great deal than the Standard of either of the said Oyls as is before delivered the like will follow in Syphons Eighthly The smaller Bore that your Tube is of the higher will your Water arise yet we could never get it to arise to the height of 5. inches as Mr. Boyle mentions though we have attempted it in Tubes almost as small as Hairs or as Art could make them Ninthly If the Tubes be of the Bore of an ordinary Quill or bigger no Water at all will arise Tenthly That little or no difference of the water's ascent in the former Tubes is perceptible at the bottom or top of our Hill Experiment 2. BEnd one of these Tubes into a little Syphon which you may do by putting it into the flame of a Candle and then putting the one extreme thereof into a vessel of water you shall see it presently fall a running on its own accord Observe 1. That the perpendicular height of the flexure of the Syphon to the water's Superficies be shorter or at least exceed not that Standard-height unto which the water would rise were it a streight Pipe onely 2. That the pendent Shank hang not onely lower then the water's Superficies but by such a determinate Length for we have found that if the pendent or extravasated Leg be shorter or equal or but a little lower then the Superficies of the water in the vessel no effect at all would follow but the pendent Leg would hang full of water without any flux at all Now what this determinate length is we conceive the pendent Shank must be longer from the flexure then the Standard of the Liquor would reach and then it will run as other Syphons do which have a larger Bore so that you see the Mechanical reason which is so universally received by all men why the pendent Leg in Syphons must be longer than the other to make the Liquor run out viz. because the greater weight of water in the pendent Leg overpoises and sways down that in the shorter as in a pair of Skales is not universally true in all Syphons whatsoever 3. If to the nose of the pendent Leg you apply a wet piece of Glass the water then will begin to come out of the Pipe and run down to the lowermost edge of the Glass where gathering it self into round bubbles it would fall to the ground but then you must observe that the nose of the pendent Shank be lower than the Surface of the water in the vessel Experiment 3. LEt both Shanks of the Syphon be fill'd with water so that the pendent Leg be longer than the Superficies of the water and yet not so long neither as to set it on running then to the nose of the pendent Leg apply a vessel of Milk and you shall see that though the water would not break out of the Pipe into the open Ayr a medium far lighter and more divisible than Milk yet it did run out into the Milk and one might see it purl up again without mingling with the Milk at a little darkish hole like a Spring Observe Experiment 4. IF you lift the vessel of Milk with the pendent Leg drown'd in it higher towards the flexure of the Syphon so that the Superficies of the Milk be nearer the flexure of the Syphon than the Superficies of the Water you shall after a considerable time see the Milk rise up the pendent Leg and to drive back the Water and having fill'd the whole Syphon to fall a running into the Water-vessel with this difference to the former Experiment That whereas the Water in the former came to the top of the Milk the Milk here sunk down to the bottom of the Water in a small stream like a curl'd white thread and there setled in a Region by it self Experiment 5. NOw contrariwise if you lift the vessel of Water nearer the flexure of the Syphon than the Superficies of the Milk is then will the Water rise over the Syphon and beat out the Milk and fall a running as in the third Experiment And thus you may at pleasure change your Scene and make the Syphon fall a running either with Milk or Water which is a pleasant spectacle to behold especially if the Water be ting'd red with Scutchenel My Worthy and ever Honoured Friend Mr. Charles Townley upon confidence of these Experiments thought he had discovered that great and long sought-for Rarity amongst the Mechanicks