Definition of the term. This term is restricted, in the present habits of our language, to that part of natural philosophy which treats of the mechanical properties of elastic fluids. The word, in its original meaning, expresses a quality of air, or more properly of breath. Under the article PHYSICS we observed, that in a great number of languages the term used to express breath was also one of the terms used to express the animating principle, nay, the intellectual substance, the soul. It has been perhaps owing to some attention to this chance of confusion that our philosophers have appropriated the term PNEUMATICS to the science of the mechanical properties of air, and PNEUMATOLOGY to the science of the intellectual phenomena consequent on the operations or affections of our thinking principle.

Extent of the science. We have extended (on the authority of present custom) the term PNEUMATICS to the study of the mechanical properties of all elastic or sensibly compressible fluids, that is, of fluids whose elasticity and compressibility become an interesting object of our attention; as the term HYDROSTATICS is applied to the study of the mechanical properties of such bodies as interest us by their fluidity or liquidity only, or whose elasticity and compressibility are not familiar or interesting, though not less real or general than in the case of air and all vapours.

No precise limit to the different classes of bodies. We may be indulged in the observation by the bye, that there is no precise limit to the different classes of natural bodies with respect to their mechanical properties. There is no such thing as a body perfectly hard, perfectly soft, perfectly elastic, or perfectly incompressible. All bodies have some degree of elasticity intermixed with some degree of ductility. Water, mercury, oil, are compressible; but their compressibility need not be attended to in order perfectly to understand the phenomena consequent on their materiality, fluidity, and gravity. But if we neglect the compressibility of air, we remain ignorant of the cause and nature of its most interesting phenomena, and are but imperfectly informed with respect to those in which its elasticity has no share; and it is convenient to attend to this distinction in our researches, in order to understand those phenomena which depend solely or chiefly on compressibility and elasticity. This observation is important; for here elasticity appears in its most simple form, unaccompanied with any other mechanical affection of matter (if we except gravity), and lies most open to our observation, whether employed for investigating the nature of this very property of bodies, or for explaining its mode of action. We shall even find that the constitution of an avowedly elastic fluid, whose compressibility is so very sensible, will give us the distinctest notions of fluidity in general, and enable us to understand its characteristic appearances, by which it is distinguished from solidity, namely, the equable distribution of pressure through all its parts in every direction, and the horizontality which its surface attains by the action of gravity: phenomena which have been assumed as equivalent to the definition of a perfect fluid, and from which all the laws of hydrostatics and hydraulics have been derived. And these laws have been applied to the explanation of the phenomena around us; and water, mercury, oil, &c. have been denominated fluid only because their appearances have been found to tally exactly with these consequences of this definition, while the definition itself remains in the form of an assumption, unsupported by any other proof of its obtaining in nature. A real mechanical philosopher will therefore attach himself with great eagerness to this property, and consider it as an introduction to much natural science.

Of all the sensible compressible fluids air is the most familiar, was the first studied, and the most minutely examined. It has therefore been generally taken as the example of their mechanical properties, while those mechanical properties which are peculiar to any of them, and therefore characteristic, have usually been treated as an appendix to the general science of pneumatics. No objection occurs to us against this method, which will therefore be adopted in treating this article.

But although the mechanical properties are the proper subjects of our consideration, it will be impossible to avoid considering occasionally properties which are of it, more of a chemical nature; because they occasion such modifications of the mechanical properties as would frequently be unintelligible without considering them in conjunction with the other; and, on the other hand, the mechanical properties produce such modifications of the properties merely chemical, and of very interesting phenomena consequent on them, that these would often pass unexplained unless we give an account of them in this place.

By mechanical properties we would be understood to mean such as produce, or are connected with, sensible properties changes of motion, and which indicate the presence and agency of moving or mechanical powers. They are therefore the subject of mathematical discussion; admitting ting of measure, number, and direction, notions purely mathematical.

We shall therefore begin with the consideration of air.

It is by no means an idle question, "What is this air of which so much is said and written?" We feel nothing, we feel nothing. We find ourselves at liberty to move about in any direction without any let or hindrance. Whence, then, the assertion, that we are surrounded with a matter called air? A few very simple observations and experiments will show us that this assertion is well founded.

We are accustomed to say that a vessel is empty when we have poured out of it the water which it contained. Take a cylindrical glass jar (fig. 1.) having a small hole in its bottom; and having stopped this hole, fill the jar with water, and then pour out the water, leaving the glass empty, in the common acceptation of the word. Now, throw a bit of cork, or any light body, on the surface of water in a cistern; cover this with the glass jar A held in the hand with its bottom upwards, and move it downwards, as at B, keeping it all the while in an upright position. The cork will continue to float on the surface of the water in the inside of the glass, and will most distinctly show whereabout that surface is. It will thus be seen, that the water within the glass has its surface considerably lower at C than that of the surrounding water; and however deep we immerse the glass, we shall find that the water will never rise in the inside of it so as to fill it. If plunged to the depth of 32 feet, the water will only half fill it; and yet the acknowledged laws of hydrostatics tell us, that the water would fill the glass if there were nothing to hinder it. There is therefore something already within the glass which prevents the water from getting into it; manifesting in this manner the most distinctive property of matter, viz. the hindering other matter from occupying the same place at the same time.

While things are in this condition, pull the stopper D out of the hole in the bottom of the jar, and the water will instantly rise in the inside of the jar, and stand at an equal height within and without. This is justly ascribed to the escape through the hole of the matter which formerly obstructed the entry of the water; for if the hand be held before the hole, a puff will be distinctly felt, or a feather held there will be blown aside; indicating in this manner that what prevented the entry of the water, and now escapes, possesses another characteristic property of matter, impulsive force. The materiality is concluded from this appearance in the same manner that the materiality of water is concluded from the impulse of a jet from a pipe. We also see the mobility of the formerly pent up, and now liberated, substance, in consequence of external pressure, viz. the pressure of the surrounding water.

Also, if we take a smooth cylindrical tube, shut at one end, and fit a plug or cork to its open end, so as to slide along it, but so tightly as to prevent all passage by its sides; and if the plug be well soaked in grease, we shall find that no force whatever can push it to the bottom of the tube. There is therefore something within the tube preventing by its impenetrability the entry of the plug, and therefore possessing this characteristic of matter.

In like manner, if, after having opened a pair of common bellows, we shut up the nozzle and valve hole, and try to bring the boards together, we find it impossible. There is something included which prevents this, in the same manner as if the bellows were filled with wool; but on opening the nozzle we can easily shut them, viz. by expelling this something; and if the compression be forcible, the something will issue with considerable force, and very sensibly impel anything in its way.

It is not accurate to say, that we move about with inertia, and out any obstruction: for we find, that if we endeavour mobility, to move a large fan with rapidity, a very sensible hindrance is perceived, and that a very sensible force must be exerted; and a sensible wind is produced, which will agitate the neighbouring bodies. It is therefore justly concluded that the motion is possible only in consequence of having driven this obstructing substance out of the way; and that this impenetrable resisting, moveable, impelling substance, is matter. We perceive the perseverance of this matter in its state of rest when we wave a fan, in the same manner that we perceive the inertia of water when we move a paddle through it. The effects of wind in impelling our ships and mills, in tearing up trees, and overturning buildings, are equal indications of its perseverance in a state of motion.

To this matter, when at rest, we give the name Air; and when it is in motion we call it Wind.

Air, therefore, is a material fluid: a fluid, because its parts are easily moved, and yield to the smallest inequality of pressure.

Air possesses some others of the very general, though not essential, properties of matter. It is heavy. This appears from the following facts.

1. It always accompanies this globe in its orbit round the sun, surrounding it to a certain distance, under the name of the Atmosphere, which indicates the being connected with the earth by its general force of gravity. It is chiefly in consequence of this that it is continually moving round the earth from east to west; forming what is called the trade-wind, to be more particularly considered afterwards. All that is to be observed on this subject at present is, that, in consequence of the disturbing force of the sun and moon, there is an accumulation of the air of the atmosphere, in the same manner as of the waters of the ocean, in those parts of the globe which have the moon near their zenith or nadir: and as this happens successively, going from the east to the west (by the rotation of the earth round its axis in the opposite direction), the accumulated air must gradually flow along to form the elevation. This is chiefly to be observed in the torrid zone; and the generality and regularity of this motion are greatly disturbed by the changes which are continually taking place in different parts of the atmosphere from causes which are not mechanical.

2. It is in like manner owing to the gravity of the supports air that it supports the clouds and vapours which we see constantly floating in it. We have even seen bodies of no inconsiderable weight float, and even rise, in the air. Soap bubbles, and balloons filled with inflammable gas, rise and float in the same manner as a cork rises in water. This phenomenon proves the weight of the air, in the same manner that the swimming of a piece of wood indicates the weight of the water which supports it.

3. But we are not left to these refined observations for for the proof of the air's gravity. We may observe familiar phenomena, which would be immediate consequences of the supposition that air is a heavy fluid, and, like other heavy fluids, presses on the outsides of all bodies immersed in or surrounded by it. Thus, for instance, if we shut the nozzle and valve hole of a pair of bellows after having squeezed the air out of them, we shall find that a very great force, even some hundred pounds, is necessary for separating the boards. They are kept together by the pressure of the heavy air which surrounds them in the same manner as if they were immersed in water. In like manner, if we stop the end of a syringe after its piston has been pressed down to the bottom, and then attempt to draw up the piston, we shall find a considerable force necessary, viz. about 15 or 16 pounds for every square inch of the section of the syringe. Exerting this force, we can draw up the piston to the top, and we can hold it there; but the moment we cease acting, the piston rushes down and strikes the bottom. It is called a suction, as we feel something as it were drawing in the piston; but it is really the weight of the incumbent air pressing it in. And this obtains in every portion of the syringe; because the air is a fluid, and presses in every direction. Nay, it presses on the syringe as well as on the piston; and if the piston be hung by its ring on a nail, the syringe requires force to draw it down (just as much as to draw the piston up); and if it be let go, it will spring up, unless loaded with at least 15 pounds for every square inch of its transverse section (see fig. 2).

4. But the most direct proof of the weight of the air is had by weighing a vessel empty of air, and then weighing it again when the air has been admitted; and this, as it is the most obvious consequence of its weight, has been asserted as long ago as the days of Aristotle. He says (Περὶ Οὐγών, iv. 4.), That all bodies are heavy in their place except fire; even air is heavy; for a blown bladder is heavier than when it is empty. It is somewhat surprising that his followers should have gone into the opposite opinion, while professing to maintain the doctrine of their leader. If we take a very large and limber bladder, and squeeze out the air very carefully, and weigh it, and then fill it till the wrinkles just begin to disappear, and weigh it again, we shall find no difference in the weight. But this is not Aristotle's meaning; because the bladder, considered as a vessel, is equally full in both cases, its dimensions being changed. We cannot take the air out of a bladder without its immediately collapsing. But what would be true of a bladder would be equally true of any vessel. Therefore, take a round vessel A (fig. 3.), fitted with a stopcock B, and syringe C. Fill the whole with water, and press the piston to the bottom of the syringe. Then keeping the cock open, and holding the vessel upright, with the syringe undermost, draw down the piston. The water will follow it by its weight, and leave part of the vessel empty. Now shut the cock, and again push up the piston to the bottom of the syringe; the water escapes through the piston valve, as will be explained afterward; then opening the cock, and again drawing down the piston, more water will come out of the vessel. Repeat this operation till all the water have come out. Shut the cock, unscrew the syringe, and weigh the vessel very accurately. Now open the cock, and admit the air, and weigh the vessel again, it will be found heavier than before, and this additional weight is the weight of the air which fills it; and it will be found to be 523 grains, about an ounce and a fifth avoirdupois, for every cubic foot that the vessel contains. Now since a cubic foot of water would weigh 1000 ounces, this experiment would show that water is about 840 times heavier than air. The most accurate judgment of this kind of which we have met with an account is that recorded by Sir George Shuckburgh, which is in the 67th vol. of the Philosophical Transactions, p. 560. From this it follows, that when the air is of the temperature 53°, and the barometer stands at 29½ inches, the air is 836 times lighter than water. But the experiment is not susceptible of sufficient accuracy for determining the exact weight of a cubic foot of air. Its weight is very small; and the vessel must be strong and heavy, so as to overload any balance that is sufficiently nice for the experiment.

To avoid this inconvenience, the whole may be weighed in water, first loading the vessel so as to make convenient it preponderate an ounce or two in the water. By this method means the balance will be loaded only with this small preponderancy. But even in this case there are considerable sources of error, arising from changes in the specific gravity of the water and other causes. The experiment has often been repeated with this view, and the air has been found at a medium to be about 840 times as light as water, but with great variations, as may be expected from its very heterogeneous nature, in consequence of its being the menstruum of almost every fluid, of all vapours, and even of most solid bodies; all which it holds in solution, forming a fluid perfectly transparent, and of very different density according to its composition. It is found, for instance, that perfectly pure air of the temperature of our ordinary summer is considerably denser than when it has dissolved about half as much water as it can hold in that temperature; and that with this quantity of water the difference of density increases in proportion as the mass grows warmer, for damp air is more expansible by heat than dry air. We have had occasion to consider this subject when treating of the connection of the mechanical properties of air with the state of the weather. See Meteorology.

Such is the result of the experiment suggested by this present Aristotle, evidently proving the weight of the air; and partly yet, as has been observed, the Peripatetics, who professed to follow the dictates of Aristotle, uniformly refused it this property. It was a matter long debated among though at the philosophers of the last century. The reason was, knowledge that Aristotle, with that indefiniteness and inconsistency, ed by the which is observed in all his writings which relate to matters of fact and experience, assigns a different cause to many phenomena which any man led by common observation would ascribe to the weight of the air. Of this kind is the rise of water in pumps and syphons, which all the Peripatetics had for ages ascribed to something which they called nature's abhorrence of a void. Aristotle had asserted (for reasons not our business to adduce at present), that all nature was full of being, and that nature abhorred a void. He adduces many facts, in which it appears, that if not absolutely impossible, it is very difficult, and requires great force, to produce a space void of matter. When the operation of pumps and syphons came to be known, the philosophers of Europe (who had all embraced the Peripatetic doctrines) doctrines) found in this fancied horror of a fancied mind (what else is this that nature abhors?) a ready solution of the phenomena. We shall state the facts, that every reader may see what kinds of reasoning were received among the learned not two centuries ago.

Pumps were then constructed in the following manner: A long pipe GB (fig. 4) was set in the water of the well A. This was fitted with a sucker or piston C, having a long rod CF, and was furnished with a valve B at the bottom, and a lateral pipe DE at the place of delivery, also furnished with a valve. The fact is, that if the piston be thrust down to the bottom, and then drawn up, the water will follow it; and upon the piston being again pushed down, the water shuts the valve B by its weight, and escapes or is expelled at the valve E; and on drawing up the piston again the valve E is shut, the water again rises after the piston, and is again expelled at its next descent.

The Peripatetics explain all this by saying, that if the water did not follow the piston there would be a void between them. But nature abhors a void; or a void is impossible: therefore the water follows the piston. It is not worth while to criticize the wretched reasoning in this pretence to explanation. It is all overturned by one observation. Suppose the pipe shut at the bottom, the piston can be drawn up, and thus a void produced. No, say the Peripatetics; and they speak of certain spirits, effluvia, &c., which occupy the place. But if so, why needs the water rise? This therefore is not the cause of its ascent. It is a curious and important phenomenon.

The sagacious Galileo seems to have been the first who seriously ascribed this to the weight of the air. Many before him had supposed air heavy; and thus explained the difficulty of raising the board of bellows, or the piston of a syringe, &c. But he distinctly applies to this allowed weight of the air all the consequences of hydrostatic laws; and he reasons as follows.

The heavy air rests on the water in the cistern, and presses it with its weight. It does the same with the water in the pipe, and therefore both are on a level; but if the piston, after being in contact with the surface of the water, be drawn up, there is no longer any pressure on the surface of the water within the pipe; for the air now rests on the piston only, and thus occasions a difficulty in drawing it up. The water in the pipe, therefore, is in the same situation as if more water were poured into the cistern, that is, as much as would exert the same pressure on its surface as the air does. In this case we are certain that the water will be pressed into the pipe, and will raise up the water already in it, and follow it till it is equally high within and without. The same pressure of the air shuts the valve E during the descent of the piston. (See Gal. Deseourfer).

He did not wait for the very obvious objection, that if the rise of the water was the effect of the air's pressure, it would also be its measure, and would be raised and supported only to a certain height. He directly said so, and adduced this as a decisive experiment. If the horror of a void be the cause, says he, the water must rise to any height however great; but if it be owing to the pressure of the air, it will only rise till the weight of the water in the pipe is in equilibrium with the pressure of the air, according to the common laws of hydrostatics. And he adds, that this is well known; for it is a fact, that pumps will not draw water much above forty palms, although they may be made to propel it, or to lift it to any height. He then makes an afflication, which, if true, will be decisive. Let a very long pipe, shut at one end, be filled with water, and let it be erected perpendicularly with the close end uppermost, and a stopper in the other end, and then its lower orifice immersed into a vessel of water; the water will subside in the pipe upon removing the stopper, till the remaining column is in equilibrium with the pressure of the external air. This experiment he proposes to the curious; saying, however, that he thought it unnecessary, there being already such abundant proofs of the air's pressure.

It is probable that the cumberomeness of the necessary apparatus protracted the making of this experiment, and another equally conclusive, and much easier, was made by Torricelli's disciple Torricelli. He filled a glass tube, close at one end, with mercury; judging, that if the support of the water was owing to the pressure of the air, and was the measure of this pressure, mercury would in like manner be supported by it, and this at a height which was also the measure of the air's pressure, and therefore 13 times less than water. He had the pleasure of seeing his expectation verified in the completest manner; the mercury descending in the tube AB (fig. 5), and finally settling Fig. 5, at the height fB of 29½ Roman inches; and he found, that when the tube was inclined, the point f was in the same horizontal plane with f in the upright tube, according to the received laws of hydrostatical pressure. The experiment was often repeated, and soon became famous, exciting great controversies among the philosophers about the possibility of a vacuum. About three years afterwards the same experiment was published, at Warsaw in Poland, by Valerianus Magnus, as his own suggestion and discovery; but it appears plain from the letters of Reberval, not only that Torricelli was prior, and that his experiment was the general topic of discussion among the curious; but also highly probable that Valerianus Magnus was informed of it when at Rome, and daily conversant with those who had seen it. He denies, however, even having heard the name of Torricelli.

This was the era of philosophical ardour; and we think that it was Galileo's invention and immediate application of the telescope which gave it vigour. Discoveries of the most wonderful kind in the heavens, and which required no extent of previous knowledge to understand them, were thus put into the hands of every person who could purchase a spy-glass; while the high degree of credibility which some of the discoveries, such as the phases of Venus and the rotation and satellites of Jupiter, gave to the Copernican system, immediately set the whole body of the learned in motion. Galileo joined to his ardour a great extent of learning, particularly of mathematical knowledge and sound logic, and was even the first who formally united mathematics with physics; and his treatise on accelerated motion was the first, and a precious fruit of this union. About the years 1642 and 1644, Origin of we find clubs of gentlemen associated in Oxford and London for the cultivation of knowledge by experiment; and society, before 1655 all the doctrines of hydrostatics and pneumatics were familiar there, established upon experiment. Mr Boyle procured a coalition and correspondence of these clubs under the name of the Invisible and Philosophical Society. In May 1658, Mr Hooke finished for Mr Boyle Boyle an air-pump, which had employed him a long time, and occasioned him several journeys to London for things which the workmen of Oxford could not execute. He speaks of this as a great improvement on Mr Boyle's own pump, which he had been using some time before. Boyle therefore must have invented his air-pump, and was not indebted for it to Schottus's account of Otto Guerick's, published in his (Schottus) Mechanica Hydraulico-pneumatica in 1657, as he affirms (Technica Curiosa). The Royal Society of London arose in 1662 from the coalition of these clubs, after 15 years co-operation and correspondence. The Montmorin Society at Paris had subsisted nearly about the same time; for we find Pafchel in 1648 speaking of the meetings in the Sorbonne College, from which we know that society originated.—Nuremberg, in Germany, was also a distinguished seminary of experimental philosophy. The magistrates, sensible of its valuable influence in many manufactures, the source of the opulence and prosperity of their city, and many of them philosophers, gave philosophy a professed and munificent patronage, furnishing the philosophers with a copious apparatus, a place of assembly, and a fund for the expense of their experiments; so that this was the first academy of sciences out of Italy under the patronage of government. In Italy, indeed, there had long existed institutions of this kind. Rome was the centre of church-government, and the resort of all expectants for preferment. The clergy was the majority of the learned in all Christian nations, and particularly of the systematic philosophers. Each, eager to recommend himself to notice, brought forward every thing that was curious; and they were the willing vehicles of philosophical communication. Thus the experiments of Galileo and Toricelli were rapidly diffused by persons of rank, the dignitaries of the church, or by the monks their obsequious servants. Perhaps the recent defection of England, and the want of a residing embassy at Rome, made her sometimes late in receiving or spreading philosophical researches, and was the cause that more was done there proprio Marte.

We hope to be excused for this digression. We were naturally led into it by the pretensions of Valerianus Magnus to originality in the experiment of the mercury supported by the pressure of the air. Such is the strength of national attachment, that there were not wanting some who found that Toricelli had borrowed his experiment from Honoratus Fabri, who had proposed and explained it in 1641; but whoever knows the writings of Toricelli, and Galileo's high opinion of him, will never think that he could need such helps. (See this surmise of Mounier in Schott. Tech. Cur. III. at the end).

Galileo must be considered as the author of the experiment when he proposes it to be made. Valerianus Magnus owns himself indebted to him for the principle and the contrivance of the experiment. It is neither wonderful that many ingenious men, of one opinion, and instructed by Galileo, should separately hit on so obvious a thing; nor that Toricelli, his immediate disciple, his enthusiastic admirer, and who was in the habits of corresponding with him till his death in 1642, should be the first to put it in practice. It became the subject of dispute from the national arrogance and self-conceit of some Frenchmen, who have always shown themselves disposed to consider their nation as at the head of the republic of letters, and cannot brook the concurrence of any foreigners. Roberval was in this instance, however, the champion of Toricelli; but those who know his controversies with the mathematicians of France at this time will easily account for this exception.

All now agree in giving Toricelli the honour of the unjustly first invention; and it universally passes by the name of the Torricellian Experiment. The tube is called the Torricellian Tube; and the space left by the mercury is called the Torricellian Vacuum, to distinguish it from the Boylean Vacuum, which is only an extreme rarefaction.

The experiment was repeated in various forms, and it was repeated in several effects which the vacuum produced on bodies exposed in it. This was done by making the upper part of the tube terminate in a vessel of some capacity, or communicate with such a vessel, in which were included along with the mercury bodies on which the experiments were to be made. When the mercury had run out, the phenomena of these bodies were carefully observed.

An objection was made to the conclusion drawn from Toricelli's experiment, which appears formidable. If the Torricellian tube be suspended on the arm of a balance, it is found that the counterpoise must be equal to the weight both of the tube and of the mercury it contains. This could not be, say the objectors, if the mercury were supported by the air. It is evidently supported by the balance; and this gave rise to another notion of the cause different from the peripatetic figa vacui: a fulfiling force, or rather attraction, was assigned to the upper part of the tube.

But the true explanation of the phenomenon is most easy and satisfactory. Suppose the mercury in the cistern and tube to freeze, but without adhering to the tube, so that the tube could be freely drawn up and down. In this case the mercury is supported by the base, without any dependence on the pressure of the air; and the tube is in the same condition as before, and the solid mercury performs the office of a piston to this kind of syringe. Suppose the tube thrust down till the top of it touches the top of the mercury. It is evident that it must be drawn up in opposition to the pressure of the external air, and it is precisely similar to the syringe mentioned in No. 16. The weight sustained therefore by this arm of the balance is the weight of the tube and the downward pressure of the atmosphere on its top.

The curiosity of philosophers being thus excited by Galileo's very manageable experiment, it was natural to try the original experiment proposed by Galileo. Accordingly Berti in Italy, Pafchel in France, and many others in different places, made the experiment with a tube filled with water, wine, oil, &c. and all with the success which might be expected in so simple a matter; and hence the doctrine of the weight and pressure of the air was established beyond contradiction or doubt. All this was done before the year 1648.—A very beautiful experiment was exhibited by Auzout, which completely satisfied all who had any remaining doubts.

A small box or phial EFGH (fig. 6.) had two glass tubes, AB, CD, three feet long, inserted into it in such a manner as to be firmly fixed in one end, and to reach Fig. 6. nearly to the other end. AB was open at both ends, and CD was close at D. This apparatus was completely filled with mercury, by unscrewing the tube AB, filling

ling the box, and the tube CD; then screwing in the tube AB, and filling it: then holding a finger on the orifice A, the whole was inverted and set upright in the position represented in figure β, immersing the orifice A (now a of fig. β) in a small vessel of quicksilver. The result was, that the mercury ran out at the orifice a, till its surface mn within the phial descended to the top of the tube ba. The mercury also began to descend in the tube dc (formerly DC) and run over into the tube ba, and run out at a, till the mercury in dc was very near equal in a level with mn. The mercury descending in ba till it stood at k, 29½ inches above the surface op of the mercury in the cistern, just as in the Torricellian tube.

The rationale of this experiment is very easy. The whole apparatus may first be considered as a Torricellian tube of an uncommon shape, and the mercury would flow out at a. But as soon as a drop of mercury comes out, leaving a space above mn, there is nothing to keep up the mercury in the tube dc. Its mercury therefore descends also; and running over into ba, continues to supply its expense till the tube dc is almost empty, or can no longer supply the waste of ba. The inner surface therefore falls as low as it can, till it is level with b. No more mercury can enter ba, yet its column is too heavy to be supported by the pressure of the air on the mercury in the cistern below; it therefore descends in ba, and finally settles at the height ho, equal to that of the mercury in the Torricellian tube.

The prettiest circumstance of the experiment remains. Make a small hole g in the upper cap of the box. The external air immediately rushes in by its weight, and now presses on the mercury in the box. This immediately raises the mercury in the tube dc to l, 29½ inches above mn. It presses on the mercury at k in the tube ba, balancing the pressure of the air in the cistern. The mercury in the tube therefore is left to the influence of its own weight, and it descends to the bottom. Nothing can be more apposite or decisive.

And thus the doctrine of the gravity and pressure of the air is established by the most unexceptionable evidence: and we are entitled to affirm it as a statical principle, and to affirm a priori all its legitimate consequences.

And in the first place, we obtain an exact measure of the pressure of the atmosphere. It is precisely equal to the weight of the column of mercury, of water, of oil, &c., which it can support; and the Torricellian tube, or others fitted up upon the same principle, are justly termed baroscopes and barometers with respect to the air. Now it is observed that water is supported at the height of 32 feet nearly: the weight of the column is exactly 2000 avoirdupois pounds on every square foot of base, or 13½ on every square inch. The same conclusion very nearly may be drawn from the column of mercury, which is nearly 29½ inches high when in equilibrium with the pressure of the air. We may here observe, that the measure taken from the height of a column of water, wine, spirits, and the other fluids of considerable volatility, as chemists term it, is not so exact as that taken from mercury, oil, and the like. For it is observed, that the volatile fluids are converted by the ordinary heat of our climates into vapour when the confining pressure of the air is removed; and this vapour, by its elasticity, exerts a small pressure on the surface of the water, &c., in the pipe, and thus counteracts a small part of the external pressure; and therefore the column supported by the remaining pressure must be lighter, that is, shorter. Thus it is found, that rectified spirits will not stand much higher than is competent to a weight of 13 pounds on an inch, the elasticity of its vapour balancing about 1/7 of the pressure of the air. We shall afterwards have occasion to consider this matter more particularly.

As the medium height of the mercury in the barometer is 29½ inches, we see that the whole globe sustains a pressure equal to the whole weight of a body of mercury of this height; and that all bodies on its surface sustain a part of this in proportion to their surfaces. An ordinary sized man sustains a pressure of several thousand pounds. How comes it then that we are not sensible of a pressure which one should think enough to crush us? This has been considered as a strong objection to the pressure of the air; for when a man is plunged a few feet under water, he is very sensible of the pressure. The answer is by no means so easy as is commonly imagined. We feel very distinctly the effects of removing this pressure from any part of the body. If any one will apply the open end of a syringe to his hand, and then draw up the piston, he will find his hand sucked into the syringe with great force, and it will give pain; and the soft part of the hand will swell into it, being pressed in by the neighbouring parts, which are subject to the action of the external air. If one lays his hand on the top of a long perpendicular pipe, such as a pump filled to the brim with water, which is at first prevented from running out by the valve below; and if the valve be then opened, so that the water descends, he will then find his hand so hard pressed to the top of the pipe that he cannot draw it away. But why do we only feel the inequality of pressure? There is a similar influence wherever we do not feel it, although we cannot doubt of its existence. When a man goes slowly to a great depth under water in a diving-bell, we know unquestionably that he is exposed to a new and very great pressure, yet he does not feel it. But those facts are not sufficiently familiar for general argument. The human body is a bundle of solids, hard or soft, filled or mixed with fluids, and there are few or no parts of it which are empty. All communicate either by vessels or pores; and the whole surface is a sieve through which the insensible perspiration is performed. The whole extended surface of the lungs is open to the pressure of the atmosphere; everything is therefore in equilibrium: and if free or speedy access be given to every part, the body will not be damaged by the pressure, however great, any more than a wet sponge would be deranged by plunging it any depth in water. The pressure is instantaneously diffused by means of the incompressible fluids with which the parts are filled; and if any parts are filled with air or other compressible fluids, these are compressed till their elasticity again balances the pressure. Besides, all our fluids are acquired slowly, and gradually mixed with that proportion of air which they can dissolve or contain. The whole animal has grown up in this manner from the first vital atom of the embryo. For such reasons the pressure can occasion no change of shape by squeezing together the flexible parts; nor any obstruction by compressing the vessels or pores. We cannot say what would be felt by a man, were it possible that he could have been produced. duced and grown up in vacuo, and then subjected to the compression. We even know that any sudden and considerable change of general pressure is very severely felt. Persons in a diving-bell have been almost killed by letting them down or drawing them up too suddenly. In drawing up, the elastic matters within have suddenly swelled, and not finding an immediate escape have burst the vessels. Dr. Halley experienced this, the blood gushing out from his ears by the expansion of air contained in the internal cavities of this organ, from which there are but very slender passages.

A very important observation occurs here: the pressure of the atmosphere is variable. This was observed almost as soon as philosophers began to attend to the barometer. Pascal observed it in France, and Descartes observed it in Sweden in 1650. Mr. Boyle and others observed it in England in 1656. And before this, observers, who took notice of the concomitance of these changes of aerial pressure with the state of the atmosphere, remarked, that it was generally greatest in winter and in the night; and certainly most variable during winter and in the northern regions. Familiar now with the weight of the air, and considering it as the vehicle of the clouds and vapors, they noted with care the connection between the weather and the pressure of the air, and found that a great pressure of the air was generally accompanied with fair weather, and a diminution of it with rain and mists. Hence the barometer came to be considered as an index not only of the present state of the air's weight, but also as indicating by its variations changes of weather. It became a weather-glass, and continued to be anxiously observed with this view. This is an important subject, and in another place is treated in some detail.

In the next place, we may conclude that the pressure of the air will be different in different places, according to their elevation above the surface of the ocean: for if air be an heavy fluid, it must press in some proportion according to its perpendicular height. If it be a homogeneous fluid of equal density and weight in all its parts, the mercury in the cistern of a barometer must be pressed precisely in proportion to the depth to which that cistern is immersed in it; and as this pressure is exactly measured by the height of the mercury in the tube, the height of the mercury in the Torricellian tube must be exactly proportional to the depth of the place of observation under the surface of the atmosphere.

The celebrated Descartes first entertained this thought (Epistle 67. of Pr. III.) and soon after him Pascal. His occupation in Paris not permitting him to try the justness of his conjecture, he requested Mr Perrier a gentleman of Clermont in Auvergne, to make the experiment, by observing the height of the mercury at one and the same time at Clermont and on the top of a very high mountain in the neighbourhood. His letters to Mr Perrier in 1647 are still extant. Accordingly Mr Perrier, in September 1648, filled two equal tubes with mercury, and observed the heights of both to be the same, viz. 26.7 inches, in the garden of the convent of the Friars Minims, situated in the lowest part of Clermont. Leaving one of them there, and one of the fathers to observe it, he took the other to the top of Puy de Dome, which was elevated nearly 500 French fathoms above the garden. He found its height to be 23.7 inches. On his return to the town, in a place called Font de l'Arbre, 150 fathoms above the garden, he found it 25 inches; when he returned to the garden it was again 26.7, and the person let to watch the tube which had been left said that it had not varied the whole day. Thus a difference of elevation of 300 French feet had occasioned a depression of 3.7 inches; from which it may be concluded, that 3.7 inches of mercury weighs as much as 3000 feet of air, and one-tenth of an inch of mercury as much as 96 feet of air. The next day he found, that taking the tube to the top of a steeple 120 feet high made a fall of one-fifth of an inch. This gives 72 feet of air for one-tenth of an inch of mercury; but ill agreeing with the former experiment. But it is to be observed, that a very small error of observation of the barometer would correspond to a great difference of elevation, and also that the height of the mountain had not been measured with any precision. This has been since done (Mem. Acad. par. 1703), and found to be 529 French toises.

Pascal published an account of this great experiment which (Grande Exp. sur la Pefanteur de l'Air), and it was quickly repeated in many places of the world. In 1653, when it was repeated in England by Dr Power (Power's Exper. Phil.), and in Scotland, in 1661, by Mr Sinclair professor of philosophy in the university of Glasgow, who observed the barometer at Lanark, on the top of Mount Tinto in Clydesdale, and on the top of Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh. He found a depression of two inches between Glasgow and the top of Tinto, three quarters of an inch between the bottom and top of Arthur's Seat, and 3.7 of an inch at the cathedral of Glasgow on a height of 126 feet. See Sinclair's Ars Nova et Magnum Gravitatis et Levitatis; Stirnii Collegium Experimentalis, et Scholii Technica Curiosa.

Hence we may derive a method of measuring the heights of mountains. Having ascertained with great precision the elevation corresponding to a fall of one-tenth of an inch of mercury, which is nearly 90 feet, we have only to observe the length of the mercurial column at the top and bottom of the mountain, and to allow 90 feet for every tenth of an inch. Accordingly this method has been practiced with great success; but it requires an attention to many things not yet considered; such as the change of density of the mercury by heat and cold; the changes of density of air, which are much more remarkable from the same causes; and above all, the changes of the density of air from its compressibility; a change immediately connected with or dependent on the very elevation we wish to measure. Of all these afterwards.

These observations give us the most accurate measure of the density of air and its specific gravity. This is measured but vaguely though directly measured by weighing air in a bladder or vessel. The weight of a manageable quantity is so small, that a balance sufficiently ticklish to indicate even very sensible fractions of it is overloaded by the weight of the vessel which contains it, and ceases to be exact; and when we take Bernoulli's ingenious method of suspending it in water, we expose ourselves to great risk of error by the variation of the water's density. Also it must necessarily be humid air which we can examine in this way; but the proportion of an elevation in the atmosphere to the depression of the column of mercury or other fluid, by which we measure its pressure, gives us at once the proportion of this weight. weight or their specific gravity. Thus since it is found that in such a state of pressure the barometer stands at 30 inches, and the thermometer at 32°, 87 feet of rise produces one-tenth of an inch of fall in the barometer, the air and the mercury being both of the freezing temperature, we must conclude that mercury is 10,444 times heavier or denser than air. Then, by comparing mercury and water, we get nearly for the density of air relative to water; but this varies so much by heat and moisture, that it is useless to retain any thing more than a general notion of it; nor is it easy to determine whether this method or that by actual weighing be preferable. It is extremely difficult to observe the height of the mercury in the barometer nearer than of an inch; and this will produce a difference of even five feet, of the whole. Perhaps this is a greater proportion than the error in weighing.

From the same experiments we also derive some knowledge of the height of the aerial covering which surrounds our globe. When we raise our barometer 87 feet above the surface of the sea, the mercury falls about one-tenth of an inch in the barometer; therefore if the barometer shows 30 inches at the sea-shore, we may expect that, by raising it 300 times 87 feet, or 5 miles, the mercury in the tube will descend to the level of the cistern, and that this is the height of our atmosphere. But other appearances lead us to suppose a much greater height. Meteors are seen with us much higher than this, and which yet give undoubted indication of being supported by our air. There can be little doubt, too, that the visibility of the expanse above us is owing to the reflection of the sun's light by our air. Were the heavenly spaces perfectly transparent, we should no more see them than the purest water through which we see other objects; and we see them as we see water tinged with milk or other feculae. Now it is easy to show, that the light which gives us what is called twilight must be reflected from the height of at least 50 miles; for we have it when the sun is depressed 18 degrees below our horizon.

A little attention to the constitution of our air will convince us, that the atmosphere must extend to a much greater height than 300 times 87 feet. We see from the most familiar facts that it is compressible; we can squeeze it in an ox-bladder. It is also heavy; pressing on the air in this bladder with a very great force, not less than 1,500 pounds. We must therefore consider it as in a state of compression, existing in smaller room than it would assume if it were not compressed by the incumbent air. It must therefore be in a condition something resembling that of a quantity of fine carded wool thrown loosely into a deep pit; the lower strata carrying the weight of the upper strata, and being compressed by them; and so much the more compressed as they are further down, and only the upper stratum in its unconstrained and most expanded state. If we shall suppose this wool thrown in by a hundred weight at a time, it will be divided into strata of equal weights, but of unequal thicknesses: the lowest being the thinnest, and the superior strata gradually increasing in thickness. Now, suppose the pit filled with air, and reaching to the top of the atmosphere, the weights of all the strata above any horizontal plane in it is measured by the height of the mercury in the Toricellian tube placed in that plane; and one-tenth of an inch of mercury is just equal to the weight of the lowest stratum 87 feet thick; for on raising the tube 87 feet from the sea, the surface of the mercury will descend one-tenth of an inch. Raise the tube till the mercury fall another tenth; This stratum must be more than 87 feet thick; how much more we cannot tell, being ignorant of the law of the air's expansion. In order to make it fall a third tenth, we must raise it through a stratum still thicker; and so on continually.

All this is abundantly confirmed by the very first experiment made by the order and directions of Pachal: For by carrying the tube from the garden of the convent to a place 150 fathoms higher, the mercury fell inches, or 1.2916; which gives about 69 feet 8 inches of aerial stratum for of an inch of mercury; and by carrying it from thence to a place 350 fathoms higher, the mercury fell , or 1.9167 inches, which gives 109 feet 7 inches for of an inch of mercury. These experiments were not accurately made; for at that time the philosophers, though zealous, were but scholars in the science of experimenting, and novices in the art. But the results abundantly show this general truth, and they are completely confirmed by thousands of subsequent observations. It is evident from the whole tenor of them, that the strata of air decrease in density as we ascend through the atmosphere; but it remained to be discovered what is the force of this decrease, that is, the law of the air's expansion. Till this be done we can say nothing about the constitution of our atmosphere: we cannot tell in what manner it is fitted for raising and supporting the exhalations and vapours which are continually arising from the inhabited regions; not as an excrementitious waste, but to be supported, perhaps manufactured, in that vast laboratory of nature, and to be returned to us in beneficent flowers. We cannot use our knowledge for the curious, and frequently useful purpose of measuring the heights of mountains and taking the levels of extensive regions; in short, without an accurate knowledge of this, we can hardly acquire any acquaintance with those mechanical properties which distinguish air from those liquids which circulate here below.

Having therefore considered at some length the leading consequences of the air's fluidity and gravity, let us consider its compressibility with the same care; and then, combining the agency of both, we shall answer all the purposes of philosophy, discover the laws, explain the phenomena of nature, and improve art. We proceed therefore to consider a little the phenomena which indicate and characterize this other property of the air. All fluids are elastic and compressible as well as air; but in them the compressibility makes no figure, or does not interest us while we are considering their pressures, motions, and impulsions. But in air the compressibility and expansion draw our chief attention, and make it a proper representative of this class of fluids.

Nothing is more familiar than the compressibility of air. It is seen in a bladder filled with it, which we can forcibly squeeze into less room; it is seen in a syringe, of which we can push the plug farther and farther as we increase the pressure.

But these appearances bring into view another, and show its elasticity. When we have squeezed the air in the bladder or syringe into less room, we find that the force with which we compressed it is necessary to keep it in this bulk; and that if we cease to press it together, it will swell out and regain its natural dimensions. This distinguishes it essentially from such a body as a mass of flour, salt, or such like, which remain in the compressed state to which we reduce them.

There is something therefore which opposes the compression different from the simple impenetrability of the air: there is something that opposes mechanical force; there is something too which produces motion, not only resisting compression, but pushing back the compressing body, and communicating motion to it. As an arrow is gradually accelerated by the bow string pressing it forward, and at the moment of its discharge is brought to a state of rapid motion; so the ball from a pop-gun or wind-gun is gradually accelerated along the barrel by the pressure of the air during its expansion from its compressed state, and finally quits it with an accumulated velocity. These two motions are indications perfectly similar of the elasticity of the bow and of the air.

Thus it appears that air is heavy and elastic. It needs little consideration to convince us in a vague manner that it is fluid. The ease with which it is penetrated, and driven about in every direction, and the motion of it in pipes and channels, however crooked and intricate, entitle it to this character. But before we can proceed to deduce consequences from its fluidity, and to offer them as a true account of what will happen in these circumstances, it is necessary to exhibit some distinct and simple case, in which the characteristic mechanical property of a fluid is clearly and unequivocally observed in it. That property of fluids from which all the laws of hydrostatics and hydraulics are derived with strictest evidence is, that any pressure applied to any part of them is propagated through the whole mass in every direction; and that in consequence of this diffusion of pressure, any two external forces can be put in equilibrium by the interposition of a fluid, in the same way as they can be put in equilibrium by the intervention of any mechanical engine.

Let a close vessel ABC (fig. 7.), of any form, have two upright pipes EDC, GFB, inserted into any parts of its top, sides, or bottom, and let water be poured into them, so as to stand in equilibrium with the horizontal surface at E, D, G, F, and let D d, F f, be horizontal lines, it will be found that the height of the column E d is sensibly equal to that of the column G f. This is a fact universally observed in whatever way the pipes are inserted.

Now the surface of the water at D is undoubtedly pressed upwards with a force equal to a column of water, having its surface for its base, and E d for its height; it is therefore prevented from rising by some opposite force. This can be nothing but the elasticity of the confined air pressing it down. The very same thing must be said of the surface at F; and thus there are two external pressures at D and F set in equilibrium by the interposition of air. The force exerted on the surface D, by the pressure of the column E d, is therefore propagated to the surface at F; and thus air has this characteristic mark of fluidity.

In this experiment the weight of the air is insensible when the vessel is of small size, and has no sensible share in the pressure reaching at D and F. But if the elevation of the point F above D is very great, the column E d will be observed sensibly to exceed the column G f. Thus if F be 70 feet higher than D, E d will be an inch longer than the column G f: for in this case there is reacting at D, not only the pressure propagated from F, but also the weight of a column of air, having the surface at D for its base and 70 feet high. This is equal to the weight of a column of water one inch high.

It is by this propagation of pressure, this fluidity, that the pellet is discharged from a child's pop gun. It sticks fast in the muzzle; and he forces in another pellet at the other end, which he presses forward with the rammer, condensing the air between them, and thus propagating to the other pellet the pressure which he exerts, till the friction is overcome, and the pellet is discharged by the air expanding and following it.

There is a pretty philosophical plaything which illustrates this property of air in a very perspicuous manner, and which we shall afterwards have occasion to consider as converted into a most useful hydraulic machine. This is what is usually called Hero's fountain, having been invented by a Syracusan of that name. It consists of two vessels KLMN (fig. 8.), OPQR, which are Fig. 8. close on all sides. The tube AB, having a funnel a-top, passes through the uppermost vessel without communicating with it, being foldered into its top and bottom. It also passes through the top of the under vessel, where it is also foldered, and reaches almost to its bottom. This tube is open at both ends. There is another open tube ST, which is foldered into the top of the under vessel and the bottom of the upper vessel, and reaches almost to its top. These two tubes serve also to support the upper vessel. A third tube GF is foldered into the top of the upper vessel, and reaches almost to its bottom. This tube is open at both ends, but the orifice G is very small. Now suppose the uppermost vessel filled with water to the height EN, E e being its surface a little below T. Stop the orifice G with the finger, and pour in water at A. This will descend through AB, and compress the air in OPQR into less room. Suppose the water in the under vessel to have acquired the surface C c, the air which formerly occupied the whole of the spaces OPQR, and KLe E, will now be contained in the spaces cPc C and KLe E; and its elasticity will be in equilibrium with the weight of the column of water, whose base is the surface E e, and whose height is A c. As this pressure is exerted in every part of the air, it will be exerted on the surface E e of the water of the upper vessel, and if the pipe FG were continued upwards, the water would be supported in it to an height e H above E e, equal to A c. Therefore if the finger be now taken from off the orifice G, the water will spout up to the same height as if it had been immediately forced out by a column of water A c without the intervention of the air, that is, nearly to H. If instead of the funnel at A, the vessel have a brim VW which will cause the water discharged at G to run down the pipe AB, this fountain will play till all the water in the upper vessel is expended. The operation of this second fountain will be better understood from fig. 9. which an intelligent reader will see is perfectly equivalent to fig. 8. A very powerful engine for raising water upon this principle has long been employed in the Hungarian mines; where the pipe AB is about 200 feet high, and the pipe FG about 120; and the condensation is made in the upper vessel, and communicated. cated to the lower, at the bottom of the mine, by a long pipe. See WATER-Works.

We may now apply to air all the laws of hydrostatics and hydraulics, in perfect confidence that their legitimate consequences will be observed in all its situations. We shall in future substitute, in place of any force acting on a surface of air, a column of water, mercury, or any other fluid whose weight is equal to this force; and as we know distinctly from theory what will be the consequences of this hydrostatic pressure, we shall determine a priori the phenomena in air; and in cases where theory does not enable us to say with precision what is the effect of this pressure, experience informs us in the case of water, and analogy enables us to transfer this to air. We shall find this of great service in some cases, which otherwise are almost desperate in the present state of our knowledge.

From such familiar and simple observations and experiments, the fluidity, the heaviness, and elasticity, are discovered of the substance with which we are surrounded, and which we call air. But to understand these properties, and completely to explain their numerous and important consequences, we must call in the aid of more refined observations and experiments, which even this scanty knowledge of them enables us to make; we must contrive some methods of producing with precision any degree of condensation or rarefaction, of employing or excluding the gravitating pressure of air, and of modifying at pleasure the action of all its mechanical properties.

Nothing can be more obvious than a method of compressing a quantity of air to any degree. Take a cylinder or prismatic tube AB (fig. 10.) shut at one end, and fit it with a piston or plug C, so nicely that no air can pass by its sides. This will be best done in a cylindrical tube by a turned stopper, covered with oiled leather, and fitted with a long handle CD. When this is thrust down, the air which formerly occupied the whole capacity of the tube is condensed into less room. The force necessary to produce any degree of compression may be concluded from the weight necessary for pushing down the plug to any depth. But this instrument leaves us little opportunity of making interesting experiments on or in this condensed air; and the force required to make any degree of compression cannot be measured with much accuracy; because the piston must be very close, and have great friction, in order to be sufficiently tight: And as the compression is increased, the leather is more squeezed to the side of the tube; and the proportion of the external force, which is employed merely to overcome this variable and uncertain friction, cannot be ascertained with any tolerable precision. To get rid of these imperfections, the following addition may be made to the instrument, which then becomes what is called the condensing syringe.

The end of the syringe is perforated with a very small hole ef; and being externally turned to a small cylinder, a narrow lip of bladder, or of thin leather; soaked in a mixture of oil and tallow, must be tied over the hole. Now let us suppose the piston pushed down to the bottom of the barrel to which it applies close; when it is drawn up to the top, it leaves a void behind, and the weight of the external air presses on the lip of bladder, which therefore claps close to the brass, and thus performs the part of a valve, and keeps it close so that no air can enter. But the piston having reached the top of the barrel, a hole F in the side of it is just below the piston, and the air rushes through this hole and fills the barrel. Now push the piston down again, it immediately passes the hole F, and no air escapes through it; it therefore forces open the valve at f, and escapes while the piston moves to the bottom.

Now let E be any vessel, such as a glass bottle, having its vessel containing its mouth furnished with a brass cap firmly connected to it, having a hollow screw which fits a solid screw p, turned on the cylindric nozzle of the syringe. Screw the syringe into this cap, and it is evident that the air forced out of the syringe will be accumulated in this vessel: for upon drawing up the piston the valve f always shuts by the elasticity or expanding force of the air in E; and on pushing it down again, the valve will open as soon as the piston has got so far down that the air in the lower part of the barrel is more powerful than the air already in the vessel. Thus at every stroke an additional barrelful of air will be forced into the vessel E; and it will be found, that after every stroke the piston must be farther pushed down before the valve will open. It cannot open till the pressure arising from the elasticity of the air condensed in the barrel is superior to the elasticity of the air condensed in the vessel; that is, till the condensation of the first, or its density, is somewhat greater than that of the last, in order to overcome the straining of the valve on the hole and the sticking occasioned by the clammy matter employed to make it air-tight.

Sometimes the syringe is constructed with a valve in a different piston. This piston, instead of being of one piece constructed and folded, consists of two pieces perforated. The upper part k l m is connected with the rod or handle, and has its lower part turned down to a small cylinder, which is screwed into the lower part k l n; and has a perforation g h going up in the axis, and terminating in a hole k in one side of the rod, a piece of oiled leather is strained across the hole g. When the piston is drawn up and a void left below it, the weight of the external air forces it through the hole h g, opens the valve g, and fills the barrel. Then, on pushing down the piston, the air being squeezed into less room, presses on the valve g, shuts it; and none escaping through the piston, it is gradually condensed as the piston descends till it opens the valve f, and is added to that already accumulated in the vessel E.

Having in this manner forced a quantity of air into the vessel E, we can make many experiments in it in this state of condensation. We are chiefly concerned at present with the effect which this produces on its elasticity. We see this to be greatly increased; for we find more and more force required for introducing every successive barrelful. When the syringe is untwisted, we see the air rush out with great violence, and every indication of great expanding force. If the syringe be connected with the vessel E in the same manner as the syringe in No. 17, viz. by interposing a stopcock B between them (see fig. 3.), and if this stopcock have a pipe at its extremity, reaching near to the bottom of the vessel, which is previously half filled with water, we can observe distinctly when the elasticity of the air in the syringe exceeds that of the air in the receiver: for the piston must be pushed down a certain length before the air from the syringe bubbles up through the water, and the piston must be farther down at each successive stroke before this appearance is observed. When the air has thus been accumulated in the receiver, it presses the sides of it outward, and will burst it if not strong enough. It also presses on the surface of the water; and if we now shut the cock, unscrew the syringe, and open the cock again, the air will force the water through the pipe with great velocity, causing it to rise in a beautiful jet. When a metal-receiver is used, the condensation may be pushed to a great length, and the jet will then rise to a great height, which gradually diminishes as the water is expended and room given to the air to expand itself. See the figure.

We judge of the condensation of air in the vessel E by the number of strokes and the proportion of the capacity of the syringe to that of the vessel. Suppose the first to be one-tenth of the last; then we know, that after 10 strokes the quantity of air in the vessel is doubled, and therefore its density double, and so on after any number of strokes. Let the capacity of the syringe (when the piston is drawn to the top) be \(a\), and that of the vessel be \(b\), and the number of strokes be \(n\), the density of air in the vessel will be \(\frac{b + n}{b} a\), or \(1 + \frac{n}{b} a\).

But this is on the supposition that the piston accurately fills the barrel, the bottom of the one applying close to that of the other, and that no force is necessary for opening either of the valves: but the first cannot be injured, and the last is very far from being true. In the construction now described, it will require at least one-twentieth part of the ordinary pressure of the air to open the piston valve: therefore the air which gets in will want at least this proportion of its complete elasticity; and there is always a similar part of the elasticity employed in opening the nozzle valve. The condensation therefore is never nearly equal to what is here determined.

It is accurately enough measured by a gage fitted to the instrument. A glass tube GH of a cylindric bore, and close at the end, is screwed into the side of the cap on the mouth of the vessel E. A small drop of water or mercury is taken into this tube by warming it a little in the hand, which expands the contained air, so that when the open end is dipped into water, and the whole allowed to cool, the water advances a little into the tube. The tube is furnished with a scale divided into small equal parts, numbered from the close end of the tube. Since this tube communicates with the vessel, it is evident that the condensation will force the water along the tube, acting like a piston on the air beyond it, and the air in the tube and vessel will always be of one density. Suppose the number at which the drop stands before the condensation is made to be \(c\), and that it stands at \(d\) when the condensation has attained the degree required, the density of the air in the remote end of the gage, and consequently in the vessel, will be \(\frac{c}{d}\).

Sometimes there is used any bit of tube close at one end, having a drop of water in it, simply laid into the vessel E, and furnished or not with a scale: but this can only be used with glass vessels, and these are too weak to resist the pressure arising from great condensation. In such experiments metallic vessels are used, fitted with a variety of apparatus for different experiments. Some of these will be occasionally mentioned afterwards.

It must be observed in this place, that very great condensations require great force, and therefore small syringes. It is therefore convenient to have them of various sizes, and to begin with those of a larger diameter, which operate more quickly; and when the condensation becomes fatiguing, to change the syringe for a smaller.

For this reason, and in general to make the condensing apparatus more convenient, it is proper to have a cock between the syringe and the vessel, or as it is usually called the receiver. This consists of a brass pipe, which has a well ground cock in its middle, and has a hollow screw at one end, which receives the nozzle screw of the syringe, and a solid screw at the other end, which fits the screw of the receiver. See fig. 3.

By these gages, or contrivances similar to them, we have been able to ascertain very great degrees of condensation in the course of some experiments. Dr Hales found, that when dry wood was put into a strong vessel, prove which it almost filled, and the remainder was filled with water, the swelling of the wood, occasioned by its imbibition of water, condensed the air of his gage into the thousandth of its original bulk. He found that peat treated in the same way generated elastic air, which pressing on the air in the gage condensed it into the fifteen hundredth part of its bulk. This is the greatest condensation that has been ascertained with precision, although in other experiments it has certainly been carried much farther; but the precise degree could not be ascertained.

The only use to be made of this observation at present is, that since we have been able to exhibit air in a water to density a thousand times greater than the ordinary density of the air we breathe, it cannot, as some imagine, be only a different form of water; for in this state it is as dense or denser than water, and yet retains its great expansibility.

Another important observation is, that in every state and degree of density in which we find it, it retains its perfect elasticity, transmitting all pressures which are applied to it with undiminished force, as appears by the equality constantly observed between the opposing columns of elasticity, water or other fluid by which it is compressed, and by &c., the facility with which all motions are performed in it in the most compressed states in which we can make observations of this kind. This fact is totally incompatible with the opinion of those who ascribe the elasticity of air to the springy ramified structure of its particles, touching each other like so many pieces of sponge or foot-balls. A collection of such particles might indeed be pervaded by solid bodies with considerable ease, if they were merely touching each other, and not subjected to any external pressure. But the moment such pressure is exerted, and the assemblage squeezed into a smaller space, each presses on its adjoining particles: they are individually compressed, flattened in their touching surfaces, and before the density is doubled they are squeezed into the form of perfect cubes, and compose a mass, Now, suppose the piston at the bottom, the cock C open, and the cock D shut, draw the piston to the operation top. The air which filled the vessel V will expand so of which as to fill both that vessel and the barrel AB; and as no reason can be given to the contrary, we must suppose that the air will be uniformly diffused through both. Calling V and B the capacity of the vessel and barrel, it is plain that the bulk of the air will now be $V+B$; and since the quantity of matter remains the same, and the density of a fluid is as its quantity of matter directly and its bulk inversely, the density of the expanded air will be $\frac{V}{V+B}$, the density of common air being 1 : for

$$\frac{V}{V+B} : \frac{V}{V+B}.$$

The piston requires force to raise it, and it is raised in we infer opposition to the pressure of the incumbent atmosphere; for this has formerly been balanced by the elasticity of the common air; and we conclude from the fact, expanded that force is required to raise the piston, that the elasticity of the expanded air is less than that of air in its ordinary state; and an accurate observation of the force necessary to raise it would show how much the elasticity is diminished. When therefore the piston is let go, it will descend as long as the pressure of the atmosphere exceeds the elasticity of the air in the barrel; that is, till the air in the barrel is in a state of ordinary density. To put it further down will require force, because the air must be compressed in the barrel; but if we open the cock D, the air will be expelled through it, and the piston will reach the bottom.

Now shut the discharging cock D, and open the cock C, and draw up the piston. The air which occupied the space V, with the density $\frac{V}{V+B}$, will now occupy the space $V+B$, if it expands so far. To have its density D, say, As its present bulk $V+B$ is to its former bulk V, so is its former density $\frac{V}{V+B}$ to its new density, which will therefore be $\frac{V+B}{V+B} \times \frac{V+B}{V+B}$,

or $\frac{V}{V+B}$.

It is evident, that if the air continues to expand, the density of the air in the vessel after the third drawing up of the piston will be $\frac{V}{V+B}$, after the fourth it will be $\frac{V}{V+B}$, and after any number of strokes n will be $\frac{V}{V+B}$. Thus, if the vessel is four times as large as the barrel, the density after the fifth stroke will be $\frac{V}{V+B}$, nearly $\frac{1}{4}$ of its ordinary density.

On the other hand, the number n of strokes necessary for reducing air to the density D is

$$\frac{\log D}{\log V - \log (V+B)}.$$

Thus we see that this instrument can never abstract the whole air in consequence of its expansion, but only reduces it continually as long as it continues to expand; this instrument, there is a limit beyond which the rarefaction cannot. not go. When the piston has reached the bottom, there remains a small space between it and the cock C filled with common air. When the piston is drawn up, this small quantity of air expands, and also a similar quantity in the neck of the other cock; and no air will come out of the receiver V till the expanded air in the barrel is of a smaller density than the air in the receiver. This circumstance evidently directs us to make these two spaces as small as possible, or by some contrivance to fill them up altogether. Perhaps this may be done effectually in the following manner.

Let BE (fig. 13.) represent the bottom of the barrel, and let the circle HKI be the section of the key of the cock, of a large diameter, and place it as near to the barrel as can be. Let this communicate with the barrel by means of a hole FG widening upwards, as the frustum of a hollow obtuse cone. Let the bottom of the piston bfhge be shaped so as to fit the bottom of the barrel and this hole exactly. Let the cock be pierced with two holes. One of them, HI, passes perpendicularly through its axis, and forms the communication between the receiver and barrel. The other hole, KL, has one extremity K on the same circumference with H, so that when the key is turned a fourth part round, K will come into the place of H; but this hole is pierced obliquely into the key, and thus keeps clear of the hole HI. It goes no further than the axis, where it communicates with a hole bored along the axis, and terminating at its extremity. This hole forms the communication with the external air, and serves for discharging the air in the barrel. (A side view of the key is seen in fig. 14.) Fig. 12. shows the position of the cock while the piston is moving upwards, and fig. 14. shows its position while the piston is moving downwards. When the piston has reached the bottom, the conical piece fhg of the piston, which may be of firm leather, fills the hole FHG; and therefore completely expels the air from the barrel. The canal KL of the cock contains air of the common density; but this is turned aside into the position KL (fig. 13.), while the piston is still touching the cock. It cannot extend into the barrel during the ascent of the piston. In place of it the perforation HLI comes under the piston, filled with air that had been turned aside with it when the piston was at the top of the barrel, and therefore of the same density with the air of the receiver. It appears therefore that there is no limit to the rarefaction as long as the air will expand.

This instrument is called an Exhausting Syringe. It is more generally made in another form, which is much less expensive, and more convenient in its use. Instead of being furnished with cocks for establishing the communications and shutting them, as is necessary, it has valves like those of the condensing syringe, but opening in the opposite direction. It is thus made:

The pipe of communication or conduit MN (fig. 15.) has a male screw in its extremity, and over this is tied a slip of bladder or leather M. The lower half of the piston has also a male screw on it, covered at the end with a slip of bladder O. This is screwed into the upper half of the piston, which is pierced with a hole H coming out of the side of the rod.

Now suppose the syringe screwed to the conducting pipe, and that screwed into the receiver V, and the piston at the bottom of the barrel. When the piston is drawn up, the pressure of the external air shuts the valve O, and a void is left below the piston: there is therefore no pressure on the upper side of the valve M to balance the elasticity of the air in the receiver which formerly balanced the weight of the atmosphere. The air therefore in the receiver lifts this valve, and distributes itself between the vessel and the barrel; so that when the piston has reached the top the density of the air in both receiver and barrel is as before

\[ \frac{V}{V+B} \]

When the piston is let go it descends, because the elasticity of the expanded air is not a balance for the pressure of the atmosphere, which therefore presses down the piston with the difference, keeping the piston-valve shut all the while. At the same time the valve M also shuts: for it was opened by the prevailing elasticity of the air in the receiver, and while it is open the two airs have equal density and elasticity; but the moment the piston descends, the capacity of the barrel is diminished, the elasticity of its air increases by collapsing, and now prevailing over that of the air in the receiver shuts the valve M.

When it has arrived at such a part of the barrel that the air in it is of the density of the external air, there is no force to push it farther down; the hand must therefore press it. This attempts to confine the air in the barrel, and therefore increases its elasticity; so that it lifts the valve O and escapes, and the piston gets to the bottom. When drawn up again, greater force is required than the last time, because the elasticity of the included air is less than in the former stroke. The piston rises further before the valve M is lifted up, and when it has reached the top of the barrel the density of the included air is

\[ \frac{V}{V+B} \]

The piston, when let go, will descend further than it did before ere the piston-valve opens, and the pressure of the hand will again push it to the bottom, all the air escaping through O. The rarefaction will go on at every successive stroke in the same manner as with the other syringe.

This syringe is evidently more easy in its use, requiring no attendance to the cocks to open and shut them at the proper times. On this account this construction of an exhausting syringe is much more generally used.

But it is greatly inferior to the syringe with cocks, with respect to its power of rarefaction. Its operation only is greatly limited. It is evident that no air will come out of the receiver unless its elasticity exceed that of the air in the barrel by a difference able to lift up the valve M. A piece of oiled leather tied across this hole can hardly be made tight and certain of clapping to the hole without some small straining, which must therefore be overcome. It must be very gentle indeed not to require a force equal to the weight of two inches of water, and this is equal to about the 200th part of the whole elasticity of the ordinary air; and therefore this syringe, for this reason alone, cannot rarefy air above 200 times, even though air were capable of an indefinite expansion. In like manner the valve O cannot be raised without a similar prevalence of the elasticity of the air in the barrel above the weight of the atmosphere. These causes united, make it difficult to rarefy the air more than 100 times, and very few such syringes will rarefy

ratify it more than 50 times; whereas the syringe with cocks, when new and in good order, will ratify it 1000 times.

But, on the other hand, syringes with cocks are much more expensive, especially when furnished with apparatus for opening and shutting the cocks. They are more difficult to make equally tight, and (which is the greatest objection) do not remain long in good order. The cocks, by so frequently opening and shutting, grow loose, and allow the air to escape. No method has been found of preventing this. They must be ground tight by means of emery or other cutting powders. Some of these unavoidably stick in the metal, and continue to wear it down. For this reason philosophers, and the makers of philosophical instruments, have turned their chief attention to the improvement of the syringe with valves. We have been thus minute in the account of the operation of rarefaction, that the reader may better understand the value of these improvements, and in general the operation of the principal pneumatic engines.

Of the Air-Pump.

An Air-Pump is nothing but an exhausting syringe accommodated to a variety of experiments. It was first invented by Otto Guericke, a gentleman of Magdeburgh in Germany, about the year 1654. We trust that it will not be unacceptable to our readers to see this instrument, which now makes a principal article in a philosophical apparatus, in its first form, and to trace it through its successive steps to its present state of improvement.

Guericke, indifferent about the solitary possession of an invention which gave entertainment to nobles who came to see his wonderful experiments, gave a minute description of all his pneumatic apparatus to Galileo Schottus professor of mathematics at Wurtemberg, who immediately published it with the author's consent, with an account of some of its performances, first in 1657, in his Mechanica Hydraulico-pneumatica; and then in his Technica Curiosa, in 1664, a curious collection of all the wonderful performances of art which he collected by a correspondence over all Europe.

Otto Guericke's air-pump consists of a glass receiver A (fig. 16.) of a form nearly spherical, fitted up with a brass cap and cock B. The nozzle of the cap was fixed to a syringe CDE, also of brass, bent at D into half a right angle. This had a valve at D, opening from the receiver into the syringe, and shutting when pressed in the opposite direction. In the upper side of the syringe there is another valve F, opening from the syringe into the external air, and shutting when pressed inwards. The piston had no valve. The syringe, the cock B, and the joint of the tube, were immersed in a cistern filled with water. From this description it is easy to understand the operation of the instrument. When the piston was drawn up from the bottom of the syringe, the valve F was kept shut by the pressure of the external air, and the valve D opened by the elasticity of the air in the receiver. When it was pushed down again, the valve D immediately shut by the superior elasticity of the air in the syringe; and when this was sufficiently compressed, it opened the valve F, and was discharged. It was immersed in water, that no air might find its way through the joints or cocks.

It would seem that this machine was not very perfect. Its imperfection for Guericke says that it took several hours to produce effects. An evacuation of a moderate-sized vessel; but he says, that when it was in good order, the rarefaction (for he acknowledges that it was not, nor could be, a complete evacuation) was so great, that when the cock was opened, and water admitted, it filled the receiver so as sometimes to leave no more than the bulk of a pea filled with air. This is a little surprising; for if the valve F be placed as far from the bottom of the syringe as in Schottus's figure, it would appear that the rarefaction could not be greater than what must arise from the air in DF expanding till it filled the whole syringe; because as soon as the piston in its descent passes F it can discharge no more air, but must compress it between F and the bottom, to be expanded again when the piston is drawn up. It is probable that the piston was not very tight, but that on pressing it down it allowed the air to pass it; and the water in which the whole was immersed prevented the return of the air when it was drawn up again: and this accounts for the great time necessary for producing the desired rarefaction.

Guericke, being a gentleman of fortune, spared no expense, and added a part to the machine, which saved him the trouble of hours attendance before they could see the curious experiments with the rarefied air. He made a large copper vessel G (fig. 17.), having a pipe and cock below, which passed through the floor of the chamber into an under apartment, where it was joined to the syringe immersed in the cistern of water, and worked by a lever. The upper part of the vessel terminated in a pipe, furnished with a stopcock H, surrounded with a flint brim to hold water for preventing the ingress of air. On the top was another cap I, also filled with water, to protect the junction of the pipes with the receiver K. This great vessel was always kept exhausted, and workmen attended below. When experiments were to be performed in the receiver K, it was set on the top of the great vessel, and the cock H was opened. The air in K immediately diffused itself equally between the two vessels, and was so much more rarefied as the receiver K was smaller than the vessel G. When this rarefaction was not sufficient, the attendants below immediately worked the pump.

These particulars deserve to be recorded, as they show the inventive genius of this celebrated philosopher, and because they are useful even in the present advanced state of the study. Guericke's method of excluding air from all the joints of his apparatus, by immersing those joints in water, is the only method that has to this day been found effectual; and there frequently occur experiments where this exclusion for a long time is absolutely necessary. In such cases it is necessary to construct little cups or cisterns at every joint, and to fill them with water or oil. In a letter to Schottus, 1662-3, he describes very ingenious contrivances for producing complete rarefaction after the elasticity of the remaining air has been so far diminished that it is not able to open the valves. He opens the exhausting valves by a plug, which is pushed in by the hand; and the discharging valve is opened by a small pump placed on its outside, so that it opens into a void instead of opening against the pressure. Air-pump, pressure of the atmosphere. (See Schotti Technica Curiosa, p. 68, 70.) These contrivances have been lately added to air-pumps by Haas and Hurter as new inventions.

It must be acknowledged, that the application of the pump or syringe to the exhaustion of air was a very obvious thought on the principle exhibited in No. 17, and in this way it was also employed by Guericke, who first filled the receiver with water, and then applied the syringe. But this was by no means either his object or his principle. His object was not solely to procure a vessel void of air, but to exhaust the air which was already in it; and his principle was the power which he suspected to be in air of expanding itself into a greater space when the force was removed which he supposed to compress it. He expressly says (Tract. de Experimentis Magdeburgicis, et in Epift. ad Schottum), that the contrivance occurred to him accidentally when occupied with experiments in the Torricellian tube, in which he found that the air would really expand, and completely fill a much larger space than what it usually occupied, and that he had found no limits to the expansion, evincing this by facts which we shall perfectly understand by and by. This was a doctrine quite new, and required a philosophical mind to view it in a general and systematic manner; and it must be owned that his manner of treating the subject is equally remarkable for ingenuity and for modesty. (Epift. ad Schottum).

His doctrine and his machine were soon spread over Europe. It was the age of literary ardour and philosophical curiosity; and it is most pleasant to us, who, standing on the shoulders of our predecessors, can see far around us, to observe the eagerness with which every new, and to us frivolous, experiment was repeated and canvassed. The worshippers of Aristotle were daily receiving severe mortifications from the experimenters, or empirics as they affected to call them, and they exerted themselves strenuously in support of his now tottering cause. This contributed to the rapid propagation of every discovery; and it was a most profitable and respectable business to go through the chief cities of Germany and France exhibiting philosophical experiments.

About this time the foundations of the Royal Society of London were laid. Mr Boyle, Mr Wren, Lord Brounker, Dr Wallis, and other curious gentlemen, held meetings at Oxford, in which were received accounts of whatever was doing in the study of nature; and many experiments were exhibited. The researches of Galileo, Torricelli, and Pafchel, concerning the pressure of the air, greatly engaged their attention, and many additions were made to their discoveries. Mr Boyle, the most ardent and successful studier of nature, had the principal share in these improvements, his inquisitive mind being aided by an opulent fortune. In a letter to his nephew Lord Dungarvon, he says that he had made many attempts to see the appearances exhibited by bodies freed from the pressure of the air. He had made Torricellian tubes, having a small vessel atop, into which he put some bodies before filling the tubes with mercury; so that when the tube was set upright, and the mercury run out, the bodies were in vacuo. He had also abstracted the water from a vessel, by a small pump, by means of its weight, in the manner described in No. 17, having previously put bodies into the vessel along with the water. But all these ways were very troublesome and imperfect. He was delighted when he learned from Schottus's first publication, that Counsellor Guericke had effected this by the expansive power of the air; and immediately set about constructing a machine from his own ideas, no description of Guericke's being then published.

It consisted of a receiver A (fig. 18.), furnished with a stopcock B, and syringe CD placed in a vertical position below the receiver. Its valve C was in its bottom, close adjoining to the entry of the pipe of communication; and the hole by which the air issued was farther secured by a plug which could be removed. The piston was moved by a wheel and rackwork. The receiver of Guericke's pump was but ill adapted for any considerable variety of experiments; and accordingly very few were made in it. Mr Boyle's receiver had a large opening EF, with a strong glass margin. To this was fitted a strong brass cap, pierced with a hole G in its middle, to which was fitted a plug ground into it, and shaped like the key of a cock. The extremity of this key was furnished with a screw, to which could be affixed a hook, or a variety of pieces for supporting what was to be examined in the receiver, or for producing various motions within it, without admitting the air. This was farther guarded against by means of oil poured round the key, where it was retained by the hollow cup-like form of the cover. With all these precautions, however, Mr Boyle ingeniously confesses, that it was but seldom, and with great difficulty, that he could produce an extreme degree of rarefaction; and it appears by Guericke's letter to Schottus, that in this respect the Magdeburgh machine had the advantage. But most of Boyle's very interesting experiments did not require this extreme rarefaction; and the variety of them, and their philosophical importance, compensated for this defect, and soon eclipsed the fame of the inventor to such a degree, that the state of air in the receiver was generally denominated the vacuum Boyleanum, and the air-pump was called machina Boyleana. It does not appear that Guericke was at all solicitous to maintain his claim to priority of invention. He appears to have been of a truly noble and philosophical mind, aiming at nothing but the advancement of science.

Mr Boyle found, that to make a vessel air-tight, it was sufficient to place a piece of wet or oiled leather on its brim, and to lay a flat plate of metal upon this. The pressure of the external air squeezed the two solid bodies so hard together, that the softer leather effectually excluded it. This enabled him to render the whole machine incomparably more convenient for a variety of experiments. He caused the conduit-pipe to terminate in a flat plate which he covered with leather, and on this he fet the glass ball or receiver, which had both its upper and lower brim ground flat. He covered the upper orifice in like manner with a piece of oiled leather and a flat plate, having cocks and a variety of other perforations and contrivances suited to his purposes. This he found infinitely more expeditious, and also tighter, than the clammy cements which he had formerly used for securing the joints.

He was now assisted by Dr Hooke, the most ingenious and inventive mechanic that the world has ever seen. This person made a great improvement on the air-pump by applying two syringes whose piston-rods were worked by pump.

From between the barrels rises a slender brass pipe \( h \), communicating with each by a perforation in the transverse piece of brass on which they stand. The upper end of this pipe communicates with another perforated piece &c. of brass, which screws on underneath the plate \( i \), of ten inches diameter, and surrounded with a brass rim to prevent the shedding of water used in some experiments. This piece of brass has three branches: \( r \), An horizontal one communicating with the conduit pipe \( h \). \( 2d \), An upright one screwed into the middle of the pump-plate, and terminating in a small pipe \( k \), rising about an inch above it. \( 3d \), A perpendicular one, looking downwards in the continuation of the pipe \( k \), and having a hollow screw in its end receiving the brass cap of the gage-pipe \( l \), which is of glass, 34 inches long, and immersed in a glass cistern \( m \) filled with mercury. This is covered a-top with a cork float, carrying the weight of a light wooden scale divided into inches, which are numbered from the surface of the mercury in the cistern. This scale will therefore rise and fall with the mercury in the cistern, and indicate the true elevation of that in the tube.

There is a stopcock immediately above the insertion of the gage-pipe, by which its communication may be cut off. There is another at \( n \), by which a communication is opened with the external air, for allowing its readmission; and there is sometimes another immediately within the insertion of the conduct-pipe for cutting off the communication between the receiver and the pump. This is particularly useful when the rarefaction is to be continued long, as there are by these means fewer chances of the infumation of air by the many joints.

The receivers are made tight by simply setting them on the pump-plate with a piece of wet or oiled leather between; and the receivers which are open a-top, have a brass cover set on them in the same manner. In these covers there are various perforations and contrivances for various purposes. The one in the figure has a slip wire passing through a collar of oiled leather, having a hook or a screw in its lower end for hanging any thing on or producing a variety of motions.

Sometimes the receivers are set on another plate, which has a pipe screwed into its middle, furnished with a stop-cock and a screw, which fits the middle pipe \( k \). When removing the rarefaction has been made in it, the cock is shut, and then the whole may be unscrewed from the pump, and removed to any convenient place. This is called a transformer plate.

It only remains to explain the gage \( l \). In the ordinary state of the air its elasticity balances the pressure of the incumbent atmosphere. We find this from the gage is the force that is necessary to squeeze it into less bulk, in opposition to this elasticity. Therefore the elasticity of the air increases with the vicinity of its particles. It is therefore reasonable to expect, that when we allow it to occupy more room, and its particles are farther asunder, its elasticity will be diminished though not annihilated; that is, it will no longer balance the whole pressure of the atmosphere, though it may still balance part of it. If therefore an upright pipe have its lower end immersed in a vessel of mercury, and communicate by its upper end with a vessel containing rarefied, therefore less elastic, air, we should expect that the pressure of the air will prevail, and force the mercury into the tube, and cause it to rise to such a height that

Vol. XVI. Part II. the weight of the mercury, joined to the elasticity of the rarefied air acting on its upper surface, shall be exactly equal to the whole pressure of the atmosphere. The height of the mercury is the exact measure of that part of the whole pressure which is not balanced by the elasticity of the rarefied air, and its deficiency from the height of the mercury in the Torricellian tube is the exact measure of this remaining elasticity.

It is evident therefore, that the pipe will be a scale of the elasticity of the remaining air, and will indicate in some sort the degree of rarefaction: for there must be some analogy between the density of the air and its elasticity; and we have no reason to imagine that they do not increase and diminish together, although we may be ignorant of the law, that is, of the change of elasticity corresponding to a known change of density. This is to be discovered by experiment; and the air-pump itself furnishes us with the best experiments for this purpose. After rarefying till the mercury in the gage has attained half the height of that in the Torricellian tube, shut the communication with the barrels and gage, and admit the water into the receiver. It will go in till all is again in equilibrium with the pressure of the atmosphere; that is, till the air in the receiver has collapsed into its natural bulk. Thus we can accurately measure, and compare with the whole capacity of the receiver; and thus obtain the precise degree of rarefaction corresponding to half the natural elasticity. We can do the same thing with the elasticity reduced to one-third, one-fourth, &c., and thus discover the whole law.

This gage must be considered as one of the most ingenious and convenient parts of Hawkesbee's pump; and it is well disposed, being in a situation protected against accidents; but it necessarily increases greatly the size of the machine, and cannot be applied to the table-pump, represented in fig. 20. When it is wanted here, a small plate is added behind, or between the barrels and receiver; and on this is set a small tubulated (as it is termed) receiver, covering a common weather-glass tube.—This receiver being rarefied along with the other, the pressure on the mercury in the cistern arising from the elasticity of the remaining air is diminished so as to be no longer able to support the mercury at its full height; and it therefore descends till the height at which it stands puts it in equilibrium with the elasticity. In this form, therefore, the height of the mercury is directly a measure of the remaining elasticity; while in the other it measures the remaining unbalanced pressure of the atmosphere. But this gage is extremely cumbersome, and liable to accidents. We are seldom much interested in the rarefaction till it is great: a contracted form of this gage is therefore very useful, and was early used. A syphon ABCD (fig. 21.), each branch of which is about four inches long, close at A and open at D, is filled with boiling mercury till it occupies the branch AB and a very small part of CD, having its surface at O. This is fixed to a small stand, and fixed into the receiver, along with the things that are to be exhibited in the rarefied air. When the air has been rarefied till its remaining elasticity is not able to support the column BA, the mercury descends in AB, and rises in CD, and the remaining elasticity will always be measured by the elevation of the mercury in AB above that in the leg CD. Could the exhaustion be perfected, the surfaces in both legs would be on a level. Another gage might be put into the same foot, having a small bubble of air at A. This would move from the beginning of the rarefaction; but our ignorance of the analogy between the density and elasticity hinders us from using it as a measure of either.

It is enough for our present purpose to observe, that the barometer or syphon gage is a perfect indication and measure of the performance of an air-pump, and that a pump is (ceteris paribus) so much the more perfect, as it is able to raise the mercury higher in the gage. It is in this way that we discover that none can produce a complete exhaustion, and that their operation is only a very great rarefaction: for none can raise the mercury, to that height at which it stands in the Torricellian tube, well purged of air. Few pumps will bring it within one-tenth of an inch. Hawkesbee's, fitted up according to his instructions, will seldom bring it within one-fifth. Pumps with cocks, when constructed according to the principles mentioned when speaking of the exhausting syringe, and new and in fine order, will in favourable circumstances bring it within one-fortieth. None with valves fitted up with wet leather, or when water or volatile fluids are allowed access into any part, will bring it nearer than one-fifth. Nay, a pump of the best kind, and in the finest order, will have its rarefying power reduced to the lowest standard, as measured by this gage, if we put into the receiver the tenth part of a square inch of white sheepskin, fresh from the shops, or of any substance equally damp. This is a discovery made by means of the improved air-pump, and leads to very extensive and important consequences in general physics; some of which will be treated of under this article: and the observation is made thus early, that our readers may better understand the improvements which have been made on this celebrated machine.

It would require a volume to describe all the changes various which have been made on it. An instrument of such importance is of use, and in the hands of curious men, each man diving into the secrets of nature in his favourite line, must have received many alterations and real improvements in many particular respects. But these are beside our present purpose; which is to consider it merely as a machine for rarefying elastic or expansive fluids. We must therefore confine ourselves to this view of it; and shall carefully state to our readers every improvement founded on principle, and on pneumatical laws.

All who used it perceived the limit set to the rarefaction by the resistance of the valves, and tried to perfect the construction of the cocks. The abbé Nollet and Mr. Gravemande, two of the most eminent experimental philosophers in Europe, were the most successful.

Mr. Gravemande justly preferred Hooke's plan of a double pump, and contrived an apparatus for turning the cocks by the motion of the pump's handle. This invention is far from either being simple or easy in working; and occasions great jerks and concussions in the whole machine. This, however, is not necessarily connected with the truly pneumatical improvement. His piston has no valve, and the rod is connected with it by a stirrup D (fig. 22.), as in a common pump. The rod has a cylindrical part c p, which passes through the stirrup, and has a stiff motion in it up and down of about half an inch; being stopped by the shoulder e above and the nut below. The round plate supported by this stirrup has a short square tube n d, which fits tight into the

The hole of a piece of cork F. The round plate E has a square flange g, which goes into the square tube n d. A piece of thin leather f, soaked in oil, is put between the cork and the plate E, and another between the cork and the plate which forms the sole of the stirrup. All these pieces are screwed together by the nail e, whose flat head covers the hole n. Suppose, therefore, the piston touching the bottom of the barrel, and the winch turning to raise it again, the friction of the piston on the barrel keeps it in its place, and the rod is drawn up through the stirrup D. Thus the wheel has liberty to turn about an inch; and this is sufficient for turning the cock, so as to cut off the communication with the external air, and to open the communication with the receiver. This being done, and the motion of the winch continued, the piston is raised to the top of the barrel. When the winch is turned in the opposite direction, the piston remains fixed till the cock is turned, so as to shut the communication with the receiver, and open that with the external air.

This is a pretty contrivance, and does not at first appear necessary; because the cocks might be made to turn at the beginning and end of the stroke without it. But this is just possible; and the smallest error of adjustment, or wearing of the apparatus, will cause them to be open at improper times. Besides, the cocks are not turned in an instant, and are improperly open during some very small time; but this contrivance completely obviates this difficulty.

The cock is precisely similar to that formerly described, having one perforation diametrically through it, and another entering at right angles to this, and after reaching the centre, it passes along the axis of the cock, and comes out to the open air.

It is evident, that by this construction of the cock, the ingenious improvement of Dr Hooke, by which the pressure of the atmosphere on one piston is made to balance (in great part) the pressure on the other, is given up: for, whenever the communication with the air is opened, it rushes in, and immediately balances the pressure on the upper side of the piston in this barrel; so that the whole pressure in the other must be overcome by the person working the pump. Gravelande, aware of this, put a valve on the orifice of the cock; that is, tied a slip of wet bladder or oiled leather across it; and now the piston is pressed down, as long as the air in the barrel is rarer than the outward air, in the same manner as when the valve is in the piston itself.

This is all that is necessary to be described in Mr Gravelande's air-pump. Its performance is highly extolled by him, as far exceeding his former pumps with valves. The same preference was given to it by his successor Mulschenbroek. But, while they both prepared the pistons and valves and leathers of the pump, by steeping them in oil, and then in a mixture of water and spirits of wine, we are certain that no just estimate could be made of its performance. For with this preparation it could not bring the gage within one-fifth of an inch of the barometer. We even see other limits to its rarefaction: from its construction, it is plain that a very considerable space is left between the piston and cock, not less than an inch, from which the air is never expelled; and if this be made extremely small, it is plain that the pump must be worked very slow, otherwise there will not be time for the air to diffuse itself from the receiver into the barrel, especially towards the end, when the expelling force, viz. the elasticity of the remaining air, is very small. There is also the same limit to the rarefaction, as in Hooke's or Hawkebee's pump, opposed by the valve E, which will not open till prior to the air below the piston is considerably denser than the external air: and this pump soon lost any advantages it possessed when fresh from the workman's hands, by the cock's growing loose and admitting air. It is surprising that Gravelande omitted Hawkebee's security against this, by placing the barrels in a dish filled with oil; which would effectually have prevented this inconvenience.

We must not omit a seemingly paradoxical observation of Gravelande, that in a pump constructed with valves and worked with a determined uniform velocity, the required degree of rarefaction is sooner produced by short barrels than by long ones. It would require too much time to give a general demonstration of this, but it will easily be seen by an example. Suppose the long barrel to have equal capacity with the receiver, then at the end of the first stroke the air in the receiver will have one-half its natural density. Now, let the short barrels have half this capacity; at the end of the first stroke the density of the air in the receiver is two-thirds, and at the end of the second stroke it is four-ninths, which is less than one-half, and the two strokes of the short barrel are supposed to be made in the same time with one of the longest, &c.

Hawkebee's pump maintained its pre-eminence without rival in Britain, and generally too on the continent, except in France, where everything took the tone of the valve-pump Academy, which abhorred being indebted to foreigners for any thing in science, till about the year 1750, when it engaged the attention of Mr John Smeaton, a person of uncommon knowledge, and second to none but Dr Hooke in sagacity and mechanical resource. He was then a maker of philosophical instruments, and made many attempts to perfect the pumps with cocks, but found, that whatever perfection he could bring them to, he could not enable them to preserve it; and he never would fall one of this construction. He therefore attached himself solely to the valve pumps.

The first thing was to diminish the resistance to the entry of the air from the receiver into the barrels: this he rendered almost nothing, by enlarging the surface on which this feebly elastic air was to press. Instead of making these valves to open by its pressure on a circle of one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, he made the valve-hole one inch in diameter, enlarging the surface 400 times; and, to prevent this piece of thin leather from being burnt by the great pressure on it, when the piston in its descent was approaching the bottom of the barrel, he supported it by a delicate but strong grating, dividing the valve-hole like the section of a honeycomb, as represented in fig. 25.; and the ribs of this grating are Fig. 23. edgewise in fig. 23. at a b c.

The valve was a piece of thin membrane or oiled changing silk, gently strained over the mouth of the valve-hole, the frame and tied on by a fine silk thread wound round it in the same manner that the narrow slips had been tied on formerly. This done, he cut with a pointed knife the leather round the edge, nearly four quadrantals arcs, leaving a small tongue between each, as in fig. 25. The strained valve immediately shrinks inwards, as represented.

Air-pump. ed by the shaded parts; and the strain by which it is kept down is now greatly diminished, taking place only at the corners. The gratings being reduced nearly to an edge (but not quite, lest they should cut), there is very little pressure to produce adhesion by the clammy oil. Thus it appears, that a very small elasticity of the air in the receiver will be sufficient to raise the valve; and Mr Smeaton found, that when it was not able to do this at first, when only about \( \frac{1}{6} \) of the natural elasticity, it would do it after keeping the piston up eight or ten seconds, the air having been all the while undermining the valve, and gradually detaching it from the grating.

Unfortunately he could not follow this method with the piston valve. There was not room round the rod for such an expanded valve; and it would have obliged him to have a great space below the valve, from which he could not expel the air by the descent of the piston. His ingenuity hit on a way of increasing the expelling force through the common valve: he inclosed the rod of the piston in a collar of leather, through which it moved freely without allowing any air to get past its sides. For greater security, the collar of leather was contained in a box terminating in a cup filled with oil. As this makes a material change in the principle of construction of the air-pump (and indeed of pneumatic engines in general), and as it has been adopted in all the subsequent attempts to improve them, it merits a particular consideration.

The piston itself consists of two pieces of brass fastened by screws from below. The uppermost, which is of one solid piece with the rod GH (fig. 23.) is of a diameter somewhat less than the barrel; so that when they are screwed together, a piece of leather soaked in a mixture of boiled oil and tallow, is put between them; and when the piston is thrust into the barrel from above, the leather comes up around the side of the piston, and fills the barrel, making the piston perfectly air-tight. The lower half of the piston projects upwards into the upper, which has a hollow g b c d to receive it. There is a small hole through the lower half at a to admit the air; and a hole c d in the upper half to let it through, and there is a lip of oiled silk strained across the hole a by way of valve, and there is room enough at b c for this valve to rise a little when pressed from below. The rod GH passes through the piece of brass which forms the top of the barrel so as to move freely, but without any sensible shake: this top is formed into a hollow box, consisting of two pieces ECDF and CNOD, which screw together at CD. This box is filled with rings of oiled leather exactly fitted to its diameter, each having a hole in it for the rod to pass through. When the piece ECDF is screwed down, it compresses the leathers; squeezing them to the rod, so that no air can pass between them; and, to secure us against all ingress of air, the upper part is formed into a cup EF, which is kept filled with oil.

The top of the barrel is also pierced with a hole LK, which rises above the flat surface NO, and has a lip of oiled silk tied over it to act as a valve; opening when pressed from below, but shutting when pressed from above.

The communication between the barrel and receiver is made by means of the pipe ABPQ; and there goes from the hole K in the top of the barrel a pipe KRST, which either communicates with the open air or with Air-pump. the receiver, by means of the cock at its extremity T. The conduit pipe ABPQ has also a cock at Q, by which it is made to communicate either with the receiver or with the open air. These channels of communication are variously conducted and terminated, according to the views of the maker: the sketch in this figure is sufficient for explaining the principle, and is fitted to the general form of the pump, as it has been frequently made by Nairne and other artists in London.

Let us now suppose the piston at the top of the barrel, and that it applies to it all over, and that the air in the barrel is very much rarefied: in the common pump the piston valve is pressed hard down by the atmosphere, and continues shut till the piston gets far down, condenses the air below it beyond its natural state, and enables it to force up the valves. But here, as soon as the piston quits the top of the barrel, it leaves a void behind it; for no air gets in round the piston rod, and the valve at K is shut by the pressure of the atmosphere. There is nothing now to oppose the elasticity of the air below but the stiffness of the valve b c; and thus the expelling (or more accurately the liberating) force is prodigiously increased.

The superiority of this construction will be best seen by an example. Suppose the stiffness of the valve equal an example to the weight of \( \frac{1}{5} \)th of an inch of mercury, when the barometer stands at 30 inches, and that the pump-gage stands at 29.9; then, in an ordinary pump, the valve in the piston will not rise till the piston has got within the 300th part of the bottom of the barrel, and it will leave the valve-hole filled with air of the ordinary density. But in this pump the valve will rise as soon as the piston quits the top of the barrel; and when it is quite down, the valve-hole a will contain only the 300th part of the air which it would have contained in a pump of the ordinary form. Suppose farther, that the barrel is of equal capacity with the receiver, and that both pumps are so badly constructed, that the space left below the piston is the 300th part of the barrel. In the common pump the piston valve will rise no more, and the rarefaction can be carried no farther, however delicate the barrel valve may be; but in this pump the next stroke will raise the gage to 29.95, and the piston valve will again rise as soon as the piston gets half way down the barrel.

The limit to the rarefaction by this pump depends chiefly on the space contained in the hole LK, and in the space b c d of the piston. When the piston is brought up to the top, and applied close to it, those spaces remain filled with air of the ordinary density, which will expand as the piston descends, and thus will retard the opening of the piston valve. The rarefaction will stop when the elasticity of this small quantity of air, expanded so as to fill the whole barrel (by the descent of the piston to the bottom), is just equal to the force requisite for opening the piston valve.

Another advantage attending this construction is, It is easy that in drawing up the piston, we are not resisted by worked. the whole pressure of the air; because the air is rarefied above this piston as well as below it, and the piston is in precisely the same state of pressure as if connected with another piston in a double pump. The resistance to the ascent of the piston is the excess of the elasticity of the air above it over the elasticity of the air below:

This, toward the end of the rarefaction, is very small, while the piston is near the bottom of the barrel, but gradually increases as the piston rises, and reduces the air above it into smaller dimensions, and becomes equal to the pressure of the atmosphere, when the air above the piston is of the common density. If we should raise the piston still farther, we must condense the air above it; but Mr Smeaton has here made an issue for the air by a small hole in the top of the barrel, covered with a delicate valve. This allows the air to escape, and thus again as soon as the piston begins to descend, leaving almost a perfect void behind it as before.

This pump has another advantage. It may be changed in a moment from a rarefying to a condensing engine, by simply turning the cocks at Q and T. While T communicates with the open air and Q with the receiver, it is a rarefying engine or air-pump; but when T communicates with the receiver, and Q with the open air, it is a condensing engine.

Fig. 26 represents Mr Smeaton's air-pump as it is usually made by Naime. Upon a fold base or table are set up three pillars F, H, H: the pillar F supports the pump-plate A; and the pillars H, H, support the front or head, containing a brass cog-wheel, which is turned by the handle B, and works in the rack C fastened to the upper end of the piston rod. The whole is still farther steadied by two pieces of brass c b and o k, which connect the pump-plate with the front, and have perforations communicating between the hole a in the middle of the plate and the barrel, as will be described immediately. D E is the barrel of the pump, firmly fixed to the table by screws through its upper flange: ef d c is a slender brass tube screwed to the bottom of the barrel, and to the under hole of the horizontal canal c b. In this canal there is a cock which opens a communication between the barrel and the receiver, when the key is in the position represented here; but when the key is at right angles with this position, this communication is cut off. If that side of the key which is here drawn next to the pump-plate be turned outward, the external air is admitted into the receiver; but if turned inwards, the air is admitted into the barrel.

g h is another slender brass pipe, leading from the discharging valve at g to the horizontal canal h k, to the under side of which it is screwed fast. In this horizontal canal there is a cock n which opens a passage from the barrel to the receiver when the key is in the position here drawn; but opens a passage from the barrel to the external air when the key is turned outwards, and from the receiver to the external air when the key is turned inwards. This communication with the external air is not immediate but through a sort of box i; the use of this box is to receive the oil which is discharged through the top valve g. In order to keep the pump tight, and in working order, it is proper sometimes to pour a tablespoonful of olive oil into the hole a of the pump-plate, and then to work the pump. The oil goes along the conduit b d f e, gets into the barrel and through the piston-valve, when the piston is pressed to the bottom of the barrel, and is then drawn up, and forced through the discharging valve g along the pipe g h, the horizontal passage h n, and finally into the box i. This box has a small hole in its side near the top, through which the air escapes.

From the upper side of the canal c b there arises a slender pipe which bends outward and then turns downward, and is joined to a small box, which cannot be seen in this view. From the bottom of this box proceeds downwards the gage-pipe of glass, which enters the cistern of mercury G fixed below.

On the upper side of the other canal at o is seen a small stud, having a short pipe of glass projecting horizontally from it, close by and parallel to the front piece of the pump, and reaching to the other canal. This pipe is close at the farther end, and has a small drop of mercury or oil in it at the end o. This serves as a gage in condensing, indicating the degree of condensation by the place of the drop: For this drop is forced along the pipe, condensing the air before it in the same degree that it is condensed in the barrel and receiver.

In constructing this pump, Mr Smeaton introduced a method of joining together the different pipes and other joining pieces, which has great advantages over the usual manner of screwing them together with leather between, and which is now much used in hydraulic and pneumatic engines. We shall explain this to our readers by a description of the manner in which the exhausting gage is joined to the horizontal duct c b.

The piece h i p, in fig. 23, is the same with the little Fig. 23, cylinder observable on the upper side of the horizontal canal c d, in fig. 26. The upper part h i is formed in Fig. 26, to an outside screw, to fit the hollow forew of the piece d e d. The top of this last piece has a hole in its middle, giving an easy passage to the bent tube e b a, so as to slip along it with freedom. To the end c of this bent tube is soldered a piece of brass c f g, perforated in continuation of the tube, and having its end ground flat on the top of the piece h i p, and also covered with a slip of thin leather strained across it and pierced with a hole in the middle.

It is plain from this form, that if the surface f g be applied to the top of h i, and the cover d e d be screwed down on it, it will draw or press them together, so that no air can escape by the joint, and this without turning the whole tube c b a round, as is necessary in the usual way. This method is now adopted for joining together the conducting pipes of the machines for extinguishing fires, an operation which was extremely troublesome before this improvement.

The conduit pipe E e f c (fig. 26.) is fastened to the bottom of the barrel, and the discharging pipe g h to its top, in the same manner. But to return to the gage; the bent pipe c b a enters the box i near its side, and obliquely, and the gage pipe q r is inserted through its bottom towards the opposite side. The use of this box is to catch any drops of mercury which may sometimes be dashed up through the gage pipe by an accidental oscillation. This, by going through the passages of the pump, would corrode them, and would act particularly on the joints, which are generally soldered with tin. When this happens to an air-pump, it must be cleaned with the most scrupulous attention, otherwise it will be quickly destroyed.

This account of Smeaton's pump is sufficient for enabling the reader to understand its operation and to see the superiority. It is reckoned a very fine pump of this ordinary construction which will rarefy 200 times, or raise the gage to 29.85, the barometer standing at 30. But Mr Smeaton found, that his pump, even after long using, raised it to 29.95, which we consider as equivalent. Air-pump lent to rarefying 600 times. When in fine order, he found no bounds to its rarefaction, frequently raising the gage as high as the barometer; and he thought its performance so perfect, that the barometer-gage was not sufficiently delicate for measuring the rarefaction. He therefore substituted the syphon gage already described, which he gives some reasons for preferring; but even this he found not sufficiently sensible.

He contrived another, which could be carried to any degree of sensibility. It consists of a glass body A (fig. 27.), of a pear shape, and was therefore called the pear-gage. This had a small projecting orifice at B, and at the other end a tube CD, whose capacity was the hundredth part of the capacity of the whole vessel. This was suspended at the slip-wire of the receiver, and there was set below it a small cup with mercury. When the pump was worked, the air in the pear-gage was rarefied along with the rest. When the rarefaction was brought to the degree intended, the gage was let down till B reached the bottom of the mercury. The external air being now let in, the mercury was raised into the pear, and stood at some height E in the tube CD. The length of this tube being divided into 100 parts, and those numbered from D, it is evident that \( \frac{DE}{DB} \) will express the degree of rarefaction which had been produced when the gage was immersed into the mercury: or if DC be \( \frac{r}{100} \) of the whole capacity, and be divided into 100 parts by a scale annexed to it, each unit of the scale will be \( \frac{r}{100} \) of the whole.

This was a very ingenious contrivance, and has been the means of making some very curious and important discoveries which at present engage the attention of philosophers. By this gage Mr Smeaton found, that his pump frequently rarefied a thousand, ten thousand, nay an hundred thousand times. But though he in every instance saw the great superiority of his pump above all others, he frequently found irregularities which he could not explain, and a want of correspondence between the pear and the barometer gages which puzzled him. The pear-gage frequently indicated a prodigious rarefaction, when the barometer-gage would not show more than 600.

These unaccountable phenomena excited the curiosity of philosophers, who by this time were making continual use of the air-pump in their meteorological researches, and much interested in every thing connected with the state or constitution of elastic fluids. Mr Nairne, a most ingenious and accurate maker of philosophical instruments, made many curious experiments in the examination and comparison of Mr Smeaton's pump with those of the usual construction, attending to every circumstance which could contribute to the inferiority of the common pumps or to their improvement, so as to bring them nearer to this rival machine. This rigorous comparison brought into view several circumstances in the constitution of the atmospheric air, and its relation to other bodies, which are of the most extensive and important influence in the operations of nature. We shall notice at present such only as have a relation to the operation of the air-pump in extracting air from the receiver.

Mr Nairne found, that when a little water, or even bit of paper damped with water, was exposed under the receiver of Mr Smeaton's air-pump, when in the most perfect condition, raising the mercury in the barometer-gage to 29.95, he could not make it rise above 29.8 if Fahrenheit's thermometer indicated the temperature 47°, nor above 29.7 if the thermometer stood at 55°; and that to bring the gage to this height and keep it there, the operation of the pump must be continued for a long time after the water had disappeared or the paper become perfectly dry. He found that a drop of spirits, or paper moistened with spirits, could not in those circumstances allow the mercury in the gage to rise to near that height; and that similar effects followed from admitting any volatile body whatever into the receiver or any part of the apparatus.

This showed him at once how improper the directions were which had been given by Guericke, Boyle, Gravelaude, and others, for fitting up the air-pump for the experiment, by soaking the leather in water, covering it with joints with water, or in short, admitting water or water, any other volatile body near it.

He therefore took his pumps to pieces, cleared them of all the moisture which he could drive from them by utility of heat, and then leathered them anew with leather soaked in a mixture of olive oil and tallow, from which he had expelled all the water it usually contains, by boiling it till the first frothing was over. When the pumps were fitted up in this manner, he uniformly found that Mr Smeaton's pump rarefied the gage to 29.95, and the best common pump to 29.87, the first of which he computed to indicate a rarefaction to 600, and the other to 230. But in this state he again found that a piece of damp paper, leather, wood, &c., in the receiver, reduced the performance in the same manner as before.

But the most remarkable phenomenon was, that when a remark made use of the pear-gage with the pump cleared able from all moisture, it indicated the same degree of rarefaction with the barometer-gage: but when he exposed a bit of paper moistened with spirits, and thus reduced the rarefaction of the pump to what he called 50, the barometer gage standing at 29.4, the pear-gage indicated a rarefaction exceeding 100,000; in short, it was not measurable; and this phenomenon was almost constant. Whenever he exposed any substance susceptible of evaporation, he found the rarefaction indicated by the barometer-gage greatly reduced, while that indicated by the pear-gage was prodigiously increased; and both these effects were more remarkable as the subject was of easier evaporation, or the temperament of the air of the chamber was warmer.

This uniform result suggested the true cause. Water accounted boils at the temperature 212, that is, it is then converted for into a vapour which is permanently elastic while of that temperature, and its elasticity balances the pressure of the atmosphere. If this pressure be diminished by rarefying the air above it, a low temperature will not allow it to be converted into elastic vapour, and keep it in that state. Water will boil in the receiver of an air-pump at the temperature 96, or even under it. Philosophers did not think of examining the state of the vapour in temperatures lower than what produced ebullition. But it now appears, that in much lower heats than this the superficial water is converted into elastic vapour, which continues to exhale from it as long as the water lasts, and, supplying the place of air in the receiver,

Air-pump receiver, exerts the same elasticity, and hinders the mercury from rising in the gage in the same manner as so much air of equal elasticity would have done.

When Mr Nairne was exhibiting these experiments to the Honourable Henry Cavendish in 1776, this gentleman informed him that it appeared from a series of experiments of his father Lord Charles Cavendish, that when water is of the temperature $72^\circ$, it is converted into vapour, under any pressure less than three-fourths of an inch of mercury, and at $41^\circ$ it becomes vapour when the pressure is less than one-fourth of an inch:

Even mercury evaporates in this manner when all pressure is removed. A dewy appearance is frequently observed covering the inside of the tube of a barometer, where we usually suppose a vacuum. This dew, when viewed through a microscope, appears to be a set of detached globules of mercury, and upon inclining the tube so that the mercury may ascend along it, these globules will be all licked up, and the tube become clear. The dew which lined it was the vapour of the mercury condensed by the side of the tube; and it is never observed but when one side is exposed to a stream of cold air from a window, &c.

To return to the vapour in the air-pump receiver, it must be observed, that as long as the water continues to yield it, we may continue to work the pump; and it will be continually abstracted by the barrels, and discharged in the form of water, because it collapses as soon as exposed to the external pressure. All this while the gage will not indicate any more rarefaction, because the thing immediately indicated by the barometer-gage is diminished elasticity, which does not happen here.

When all the water which the temperature of the room can keep elastic has evaporated under a certain pressure, suppose $\frac{1}{2}$ an inch of mercury, the gage standing at $29.5$, the vapour which now fills the receiver expands, and by its diminished elasticity the gage rises, and now some more water which had been attached to bodies by chemical or corpuscular attraction is detached, and a new supply continues to support the gage at a greater height; and this goes on continually till almost all has been abstracted; but there will remain some which no art can take away; for as it passes through the barrels, and gets between the piston and the top, it successively collapses into water during the ascent of the piston, and again expands into vapour when we push the piston down again. Whenever this happens there is an end of the rarefaction.

While this operation is going on, the air comes out along with the vapour; but we cannot say in what proportion. If it were always uniformly mixed with the vapour, it would diminish rapidly; but this does not appear to be the case. There is a certain period of rarefaction in which a transient cloudiness is perceived in the receiver. This is watery vapour formed at that degree of rarefaction, mingled with, but not dissolved in or united with, the air, otherwise it would be transparent. A similar cloud will appear if damp air be admitted suddenly into an exhausted receiver. The vapour, which formed an uniform transparent mass with the air, is either suddenly expanded and thus detached from the other ingredient, or is suddenly let go by the air, which expands more than it does. We cannot affirm with probability which of these is the case: different compositions of air, that is, air loaded with vapours from different substances, exhibit remarkable differences in this respect. But we see from this and other phenomena, which shall be mentioned in their proper places, that the air and vapour are not always intimately united; and therefore will not always be drawn out together by the air-pump. But let them be ever so confusedly blended, we see that the air must come out along with the vapour, and its quantity remaining in the receiver must be prodigiously diminished by this abstraction, probably much more than could be, had the receiver only contained pure air.

Let us now consider what must happen in the pear-gage. As the air and vapour are continually drawn off from the receiver, the air in the pear expands and goes off with it. We shall suppose that the generated vapour hinders the gage from rising beyond $29.5$. During the continued working of the pump, the air ingresses the pear, whose elasticity is $0.5$, slowly mixes with the vapour at the mouth of the pear, and the mixture even advances into its inside, so that if the pumping be long enough continued, what is in the pear is nearly of the same composition with what is in the receiver, consisting perhaps of $20$ parts of vapour and one part of air, all of the elasticity of $0.5$. When the pear is plunged into the mercury, and the external air allowed to get into the receiver, the mercury rises in the pear-gage, and leaves not $\frac{1}{60}$, but $\frac{1}{60} \times 20$ or $\frac{1}{1200}$ of it filled with common air, the vapour having collapsed into an invisible atom of water. Thus the pear-gage will indicate a rarefaction of $1200$, while the barometer-gage only showed $60$, that is, showed the elasticity of the included substance diminished $60$ times. The conclusion to be drawn from these two measures (the one of the rarefaction of air, and the other of the diminution of elasticity) is, that the matter with which the receiver was filled, immediately before the readmission of the air, consisted of one part of incondensible air, and $\frac{1200}{60}$, or $20$ parts of watery vapour.

The only obscure part of this account is what relates to the composition of the matter which filled the pear-gage before the admission of the mercury. It is not easy for me to see how the vapour of the receiver comes in by a narrow mouth while the air is coming out by the same passage. Accordingly it requires a very long time to produce this extreme rarefaction in the pear-gage; and there are great irregularities in any two succeeding experiments, as may be seen by looking at Mr Nairne's account of them in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxvii. Some vapours appear to have mixed much more readily with the air than others; and there are some unaccountable cases where vitriolic acid and sulphurous bodies were included, in which the diminution of density indicated by the pear-gage was uniformly less than the diminution of elasticity indicated by the barometer-gage. It is enough for us at present to have established, by unquestionable facts, this production of elastic vapour, and the necessity of attending to it, both in the construction of the air-pump and in drawing results from experiments exhibited in it.

Mr Smeaton's pump, when in good order, and perfectly free from all moisture, will in dry weather rarely excite two air about $600$ times, raising the barometer-gage to with new improvements. Air-pump in \( \frac{1}{2} \) of an inch of a fine barometer. This was a performance so much superior to that of all others, and by means of Mr Nairne's experiments opened up a field of observation that the air-pump once more became a capital instrument among the experimental philosophers. The causes of its superiority were also so distinct, that artists were immediately excited to a farther improvement of the machine; so that this becomes a new epoch in its history.

There is one imperfection which Mr Smeaton has not attempted to remove. The discharging valve is still opened against the pressure of the atmosphere. An author of the Swedish academy adds a subsidiary pump to this valve, which exhausts the air from above it, and thus puts it in the situation of the piston valve. We do not find that this improvement has been adopted so as to become general. Indeed the quantity of air which remains in the passage to this valve is so exceedingly little, that it does not seem to merit attention. Supposing the valve hole \( \frac{1}{8} \) of an inch wide and as deep (and it need not be more), it will not occupy more than \( \frac{1}{500} \) part of a barrel twelve inches long and two inches wide.

Mr Smeaton, by his ingenious construction, has greatly diminished, but has not annihilated, the obstructions to the passage of the air from the receiver into the barrel. His success encouraged farther attempts. One of the first and most ingenious was that of Professor Ruffel of the university of Edinburgh, who about the year 1770 constructed a pump in which both cocks and valves were avoided.

The piston is solid, as represented in fig. 28, and its rod passes through a collar of leather on the top of the barrel. This collar is divided into three portions by two brass rings \( a, b \), which leave a very small space round the piston rod. The upper ring \( a \) communicates by means of a lateral perforation with the bent tube \( l m n \), which enters the barrel at its middle \( n \). The lower ring \( b \) communicates with the bent tube \( c d \), which communicates with the horizontal passage \( d e \), going to the middle \( e \) of the pump plate. By this way, however, it communicates also with a barometer gage \( p o \), standing in a cistern of mercury \( o \), and covered with a glass tube close at the top. Beyond \( e \), on the opposite circumference of the receiver plate, there is a cock or plug \( f \) communicating with the atmosphere.

The piston rod is closely embraced by the three collars of leather; but, as already said, has a free space round it in the two brass rings. To produce this pressure of the leathers to the rod, the brass rings which separate them are turned thinner on the inner side, so that their cross section along a diameter would be a taper wedge. In the side of the piston rod are two cavities \( g r, t s \), about one-tenth of an inch wide and deep, and of a length equal to the thicknesses of the two rings \( a, b \), and the intermediate collar of leathers. These cavities are so placed on the piston-rod, that when the piston is applied to the bottom of the barrel, the cavity \( t s \) in the upper end of the rod has its upper end opposite to the ring \( a \), and its lower end opposite to the ring \( b \), or to the mouth of the pipe \( c d \). Therefore, if there be a void in the barrel, the air from the receiver will come from the pipe \( c d \), into the cavity in the piston rod, and by it will get past the collar of leather between the rings, and thus will get into the small interstice between the rod and the upper ring, and then into the pipe \( l m n \), and Air-pump into the empty barrel. When the piston is drawn up, the solid rod immediately flutes up this passage, and the piston drives the air through the discharging valve \( k \). When it has reached the top of the barrel, and is closely applied to it, the cavity \( g r \) is in the situation in which it formerly was, and the communication is again opened between the receiver and the empty barrel, and the air is again diffused between them. Pushing down the piston expels the air by the lower discharging pipe and valve \( h \); and thus the operation may be continued.

This must be acknowledged to be a most simple and ingenious construction, and can neither be called a cock nor a valve. It seems to oppose no obstruction whatever; and it has the superior advantage of rarefying both during the ascent and the descent of the piston, doubling the expedition of the performance, and the operator is not opposed by the pressure of the atmosphere except towards the end of each stroke. The expedition, however, is not so great as one should expect; for nothing is going on while the piston is in motion, and the operator must stop a while at the end of each stroke, that the air may have time to come through this long, narrow, and crooked passage, to fill the barrel. But the chief difficulty which occurred in the execution arose from the clammy oil with which it was necessary to impregnate the collar of leathers. These were always in a state of strong compression, that they might closely grasp the piston rod, and prevent all passage of air during the motion of the piston. Whenever therefore the cavities in the piston rod come into the situations necessary for connecting the receiver and barrel, this oil is squeezed into them, and chokes them up. Hence it always happened that it was some time after the stroke before the air could force its way round the piston rod, carrying with it the clammy oil which choked up the tube \( l m n \); and when the rarefaction had proceeded a certain length, the diminished elasticity of the air was not able to make its way through these obstructions. The death of the ingenious author put a stop to the improvements by which he hoped to remedy this defect, and we have not heard that any other person has since attempted it. We have inserted it here, because its principle of construction is not only very ingenious, but entirely different from all others, and may furnish very useful hints to those who are much engaged in the construction of pneumatic engines.

In the 73rd volume of the Philosophical Transactions, by Mr Tiberius Cavallo has given the description of an air-pump contrived and executed by Messrs Haas and Hurter, instrument-makers in London, where their artists have revived Guericke's method of opening the barrel-valve during the last strokes of the pump by a force acting from without. We shall insert so much of this description as relates to this distinguishing circumstance of its construction.

Fig. 29 represents a section of the bottom of the barrel, where \( A A \) is the barrel and \( B B \) the bottom, which has in its middle a hollow cylinder \( C C F F \), projecting about half an inch into the barrel at \( CC \), and extending a good way downwards to \( FF \). The space between this projection and the sides of the barrel is filled up by a brass ring \( DD \), over the top of which is strained a piece of oiled silk \( EE \), which performs the office of a valve, covering the hole \( CC \). But this hole is filled up by a piece piece of brass, or rather an assemblage of pieces screwed together GGHHII. It consists of three projecting fillets or shoulders GG, HH, II, which form two hollows between them, and which are filled with rings of oiled leather OO, PP, firmly screwed together. The extreme fillets GG, II, are of equal diameter with the inside of the cylinder, so as to fill it exactly, and the whole stuffed with oiled leather, slide up and down without allowing any air to pass. The middle fillet HH is not so broad, but thicker. In the upper fillet GG there is formed a shallow dish about \( \frac{1}{3} \) of an inch deep and \( \frac{1}{4} \) wide. This dish is covered with a thin plate, pierced with a grating like Mr Smeaton's valve-plate. There is a perforation VX along the axis of this piece, which has a passage out at one side H, through the middle fillet. Opposite to this passage, and in the side of the cylinder CCFF, is a hole M, communicating with the conduit pipe MN, which leads to the receiver. Into the lower end of the perforation is screwed the pin KL, whose tail L passes through the cap FF. The tail L is connected with a lever RQ, moveable round the joint Q. This lever is pushed upwards by a spring, and thus the whole piece which we have been describing is kept in contact with the lip of oiled silk or valve EE. This is the usual situation of things.

Now suppose a void formed in the barrel by drawing up the piston; the elasticity of the air in the receiver, in the pipe NM, and in the passage XV, will press on the great surface of the valve exposed through the grating, will raise it, and the pump will perform precisely as Mr Smeaton's does. But suppose the rarefaction to have been so long continued, that the air is no longer able to raise the valve; this will be seen by the mercury rising no more in the pump-gage. When this is perceived, the operator must press with his foot on the end R of the lever RQ. This draws down the pin KL, and with it the whole hollow plug with its grated top. And thus, instead of raising the valve from its plate, the plate is here drawn down from the valve. The air now gets in without any obstruction whatever, and the rarefaction proceeds as long as the piston rises. When it is at the top of the barrel, the operator takes his foot from the lever, and the spring presses up the plug again and shuts the valve. The piston rod passes through a collar of leather, as in Mr Smeaton's pump, and the air is finally discharged through an outward valve in the top of the barrel. These parts have nothing peculiar in them.

This is an ingenious contrivance, similar to what was adapted by Guericke himself; and we have no doubt of these pumps performing extremely well if carefully made; and it seems not difficult to keep the plug perfectly air-tight by supplying plenty of oil to the leathers. We cannot say, however, with precision what may be expected from it, as no account has been given of its effects besides what Mr Cavallo published in Philosophical Transactions 1783, where he only says, that when it had been long used, it had, in the course of some experiments, raised 600 times.

Aiming still at the removing the obstructions to the entry of the air from the receiver into the barrels, Mr Prince, an American, has constructed a pump in which there is no valve or cock whatever between them. In this pump the piston rod passes through a collar of leathers, and the air is finally discharged through a valve, as in the two last. But we are chiefly to attend, in this place, to the communication between the barrel and the Air-pump-receiver. The barrel widens below into a sort of cistern ABCD (fig. 30.), communicating with the receiver by pipe EF. As soon, therefore, as the piston gets into this wider part, where there is a vacancy all round it, the air of the receiver expands freely through the passage FEE into the barrel, in which the descent of the piston had made a void. When the piston is again drawn up, as soon as it gets into the cylindric part of the barrel, which it exactly fills, it carries up the air before it, and expels it by the top valve; and, that this may be done more completely, this valve opens into a second barrel or air-pump whose piston is rising at the same time, and therefore the valve of communication (which is the discharging valve of the primary pump) opens with the same facility as Mr Smeaton's piston valve. While the piston is rising, the air in the receiver expands into the barrel; and when the piston descends, the air in the barrel again collapses till the piston gets again into the cistern, when the air passes out, and fills the evacuated barrel, to be expelled by the piston as before.

No distinct account has as yet been given of the performance of this pump. We only learn that great inconveniences were experienced from the oscillations of the mercury in the gage. As soon as the piston comes into the cistern, the air from the receiver immediately rushes into the barrel, and the mercury shoots up in the gage, and gets into a state of oscillation. The subsequent rise of the piston will frequently keep time with the second oscillation, and increase it. The descent of the piston produces a downward oscillation, by allowing the air below it to collapse; and, by improperly timing the strokes, this oscillation becomes so great as to make the mercury enter the pump. To prevent this, and a greater irregularity of working as a condenser, valves were put in the piston; but as these require force to open them, the addition seemed rather to increase the evil, by rendering the oscillations more simultaneous with the ordinary rate of working. If this could be got over, the construction seems very promising.

It appears, however, of very difficult execution. It has many long, slender, and crooked passages, which must be drilled through broad plates of brass, some of them appearing scarcely practicable. It is rare to find plates and other pieces of brass without air-holes, which it would be very difficult to find out and to close; and it must be very difficult to clear it of obstructions; so that it appears rather a suggestion of theory than a thing warranted by its actual performance.

Mr Lavoisier, or some of the naturalists who were occupied in concert with him in the investigation of the fier, different species of gas which are disengaged from bodies in the course of chemical operations, has contrived an air-pump which has great appearance of simplicity, and, being very different from all others, deserves to be taken notice of.

It consists of two barrels l, m, fig. 31., with solid pi-flows k k. The pump-plate ab is pierced at its centre c with a hole which branches towards each of the barrels, as represented by cd, ce. Between the plate and the barrels slides another plate hi, pierced in the middle with a branched hole f dg, and near the ends with two holes h i, i i, which go from its under side to the ends. The holes in these two plates are so adjusted, that when the plate hi is drawn so far towards h that the hole i comes within

Air-pump within the barrel \( m \), the branch \( df \) of the hole in the middle plate coincides with the branch \( cd \) of the upper plate, and the holes \( e, g \) are shut. Thus a communication is established between the barrel \( l \) and the receiver on the pump-plate, and between the barrel \( m \) and the external air. In this situation the barrel \( l \) will exhaust, and \( m \) will discharge. When the piston of \( l \) is at its mouth, and that of \( m \) touches its bottom, the sliding plate is shifted over to the other side, so that \( m \) communicates with the receiver through the passage \( g, d, e, c \), and \( l \) communicates with the air by the passages \( h, b \).

It is evident that this sliding plate performs the office of four cocks in a very beautiful and simple manner, and that if the pistons apply close to the ends of the barrels, so as to expel the whole air, the pump will be perfect. It works, indeed, against the whole pressure of the external air. But this may be avoided by putting valves on the holes \( h, i, j \); and these can do no harm, because the air remaining in them never gets back into the barrel till the piston be at the farther end, and the exhaustion of that stroke completed. But the best workmen of London think that it will be incomparably more difficult to execute this cock (for it is a cock of an unusual form), in such a manner that it shall be air-tight and yet move with tolerable ease, and that it is much more liable to wearing loose than common cocks. No accurate accounts have been received of its performance. It must be acknowledged to be ingenious, and it may suggest to an intelligent artist a method of combining common conical cocks upon one axis so as to answer the same purposes much more effectually; for which reason we have inserted it here.

The last improvement which we shall mention is that published by Mr Cuthbertson, philosophical instrument-maker in Amsterdam, now of London. His pump has given such evidences of its perfection, that we can hardly expect or wish for anything more complete. But we must be allowed to observe, beforehand, that the same construction was invented, and, in part, executed before the end of 1779, by Dr Daniel Rutherford, now professor of botany in the university of Edinburgh, who was at that time engaged in experiments on the production of air during the combustion of bodies in contact with nitre, and who was vastly desirous of procuring a more complete abstraction of pure aerial matter than could be effected by Mr Smeaton's pump. The compiler of this article had then an opportunity of perusing the Doctor's dissertation on this subject, which was read in the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. In this dissertation the Doctor appears fully apprised of the existence of pure vital air in the nitrous acid, as its chief ingredient, and as the cause of its most remarkable phenomena, and to want but a step to the discoveries which have ennobled the name of Mr Lavoisier. He was particularly anxious to obtain apart this distinguishing ingredient in its composition, and, for this purpose, to abstract completely from the vessel in which he subjected it to examination every particle of calcarious matter. The writer of this article proposed to him to cover the bottom of Mr Smeaton's piston with some clammy matter, which should take hold of the bottom valve, and start it when the piston was drawn up. A few days after, the Doctor showed him a drawing of a pump, having a conical metal valve in the bottom, furnished with a long slender wire, sliding in the inside of the piston-rod with a gentle friction, sufficient for lifting the valve, and secured against all chance of failure by a spring a-top, which took hold of a notch in the inside of the piston-rod about a quarter of an inch from the lower end, so as certainly to lift the valve during the last quarter of an inch of the piston's motion. Being an excellent mechanic, he had executed a valve on this principle, and was fully satisfied with its performance. But having already confirmed his doctrines respecting the nitrous acid by incontrovertible experiments, his wishes to improve the air-pump lost their incitement, and he thought no more of it; and not long after this, the ardour of the philosophers of the Teylerian Society at Haarlem and Amsterdam excited the efforts of Mr Cuthbertson, their instrument-maker, to the same purpose, and produced the most perfect air-pump that has yet appeared. We shall give a description of it, and an account of its performance, in the inventor's own words.

CUTHBERTSON'S Air-pump.

On Plate CCCCXXVII. fig. 32, is a perspective view Fig. 31 of this pump, with its two principal gages screwed into their places. These need not be used together, except in cases where the utmost exactness is required. In common experiments one of them is removed, and a stop-screw put in its place. When the pear-gage is used, a small round plate, on which the receiver may stand, must be first screwed into the hole at \( A \); but this hole is stopped on other occasions with a screw. When all the three gages are used, and the receiver is exhausted, the stop-screw \( B \), at the bottom of the pump, must be unscrewed, to admit the air into the receiver; but when they are not all used, either of the other stop-screws will answer this purpose.

Fig. 33 represents a cross-bar for preventing the barrels from being shaken by working the pump or by any accident. Its place in fig. 32, is represented by the dotted lines. It is confined in its place, and kept close down on the barrels, by two flips of wood \( NN \), which must be drawn out, as well as the screws \( OO \), when the pump is to be taken asunder.

Plate CCCCXXVIII. exhibits a section of all the working parts of the pump, except the wheel and rack, in which there is nothing uncommon.

Fig. 34 is a section of one of the barrels, with all its internal parts; and figs. 35, 36, 37, and 38, are different parts of the piston, proportioned to the size of the barrel (\( A \)) and to one another.

In fig. 34, CD represents the barrel, \( F \) the collar of Fig. 34, leathers, \( G \) a hollow cylindrical vessel to contain oil, \( R \) is also an oil-vessel to receive the oil which is drawn, along with the air, through the hole \( a, a \), when the piston is drawn upwards; and, when this is full, the oil is carried over with the air, along the tube \( T \), into the oil-vessel \( G \). \( c, c \) is a wire which is driven upwards from the

(A) The piston and barrel are 1.65 inches in diameter, in proportion to which the scale is drawn. Figures 35, 36, 37, and 38, are, however, of double size.

Air-pump. the hole \(a\) by the passage of the air; and as soon as this has escaped, it falls down again by its own weight, shuts up the hole, and prevents all return of the air into the barrel. At \(d\) are fixed two pieces of brass, to keep the wire \(c\) in a vertical direction, that it may accurately shut the hole. \(H\) is a cylindrical wire or rod which carries the piston \(I\), and is made hollow to receive a long wire \(g\), which opens and shuts the hole \(L\); and on the other end of the wire \(O\) is screwed a nut, which, by stopping in the narrowest part of the hole, prevents the wire from being driven up too far. This wire and screw are more clearly seen in figs. 35 and 39; they slide in a collar of leather \(r\), fig. 35, and 38, in the middle piece of the piston. Fig. 37 and 38 are the two main parts which compose the piston, and when the pieces 36 and 39, are added to it, the whole is represented by fig. 35. Fig. 38 is a piece of brass of a conical form, with a shoulder at the bottom. A long hollow screw is cut in it, about two-thirds of its length, and the remainder of the hole, in which there is no screw, is of about the same diameter with the screwed part, except a thin plate at the end, which is of a width exactly equal to the thickness of \(g\). That part of the inside of the conical brass in which no thread is cut, is filled with oiled leathers with holes through which \(g\) can slide stiffly. There is also a male screw with a hole in it, fitted to \(g\), serving to compress the leathers \(r\).

In fig. 37, \(a\) is the outside of the piston, the inside of which is turned so as exactly to fit the outside of fig. 38. \(b\) are round leathers about 60 in number, \(c\) is a circular piece of brass of the size of the leathers, and \(d\) is a screw serving to compress them. The screw at the end of fig. 36, is made to fit the screw in fig. 38. Now if fig. 39 be pushed into fig. 38, this into fig. 37, and fig. 36 be screwed into the end of fig. 38, these will compose the whole of the piston, as represented in fig. 34. \(H\) in fig. 34 represents the same part as \(H\) in fig. 35, and is that to which the rack is fixed. If, therefore, this be drawn upwards, it will cause fig. 38 to shut close into fig. 37, and drive out the air above it; and when it is pushed downward, it will open as far as the shoulder \(a\) will permit, and suffer air to pass through. \(A\), fig. 40, is the receiver plate, \(B\) is a long square piece of brass, screwed into the under side of the plate, through which a hole is drilled corresponding to that in the centre of the receiver-plates and with three female screws \(b, b, c\).

The rarefaction of the air in the receiver is effected as follows. Suppose the piston at the bottom of the barrel. The inside of the barrel, from the top of the piston to \(a\), fig. 34, contains common air. When the rod is drawn up, the upper part of the piston sticks fast in the barrel till the conical part connected with the rod shuts the conical hole, and its shoulder applies close to its bottom. The piston is now shut, and therefore the whole is drawn up by the rack-work, driving the air before it through the hole \(a\), into the oil-vessel at \(R\), and out into the room by the tube \(T\). The piston will then be at the top of the barrel at \(a\), and the wire \(g\) will stand nearly as represented in the figure just raised from the hole \(L\), and prevented from rising higher by the nut \(O\). During this motion the air will expand in the receiver, and come along the bent tube \(m\) into the barrel. Thus the barrel will be filled with air, which, as the piston rises, will be rarefied in proportion as the capacity of the receiver pipes, and barrel, is to the barrel alone. Air-pump. When the piston is moved down again by the rack-work, it will force the conical part fig. 38 out of the hollow part fig. 37, as far as the shoulders \(a\); fig. 35, will rest on \(a\) fig. 37, which will then be far open as to permit the air to pass freely through it, while at the same time the end of \(g\) is forced against the top of the hole, and shuts it in order to prevent any air from returning into the receiver. Thus the piston, moving downwards, suffers the air to pass out between the sides of fig. 37, and 38; and, when it is at the bottom of the barrel, will have the column of air above it; and, consequently, when drawn upwards it will shut, and drive out this air; and, by opening the hole \(L\) at the same time, will give a free passage to more air from the receiver. This process being continued, the air of the receiver will be rarefied as far as its expansive power will permit. For in this machine there are no valves to be forced open by the elasticity of the air in the receiver, which at last it is unable to effect. There is therefore nothing to prevent the air from expanding to its utmost degree.

It may be suspected here, that as the air must escape through the discharging passage \(a\), fig. 34, against the pressure of a column of oil and the weight of the wire, there will remain in this passage a quantity of air of considerable density, which will expand again into the barrel during the descent of the piston, and thus put a stop to the progress of rarefaction. This is the case in Mr Smeaton's pump, and all which have valves in the piston. But it is the peculiar excellency of this pump, that whatever be the density of the air remaining in \(a\), the rarefaction will still go on. It is worth while to be perfectly convinced of this. Let us suppose that the air contained in \(a\) is \(\frac{1}{100}\)th part of the common air which would fill the barrel, and that the capacity of the barrel is equal to that of the receiver and passages, and that the air in the receiver and barrel is of the same density, the piston being at the bottom of the barrel: The barrel will therefore contain \(\frac{1}{100}\) parts of its natural quantity, and the receiver \(\frac{1}{100}\). Now let the piston be drawn up. No air will be discharged at \(a\), because it will contain the whole air which was in the barrel, and which has now collapsed into its ordinary bulk. But this does not in the least hinder the air of the receiver from expanding into the barrel, and diffusing itself equally between both. Each will now contain \(\frac{1}{100}\)th of their ordinary quantity when the piston is at the top, and \(a\) will contain \(\frac{1}{100}\) as before, or \(\frac{1}{100}\). Now push down the piston. The hole \(L\) is instantly shut, and the air in \(a\) expands into the barrel, and the barrel now contains \(\frac{1}{100}\). When the piston has reached the bottom, let it be again drawn up. There will be \(\frac{1}{100}\) discharged through \(a\), and the air in the receiver will again be equally distributed between it and the barrel. Therefore the receiver will now contain \(\frac{2}{100}\). When the piston reaches the bottom, there will be \(\frac{12}{100}\) in the barrel. When again drawn up to the top, there will be \(\frac{2}{100}\) discharged, and the receiver will contain \(\frac{1}{100}\); and when the piston reaches reaches the bottom, there will be $\frac{11}{1000}$. At the next stroke the receiver will contain only $\frac{0.5}{1000}$, &c.

Thus it appears, that notwithstanding the $\frac{1}{1000}$ which always expands back again out of the hole $a$ into the barrel, the rarity of the air in the receiver will be doubled at every stroke. There is therefore no need of a subsidiary air-pump at $c$, as in the American air-pump, and in the Swedish attempt to improve Smeaton's.

In using this air-pump no particular directions are necessary, nor is any peculiar care necessary for keeping it in order, except that the oil-vee $A$ be always kept about half full of oil. When the pump has stood long without being used, it will be proper to draw a tablespoonful of olive-oil through it, by pouring it into the hole in the middle of the receiver-plate when the piston is at the bottom of the barrel. Then by working the piston, the oil will be drawn through all the parts of the pump, and the surplus will be driven through the tube $T$ into the oil-vee $G$. Near the top of the piston-rod at $H$ there is a hole which lets some oil into the inside of the rod, which gets at the collar of leathers $rr$, and keeps the wire $gg$ air-tight.

When the pump is used for condensation at the same time that it rarefies, or separately, the piece containing the bent tube $T$ must be removed, and fig. 41. put into its place, and fixed by its screws. Fig. 41., as drawn in the plate, is intended for a double-barrelled pump. But for a single barrel only one piece is used, represented by $baa$. In this piece is a female screw to receive the end of a long brass tube, to which a bladder (if sufficient for the experiment of condensation), or a glass, properly secured for this purpose, must be screwed. Then the air which is abstracted from the receiver on the pump-plate will be forced into the bladder or glass. But if the pump be double, the apparatus fig. 41. is used, and the long brass tube screwed on at $c$.

Fig. 42. and 43. represent the two gages, which will be sufficiently explained afterwards. Fig. 42. is screwed into $cb$, or into the screw at the other end of $c$, fig. 40. and fig. 43. into the screw $ab$ fig. 40.

If it be used as a simple pump, either to rarefy or condense, the screw $K$, which fastens the rack to the piston-rod $H$, must be taken out. Then turning the winch till $H$ is depressed as low as possible, the machine will be fitted to exhaust as a single pump; and if it be required to condense, the direction in No. 8. must be observed with regard to the tube $T$, and fig. 41.

"I took (says Mr Cuthbertson) two barometer-tubes of an equal bore with that fixed to the pump. These were filled with mercury four times boiled. They were then compared, and stood exactly at the same height. The mercury in one of them was boiled in it four times more, without making any change in their height; they were therefore judged very perfect. One of these was immersed in the cistern of the pump-gage, and fastened in a position parallel to it, and a sliding scale of one inch was attached to it. This scale, when the gage is used, must have its upper edge set equal with the surface of the mercury in the boiled tube after exhaustion, and the difference between the height of the mercury in this and Air-pumps in the other barometer tube may be observed to the $\frac{1}{1000}$ of an inch; and being close together, no error arises from their not being exactly vertical, if they are only parallel. This gage will be better understood by inspecting fig. 43.

"I used a second gage, which I shall call a double syphon. See fig. 42. This was also prepared with the utmost care. I had a scale for measuring the difference between the height of the columns in the two legs. It was an inch long, and divided as the former, and kept in a truly vertical position by suspending it from a point with a weight hung to it, as represented in the figure. Upon comparing these two gages, I always found them to indicate the same degree of rarefaction. I also used a pear-gage, though the most imperfect of all, in order to repeat the curious experiments of Mr Nairne and others."

When experiments require the utmost rarefying power of the pump, the receiver must not be placed on leather, either oiled or soaked in water, as is usually done. The pump plate and the edge of the receiver must be ground very flat and true, and this with very fine emery, that no roughness may remain. The plate of the pump must then be wiped very clean and very dry, and the receiver rubbed with a warm cloth till it become electrical. The receiver being now set on the plate, hog's lard, either alone or mixed with a little oil, which has been cleared of water by boiling, must be smeared round its outside edge. In this condition the pump will rarefy its utmost, and what still remains in the receiver will be permanent air. Or a little of this composition may be thinly smeared on the pump-plate; this will prevent all risk of scratching it with the edge of the receiver. Leather of very uniform thickness, long dried before a fire, and well soaked in this composition, which must be cleared of all water by the first boiling, will answer very well, and is expedient, when receivers are to be frequently shifted. Other leathers should be at hand soaked in a composition containing a little rosin. This gives it a clamminess which renders it impermeable to air, and is very proper at all joints of the pump, and all apparatus for pneumatic experiments. As it is impossible to render the pear-gage as dry as other parts of the apparatus, there will be generally some variation between this and the other gages.

When it is only intended to show the utmost power of the pump, without intending to ascertain the quality of the residuum, the receiver may be set on wet leather. If, in this condition, the air be rarefied as far as possible, the syphon and barometer gage will indicate a less degree of rarefaction than in the former experiments. But when the air is let in again, the pear-gage will point out a rarefaction some thousands of times greater than it did before. If the true quality of permanent air after exhaustion be required, the pear-gage will be nearest the truth: for when the air is rarefied to a certain degree, the moistened leather emits an expansible fluid, which, filling the receiver, forces out the permanent air; and the two first gages indicate a degree of exhaustion which relates to the whole elastic matter remaining in the receiver, viz. to the expansible fluid together with the permanent air; whereas the pear-gage points out the degree of exhaustion, with relation...

relation to the permanent air alone, which remains in the receiver; for by the pressure of the air admitted into the receiver, the elastic vapour is reduced to its former bulk, which is imperceptible.

Many bodies emit this elastic fluid when the pressure of the air is much diminished; a piece of leather, in its ordinary damp state, about an inch square, or a bit of green or dry wood, will supply this for a great while.

When such fluids have been generated in any experiments, the pump must be carefully cleared of them, for they remain not only in the receiver, but in the barrels and passages, and will again expand when the exhaustion has been carried far.

The best method of clearing the pump is to take a very large receiver, and, using every precaution to exhaust it as far as possible. Then the expandible matter lurking in the barrels and passages will be diffused through the receiver also, or will be carried off along with its air. It will be as much rarer than it was before, as the aggregate capacity of the receiver barrels and passages is larger than that of the two last.

The performance of the pump may be judged of from the four following experiments.

The two gages being screwed into their places, and the hole in the receiver-plate shut up, the pump was made to exhaust as far as it could. The mercury in the legs of the syphon was only \( \frac{1}{2} \) of an inch out of the level, and that in the boiled barometer-tube \( \frac{1}{3} \) of an inch higher than in the one screwed to the pump. A standard barometer then stood at 30 inches, and therefore the pump rarefied the permanent air 1200 times. This is twice as much as Mr Nairne found Mr Smeaton's do in its best state. Mr Cavallo seems disposed to give a favourable (while we must suppose it a just) account of Haas and Hurter's pump, and it appears never to have exceeded 600 times. Mr Cuthbertson has often found the mercury within \( \frac{1}{2} \) of an inch of the level in the syphon-gage, indicating a rarefaction of 3000.

To the end of a glass tube, 2 inches diameter and 30 inches long, was fitted a brass cap and collar of feather, through which a wire was inserted, reaching about two inches within the tube. This was connected with the conductor of an electric machine. The other end was ground flat and set on the pump plate. When the gages indicated a rarefaction of 3000, the light became steady and uniform, of a pale colour, though a little tinged with purple; at 600 the light was of a pale dusky white; when 1200 it disappeared in the middle of the tube, and the tube conducted so well that the prime conductor only gave sparks so faint and short as to be scarcely perceptible. After taking off the tube, and making it as dry as possible, it was again connected with the conductor, which was giving sparks two inches long. When the air in it was rarefied ten times, the sparks were of the same length. Sometimes a pencil of light darted along the tube. When the rarefaction was 20, the spark did not exceed an inch, and light streamed the whole length of the tube. When the rarefaction was 30, the sparks were half an inch; and the light rushed along the tube in great streams. When the rarefaction was 100, the sparks were about \( \frac{1}{2} \) long, and the light filled the tube in an uninterrupted body. When 300, the appearances were as before. When 600, the sparks were \( \frac{1}{2} \), and the light was of a faint white colour in the middle, but tinged with purple towards the ends. When 1200, the light was hardly perceptible in the middle, and was much fainter at the ends than before, but still ruddy. When 1400, which was the most the pump could produce, six inches of the middle of the tube were quite dark, and the ends free of any tinge of red, and the sparks did not exceed \( \frac{1}{2} \) of an inch.

We trust that our readers will not be displeased with the preceding history of the air-pump. The occasional information which it gives will be of great use to every person much engaged in pneumatic experiments, and help him in the contrivance and construction of the necessary apparatus.

We may be indulged in one remark, that although this noble instrument originated in Germany, all its improvements were made in this kingdom. Both the mechanical and pneumatic principles of Mr Boyle's construction were extremely different from the German, and, in respect of expedition and convenience, much superior. The double barrel and gage by Hawkebee were capital improvements, and on principle; and Mr Smeaton's method of making the piston work in rarefied air made a complete change in the whole process.

Aided by this machine, we can make experiments Utility of establishing and illustrating the gravity and elasticity of the air, in a much more perspicuous manner than could be done by the spontaneous phenomena of nature.

It allows us in the first place to show the materiality of air in a very distinct manner. Bodies cannot move about in the atmosphere without displacing it. This requires force; and the resistance of the air always diminishes the velocity of bodies moving in it. A heavy body therefore has the velocity of its fall diminished; and if the quantity of air displaced be very great, the diminution will be very considerable. This is the reason why light bodies, such as feathers, fall very slowly. Their moving force is very small, and can therefore displace a great quantity of air only with a very small velocity. But if the same body be dropped in vacuo, when there is no air to be displaced, it falls with the whole velocity competent to its gravity. Fig. 44 represents an apparatus by which a guinea and a downy feather are dropped at the same instant, by opening the forceps which holds them by means of the slip-wire in the top of the receiver. If this be done after the air has been pumped out, the guinea and the feather will be observed to reach the bottom at the same instant.

Fig. 45 represents another apparatus for showing the same thing. It consists of two sets of brass vanes put in separate axles, in the manner of windmill sails. One set has their edges placed in the direction of their whirling motion, that is, in a plane to which the axis is perpendicular. The planes of the other set pass through the axis, and they are therefore trimmed so as directly to front the air through which they move. Two springs act upon pins projecting from the axis; and their strength or tensions are so adjusted, that when they are disengaged in vacuo, the two sets continue in motion equally long. If they are disengaged in the air, the vanes which beat the air with their planes will stop long before those which cut it edgewise.

We can now abstract the air most completely from Air-pump, a dry vessel, so as to know the precise weight of the air which filled it. The first experiment we have of this kind, done with accuracy, is that of Dr Hooke, February 10, 1664, when he found 13.4 pints of air to weigh 945 grams. One pint of water was 8 ounces.

This gives for the specific gravity of air $\frac{945}{8}$ very nearly.

Since we are thus immersed in a gravitating fluid, it follows, that every body preponderates only with the excess of its own weight above that of the air which it displaces; for every body loses by this immersion the weight of the displaced air. A cubic foot loses about 521 grains in frosty weather. We see balloons even rise in the air, as a piece of cork rises in water. A mass of water which really contains 850 pounds will load the scale of a balance with 849 only, and will be balanced by about 849 pounds of brass. This is evinced by a very pretty experiment, represented in fig. 46. A small beam is suspended within a receiver. To one end of the beam is appended a thin glass or copper ball, close in every part. This is balanced by a small piece of lead hung on the other arm. As the air is pumped out of the receiver, the ball will gradually preponderate, and will regain its equilibrium when the air is re-admitted.

Some naturalists have proposed, and actually used, a large globe of light make, suspended at a beam, for a barometer. If its capacity be a cubic foot, $\frac{1}{10}$ grains will indicate the same change that is indicated by $\frac{1}{10}$ of an inch of an ordinary barometer. But a vessel of this size will load a balance too much to leave it sufficiently sensible to small changes of density. Besides, it is affected by heat and cold, and would require a very troublesome equation to correct their effects.

It may perhaps be worth while to attend to this in buying and selling precious commodities; such as pearls, diamonds, silk, and some drugs. As they are generally sold by brass or leaden weights, the buyer will have some advantage when the air is heavy and the barometer high. On the other hand, he will have the advantage in buying gold and mercury when the air is light. It is needless to confine this observation to precious commodities, for the advantage is the same in all in proportion to their levity.

There is a case in which this observation is of consequence to the philosopher; we mean the measuring of time by pendulums. As the accelerating force on a pendulum is not its whole weight, but the excess of its weight over that of the displaced air, it follows that a pendulum will vibrate more slowly in the air than in vacuo. A pendulum composed of lead, iron, and brass, may be about 8400 times heavier than the air which it displaces when the barometer is at 30 inches and the thermometer at 32°, and the accelerating force will be diminished about $\frac{1}{8400}$. This will cause a second pendulum to make about five vibrations less in a day than it would do in vacuo. In order therefore to deduce the accelerative power of gravity from the length of a pendulum vibrating in the air, we must make an allowance of $0.17$, or $\frac{1}{60}$ of a second, per day for every inch that the barometer stands lower than 30 inches. But we must also note the temperature of the air; because when the air is warm it is less dense when supporting by its elasticity the same weight of atmosphere, and we must know how much its density is diminished by an increase of temperature. The correction is still more complicated; for the change of density affects the resistance of the air, and this affects the time of the vibration, and this by a law that is not yet well ascertained. As far as we can determine from any experiments that have been made, it appears that the change arising from the altered resistance takes off about $\frac{1}{2}$ of the change produced by the altered density, and that a second pendulum makes but three vibrations a day more in vacuo than in the open air. This is a very unexpected result; but it must be owned that the experiments have neither been numerous nor very nicely made.

The air-pump also allows us to show the effects of the air's pressure in a great number of amusing and instructive phenomena.

When the air is abstracted from the receiver, it is strongly pressed to the pump-plate by the incumbent atmosphere, and it supports this great pressure in consequence of its circular form. Being equally compressed on all sides, there is no place where it should give way rather than another; but if it be thin, and not very round, which is sometimes the case, it will be crushed to pieces. If we take a square thin phial, and apply an exhausting syringe to its mouth, it will not fail being crushed.

As the operation of pumping is something like sucking, many of these phenomena are in common discourse ascribed to suction, a word much abused; and this abuse misleads the mind exceedingly in its contemplation of natural phenomena. Nothing is more usual than to speak of the suction of a syringe, the suction and draught of a chimney, &c. The following experiment puts the true cause of the strong adhesion of the receiver beyond a doubt.

Place a small receiver or cupping-glass on the pump-plate without covering the central hole, as represented in fig. 47, and cover it with a larger receiver. Exhaust the air from it; then admit it as suddenly as possible. The outer receiver, which after the rarefaction adhered strongly to the plate, is now loose, and the cupping-glass will be found sticking fast to it. While the rarefaction was going on, the air in the small receiver also expanded, escaped from it, and was abstracted by the pump. When the external air was suddenly admitted, it pressed on the small receiver, and forced it down to the plate, and thus shut up all entry. The small receiver must now adhere; and there can be no suction, for the pipe of the pump was on the outside of the cupping-glass.

This experiment sometimes does not succeed, because the air sometimes finds a passage under the brim of the cupping-glass. But if the cupping-glass be pressed down by the hand on the greasy leather or plate, everything will be made smooth, and the glass will be so little raised by the expansion of its air during the pumping, that it will instantly clap close when the air is re-admitted.

In like manner, if a thin square phial be furnished with a valve, opening from within, but shutting when pressed from without, and if this phial be put under a receiver, and the air be abstracted from the receiver, the air in the phial will expand during the rarefaction, will escape through the valve, and be at last in a very rarefied state within If the air be now admitted into the receiver, it will press on the flat sides of the included phial and crush it to pieces. See fig. 48.

If a piece of wet ox-bladder be laid over the top of a receiver whose orifice is about four inches wide, and the air be exhausted from within it, the incumbent atmosphere will press down the bladder into a hollow form, and then burst it inward with a prodigious noise. See fig. 49. Or if a piece of thin flat glass be laid over the receiver, with an oiled leather between them to make the juncture air-tight, the glass will be broken downwards. This must be done with caution, because the pieces of glass sometimes fly about with great force.

If there be formed two hemispherical cups of brass, with very flat thick brims, and one of them be fitted with a neck and stopcock, as represented by fig. 50, the air may be abstracted from them by screwing the neck into the hole in the pump-plate. To prevent the infusion of air, a ring of oiled leather may be put between the rims. Now uncrew the sphere from the pump, and fix hooks to each, and suspend them from a strong nail, and hang a scale to the lowest. It will require a considerable weight to separate them; namely, about 15 pounds for every square inch of the great circle of the sphere. If this be four inches diameter, it will require near 190 pounds. This pretty experiment was first made by Otto Guericke, and on a very great scale. His sphere was of a large size, and when exhausted the hemispheres could not be drawn asunder by 20 horses. It was exhibited, along with many others equally curious and magnificent, to the emperor of Germany and his court, at the breaking up of the diet of Ratibon in 1654.

If the loaded syringe mentioned in No. 16, be suspended by its piston from the hook in the top plate of the receiver, as in fig. 51, and the air be abstracted by the pump, the syringe will gradually descend (because the elasticity of the air, which formerly balanced the pressure of the atmosphere, is now diminished by its expansion, and is therefore no longer able to press the syringe to the piston), and it will at last drop off. If the air be admitted before this happens, the syringe will immediately rise again.

Screw a short brass pipe into the neck of a transporter, No. 107., on which is set a tall receiver, and immerse it into a cistern of water. On opening the cock the pressure of the air on the surface of the water in the cistern will force it up through the pipe, and cause it to spout into the receiver with a strong jet, because there is no air within to balance by its elasticity the pressure of the atmosphere. See fig. 52.

It is in the same way that the gage of the air-pump performs its office. The pressure of the atmosphere raises the mercury in the gage till the weight of the mercury, together with the remaining elasticity of the air in the receiver, are in equilibrium with the whole pressure of the atmosphere: therefore the height and weight of the mercury in the gage is the excess of the weight of the atmosphere above the elasticity of the included air; and the deficiency of this height from that of the mercury in the Toricellian tube is the measure of this remaining elasticity.

If a Toricellian tube be put under a tall receiver, as shown in fig. 53, and the air be exhausted, the mercury in the tube will descend while that in the gage will rise; and the sum of their heights will always be the same, that is, equal to the height in an ordinary barometer. The height of the mercury in the receiver is the effect and measure of the remaining elasticity of the included air, and the height in the pump-gage is the unbalanced pressure of the atmosphere. This is a very instructive experiment, perfectly similar to Mr Auzout's, mentioned in No. 34, and completely establishes and illustrates the whole doctrine of atmospheric pressure.

We get a similar illustration and confirmation (if such Water rises a thing be now needed) of the cause of the rise of water in pumps, in pumps, by forcing a syringe into the top plate of a receiver, which syringe has a short glass pipe plunging into a small cup of water. See fig. 54. When the piston-rod is drawn up, the water rises in the glass-pipe, as in any other pump, of which this is a miniature representation. But if the air has been previously exhausted from the receiver, there is nothing to press on the water in the little jar; and it will not rise in the glass pipe though the piston of the syringe be drawn to the top.

Analogous to the rise of water in pumps is its rise and motion in siphons. Suppose a pipe ABCD, fig. 55, bent at right angles at B and C, and having its two ends immersed in the cisterns of water A and D. Let the leg CD be longer than the leg BA, and let the whole be full of water. The water is pressed upwards at A with a force equal to the weight of the column of air E, reaching to the top of the atmosphere; but it is pressed downwards by the weight of the column of water B A. The water at E is pressed downwards by the weight of the column CD, and upwards by the weight of the column of air FD reaching to the top of the atmosphere. The two columns of air differ very little in their weight, and may without any sensible error be considered as equal. Therefore there is a superiority of pressure downwards at D, and the water will flow out there. The pressure of the air will raise the water in the leg AB, and thus the stream will be kept up till the vessel A is emptied as low as the orifice of the leg BA, provided the height of AB is not greater than what the pressure of the atmosphere can balance, that is, does not exceed 32 or 33 feet for water, 30 inches for mercury, &c.

A siphon then will always run from that vessel whose surface is highest; the form of the pipe is indifferent, because the hydrostatical pressures depend on the vertical height only. It must be filled with water by some other contrivance, such as a funnel, or a pump applied to it; and the funnel must be flopped up, otherwise the air would get in, and the water would fall in both legs.

If the siphon have equal legs, as in fig. 56, and be turned up at the ends, it will remain full of water, and be ready for use. It need only be dipped into any vessel of water, and the water will then flow out at the other end of the siphon. This is called the Würtemberg siphon, and is represented in fig. 56. Siphons will afterwards be considered more minutely under the title of PNEUMATICAL Engines, at the end of this article.

What is called the siphon fountain, constructed on this principle, is shown in fig. 57, where AB is a tall receiver, standing in a wide basin DE, which is supported on the pedestal H by the hollow pillar FG. In the centre of the receiver is a jet pipe C, and in the top a ground stopper A. Near the base of the pillar is a cock N, and in the pedestal is another cock O. Fill the basin DE with water within half an inch of the brim. Then pour in water at the top of the receiver (the cock N being shut) till it is about half full, and then put in the stopper. A little water will run out into the vessel DE. But before it runs over, open the cock N, and the water will run into the cistern H; and by the time that the pipe C appears above water, a jet will rise from it, and continue as long as water is supplied from the basin DE. The passage into the base cistern may be so tempered by the cock N that the water within the receiver shall keep at the same height, and what runs into the base may be received from the cock O into another vessel, and returned into DE, to keep up the stream.

This pretty philosophical toy may be constructed in the following manner. BB, fig. 58, is the ferril or cap into which the receiver is cemented. From its centre descends the jet pipe Ca, sloping outwards, to give room for the discharging pipe b d of larger diameter, whose lower extremity d fits tightly into the top of the hollow pillar FG.

The operation of the toy is easily understood. Suppose the distance from C to H (fig. 57) three feet, which is about \( \frac{1}{4} \) of the height at which the atmosphere would support a column of water. The water poured into AB would descend through FG (the hole A being shut) till the air has expanded \( \frac{1}{2} \), and then it would stop. If the pipe Ca be now opened, the pressure of the air on the surface of the water in the cistern DE will cause it to spout through C to the height of three feet nearly, and the water will continue to descend through the pipe FG. By tempering the cock No so as to allow the water to pass through it as fast as it is supplied by the jet, the amusement may be continued a long time. It will stop at last, however; because, as the jet is made into rarefied air, a little air will be extricated from the water, which will gradually accumulate in the receiver, and diminish its rarefaction, which is the moving cause of the jet. This indeed is an inconvenience felt in every employment of syphons, so much the more remarkably as their top is higher than the surface of the water in the cistern of supply.

Cases of this employment of a syphon are not unfrequent. When water collected at A (fig. 59) is to be conducted in a pipe to C, situated in a lower part of the country, it sometimes happens, as between Lochend and Leith, that the intervening ground is higher than the fountain-head as at B. A forcing pump is erected at A, and the water forced along the pipe. Once it runs out at C, the pump may be removed, and the water will continue to run on the syphon principle, provided BD do not exceed 33 feet. But the water in that part of the conduit which is above the horizontal plane AD, is in the same state as in a receiver of rarefied air, and gives out some of the air which is chemically united with it. This gradually accumulates in the elevated part of the conduit, and at last chokes it entirely. When this happens, the forcing pump must again be worked. Although the elevation in the Leith conduit is only about eight or ten feet, it will seldom run for 12 hours. N.B. This air cannot be discharged by the usual air-locks; for if there were an opening at B, the air would rush in, and immediately stop the motion.

This combination of air with water is very distinctly seen by means of the air-pump. If a small glass containing cold water, fresh drawn from the spring, be exposed, as in fig. 6, under the receiver, and the air rarefied, small bubbles will be observed to form on the inner surface of the glass, or on the surface of any body immersed in it, which will increase in size, and then detach themselves from the glass and reach the top; as the rarefaction advances, the whole water begins to show very minute air-bubbles rising to the top; and this appearance will continue for a very long time, till it be completely disengaged. Warming the water will occasion a still farther separation of air, and a boiling heat will separate all that can be disengaged. The reason assigned for these air-bubbles first appearing on the surface of the glass, &c., is, that air is attracted by bodies, and adheres to their surface. This may be so. But it is more probably owing to the attraction of the water for the glass, which causes it to quit the air which it held in solution, in the same manner as we see it happen when it is mixed with spirits-of-wine, with vitriolic acid, &c., or when salts or sugar are dissolved in it. For if we pour out the water which has been purged of air by boiling in vacuo, and fill the glass with fresh water, we shall observe the same thing, although a film of the purified water was left adhering to the glass. In this case there can be no air adhering to the glass.

Water thus purged of air by boiling (or even without boiling) in vacuo, will again absorb air when exposed to the atmosphere. The best demonstration of this is to fill with this water a phial, leaving about the size of a pea not filled. Immerse this in a vessel of water, with the mouth undermost, by which means the air-bubble will mount up to the bottom of the phial. After some days standing in this condition, the air-bubble will be completely absorbed, and the vessel quite filled with water.

The air in this state of chemical solution has lost its elasticity, for the water is not more compressible than common water. It is also found that water brought up from a great depth underground contains much more air than water at the surface. Indeed fountain waters differ exceedingly in this respect. The water which now comes into the city of Edinburgh by pipes contains so much as to throw it into a considerable ebullition in vacuo. Other liquors contain much greater quantities of elastic fluids in this loosely combined state. A glass of beer treated in the same way will be almost wholly converted into froth by the escape of its fixed air, and will have lost entirely the prickling smartness which is so agreeable, and become quite vapid.

The air-pump gives us, in the next place, a great variety of experiments illustrative of the air's elasticity and frates the expansibility. The very operation of exhaustion, as it is called, is an instance of its great, and hitherto unlimited, expansibility. But this is not palpably exhibited to view. The following experiments show it most distinctly.

Put a flaccid bladder, of which the neck is firmly tied with a thread, under a receiver, and work the pump. The bladder will gradually swell, and will even be fully distended. Upon readmitting the air into the receiver, the bladder gradually collapses again into its former dimensions: while the bladder is flaccid, the air within it is of the same density and elasticity with the surrounding air, and its elasticity balances the pressure of the atmosphere. When part of the air of the receiver is abstracted, the remainder expands so as still to fill the receiver; but by expanding, its elasticity is plainly diminished; for we see by the fact, that the elasticity of the air of the receiver no longer balances the elasticity of that in the bladder, as it no longer keeps it in its dimensions. The air in the bladder expands also: it expands till its diminished elasticity is again in equilibrium with the diminished elasticity of the air in the receiver; that is, till its density is the same.

When all the wrinkles of the bladder have disappeared, its air can expand no more, although we continue to diminish the elasticity of the air of the receiver by further rarefaction. The bladder now tends to burst; and if it be pierced by a point or knife fastened to the slip-wire, the air will rush out, and the mercury descend rapidly in the gage.

If a phial or tube be partly filled with water, and immersed in a vessel of water with the mouth downwards, the air will occupy the upper part of the phial. If this apparatus be put under a receiver, and the air be abstracted, the air in the phial will gradually expand, allowing the water to run out by its weight till the surface of the water be on a level within and without. When this is the case, we must grant that the density and elasticity of the air in the phial is the same with that in the receiver. When we work the pump again, we shall observe the air in the phial expand still more, and come out of the water in bubbles. Continuing the operation, we shall see the air continually escaping from the phial: when this is over, it shows that the pump can rarefy no more. If we now admit the air into the receiver, we shall see the water rise into the phial, and at last almost completely fill it, leaving only a very small bubble of air at top. This bubble had expanded so as to fill the whole phial. See this represented in fig. 61.

Every one must have observed a cavity at the big end of an egg between the shell and the white. The white and yolk are contained in a thin membrane or bladder which adheres loosely to the shell, but is detached from it at that part; and this cavity increases by keeping the egg in a dry place. One may form a judgment of its size, and therefore of the freshness of the egg, by touching it with the tongue; for the shell, where it is not in contact with the contents, will presently feel warm, being quickly heated by the tongue, while the rest of the egg will feel cold.

If a hole be made in the opposite end of the egg, and it be set on a little tripod, and put under a receiver, the expansion of the air in the cavity of the egg will force the contents through the hole till the egg be quite emptied; or, if nearly one half of the egg be taken away at the other end, and the white and yolk taken out, and the shell be put under a receiver, and the air abstracted, the air in the cavity of the egg will expand, gradually detaching the membrane from the shell, till it causes it to swell out, and gives the whole the appearance of an entire egg. In like manner shrivelled apples and other fruits will swell in vacuo by the expansion of the air confined in their cavities.

If a piece of wood, a twig with green leaves, charcoal, plaster of Paris, &c., be kept under water in vacuo, a prodigious quantity of air will be extracted; and if we readmit the air into the receiver, it will force the water into the pores of the body. In this case the body will not swim in water as it did before, showing that the vegetable fibres are specifically heavier than water. It is found, however, that the air contained in the pith and bark, such as cork, is not all extricated in this way; and that much of it is contained in vessels which have no outlet: being secreted into them in the process of vegetation, as it is secreted into the air-bladder of fishes, where it is generally found in a pretty compressed state, considerably denser than the surrounding air. The air-bladder of a fish is surrounded by circular and longitudinal muscles, by which the fish can compress the air still further; and, by ceasing to act with them, allow it to swell out again. It is in this manner that the fish can suit its specific gravity to its situation in the water, so as to have no tendency either to rise or sink; but if the fish be put into the receiver of an air-pump, the rarefaction of the air obliges the fish to act more strongly with these contracting muscles, in order to adjust its specific gravity; and if too much air has been abstracted from the receiver, the fish is no longer able to keep its air-bladder in the proper degree of compression. It becomes therefore too buoyant, and comes to the top of the water, and is obliged to struggle with its tail and fins in order to get down; frequently in vain. The air-bladder sometimes bursts, and the fish goes to the bottom, and can no longer keep above without the continual action of its tail and fins. When fishes die, they commonly float at top, their contractive action being now at an end.

All this may be illustrated (but very imperfectly) by a small half blown bladder, to which is appended a bit of lead, just so heavy as to make it sink in water: when this is put under a receiver, and the air abstracted, the bubble will rise to the top; and, by nicely adjusting the rarefaction, it may be kept at any height. See figs. 62.

The playthings called Cartesian devils are similar to this: they are hollow glass figures, having a small aperture in the lower part of the figures, as at the point of the foot; their weight is adjusted so that they swim upright in water. When put into a tall jar filled to the top, and having a piece of leather tied over it, they will sink in the water, by pressing on the leather with the ball of the hand: this, by compressing the water, forces some of it to enter into the figure and makes it heavier than the water; for which reason it sinks, but rises again on removing the pressure of the hand. See figs. 63. and 64.

If a half blown ox-bladder be put into a box, and great weights laid on it, and the whole be put under a receiver, and the air abstracted; the air will, by expanding, lift up the weights, though above an hundred pounds. See fig. 65.

By such experiments the great expansibility of the air is abundantly illustrated, as its compressibility was formerly by means of the condensing syringe. We now see that the two sets of experiments form an uninterrupted chain; and that there is no particular state of the air's density where the compressibility and expansibility are remarkably dissimilar. Air in its ordinary state expands; because its ordinary state is a state of compression by the weight of the atmosphere: and if there were a pit about 33 miles deep, the air at the bottom would probably be as dense as water; and if it were 50 miles deep, it would be as dense as gold; if it did not become a liquid before this depth: nay, if a bottle with its mouth undermost were immersed six miles under water, it would probably be as dense as water; we say probably, probably, for this depends on the nature of its compressibility; that is, on the relation which subsists between the compression and the force which produces it.

This is the circumstance of its constitution, which we now proceed to examine; and it is evidently a very important circumstance. We have long ago observed, that the great compressibility and permanent fluidity of air, observed in a vast variety of phenomena, is totally inexplicable, on the supposition that the particles of air are like so many balls of sponge or so many foot-balls. Give to those what compressibility you please, common air could no more be fluid than a mass of clay; it could no more be fluid than a mass of such balls pressed into a box. It can be demonstrated (and indeed hardly needs a demonstration), that before a parcel of such balls, just touching each other, can be squeezed into half their present dimensions, their globular shape will be entirely gone, and each will have become a perfect cube, touching six other cubes with its whole surface; and these cubes will be strongly compressed together, so that motion could never be performed through among them by any solid body without a very great force. Whereas we know that in this state air is just as permeable to every body as the common air that we breathe. There is no way in which we can represent this fluidity to our imagination, but by conceiving air to consist of particles, not only discrete, but distant from each other, and actuated by repulsive forces, or something analogous to them. It is an idle subterfuge, to which some naturalists have recourse, saying, that they are kept asunder by an intervening ether, or elastic fluid of any other name. This is only removing the difficulty a step farther off; for the elasticity of this fluid requires the same explanation; and therefore it is necessary, in obedience to the rules of just reasoning, to begin the inquiry here; that is, to determine from the phenomena what is the analogy between the distances of the particles and the repulsive forces exerted at these distances, proceeding in the same way as in the examination of planetary gravitation. We shall learn the analogy by attending to the analogy between the compressing force and the density.

For the density depends on the distance between the particles; the nearer they are to each other, the denser is the air. Suppose a square pipe one inch wide and eight inches long, shut at one end, and filled with common air; then suppose a plug to nicely fitted to this pipe that no air can pass by its sides; suppose this piston thrust down to within an inch of the bottom: it is evident that the air which formerly filled the whole pipe now occupies the space of one cubic inch, which contains the same number of particles as were formerly diffused over eight cubic inches.

The condensation would have been the same if the air which fills a cube whose side is two inches had been squeezed into a cube of one inch, for the cube of two inches also contains eight inches. Now, in this case it is evident that the distance between the particles would be reduced to its half in every direction. In like manner, if a cube whose side is three inches, and which therefore contains 27 inches, be squeezed into one inch, the distance of the particles will be one-third of what it was: in general the distance of the particles will be as the cube-root of the space into which they are compressed. If the space be $\frac{1}{8}$, $\frac{1}{27}$, $\frac{1}{64}$, $\frac{1}{125}$, &c. of its former dimensions, the distance of the particles will be $\frac{1}{2}$, $\frac{1}{3}$, $\frac{1}{4}$, $\frac{1}{5}$, &c. Now the term density, in its strict sense, expresses the vicinity of the particles; densi arbores are trees growing near each other. The measure of this vicinity therefore is the true measure of the density; and when 27 inches of air are compressed into one, we should say that it is three times as dense; but we say, that it is 27 times denser.

Density is therefore used in a sense different from its Parther strictest acceptation; it expresses the comparative number of equidistant-particles contained in the same bulk. This is also abundantly precise, when we compare bodies of the same kind, differing in density only; but we also say, that gold is 19 times denser than water, because the same bulk of it is 19 times heavier. This assertion proceeds on the assumption, or the fact, that every ultimate atom of terrestrial matter is equally heavy: a particle of gold may contain more or fewer atoms of matter than a particle of water. In such a case, therefore, the term density has little or no reference to the vicinity of the particles; and is only a term of comparison of other qualities or accidents.

But when we speak of the respective densities of the same substance in its different states of compression, the word density is strictly connected with vicinity of particles, and we may safely take either of the measures. We shall abide by the common acceptation, and call that air eight times as dense which has eight times as many particles in the same bulk, although the particles are only twice as near to each other.

Thus then we see, that by observing the analogy between the compressing force and the density, we shall logically discover the analogy between the compressing force and the distance of the particles. Now the force which is compressing force is a proper measure of the elasticity of the space of particles corresponding to that vicinity or distance; for the particles balance it, and forces which balance must be esteemed equal. Elasticity is a distinctive name for that corporeal force which keeps the particles at that distance: therefore observations made on the analogy between the compressing force and the density of air will give us the law of its corporeal force, in the same way that observations on the simultaneous deflections of the planets towards the sun give us the law of celestial gravitation.

But the sensible compressing forces which we are able to apply is at once exerted on unknown thousands of particles, while it is the law of action of a single particle that we want to discover. We must therefore know the proportion of the numbers of particles on which the compressing force is exerted. It is easy to see, that since the distance of the particles is as the cube root of the density inversely, the number of particles in physical contact with the compressing surface must be as the square of this root. Thus when a cube of 8 inches is compressed into one inch, and the particles are twice as near each other as they were before, there must be four times the number of particles in contact with each of the sides of this cubical inch; or, when we have pushed down the square piston of the pipe spoken of above to within an inch of the bottom, there will be four times the number of particles immediately contiguous to the piston, and resisting the compression; and in order to obtain the force really exerted on one particle, and the elasticity of that particle, we must divide the whole com- pressing force by \( \frac{1}{4} \). In like manner, if we have compressed air into \( \frac{1}{27} \) of its former bulk, and brought the particles to \( \frac{1}{3} \) of their former distance, we must divide the compressing force by 9. In general if \( d \) expresses the density, \( \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{d}} \) will express the distance \( x \) of the particles; \( \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{d}} \), or \( \frac{1}{d^{2}} \), will express the vicinity or real density; and \( \frac{1}{d^{3}} \) will express the number of particles acting on the compressing surface: and if \( f \) expresses the accumulated external compressing force, \( \frac{f}{d^{3}} \) will express the force acting on one particle; and therefore the elasticity of that particle corresponding to the distance \( x \).

We may now proceed to consider the experiments by which the law of compression is to be established.

The first experiments to this purpose were those made by Mr Boyle, published in 1661 in his "Defensio Doctrine de Aeris Elutere contra Linum," and exhibited before the Royal Society the year before. Mariotte made experiments of the same kind, which were published in 1676 in his "Essai sur la Nature de l'Air et Traité des Mouvements des Eaux." The most copious experiments are those by Sulzer ("Mem. Berlin. ix."), those by Fontana ("Opera Physico-Math."), and those by Sir George Shuckburgh and Gen. Roy.

In order to examine the compressibility of air that is not rarer than the atmosphere at the surface of the earth, we employ a bent tube or syphon ABCD (fig. 66.), hermetically sealed at A and open at D. The short leg AB must be very accurately divided in the proportion of its solid contents, and fitted with a scale whose units denote equal increments, not of length, but of capacity. There are various ways of doing this; but it requires the most scrupulous attention, and without this the experiments are of no value. In particular, the arched form at A must be noticed. A small quantity of mercury must then be poured into the tube, and passed backwards and forwards till it stands (the tube being held in a vertical position) on a level at B and C. Then we are certain that the included air is of the same density with that of the contiguous atmosphere. Mercury is now poured into the leg DC, which will fill it, suppose to G, and will compress the air into a smaller space AE. Draw the horizontal line EF: the new bulk of the compressed air is evidently AE, measured by the adjacent scale, and the addition made to the compressing force of the atmosphere is the weight of the column GF. Produce GF downwards to H, till FH is equal to the height shown by a Toricellian tube filled with the same mercury; then the whole compressing force is HG. This is evidently the measure of the elasticity of the compressed air in AE, for it balances it. Now pour in more mercury, and let it rise to g, compressing the air into Ae. Draw the horizontal line ef, and make fh equal to FH; then Ae will be the new bulk of the compressed air, \( \frac{AB}{Ae} \) will be its new density, and \( \frac{hg}{Ae} \) will be the measure of the new elasticity. This operation may be extended as far as we please, by lengthening the tube CD, and taking care that it be strong enough to resist the great pressure. Great care must be taken to keep the whole in a constant temperature, because the elasticity of air is greatly affected by heat, and the change by any increase of temperature is different according to its density or compression.

The experiments of Boyle, Mariotte, Amontons, and others, were not extended to very great compressions, of the density of the air not having been quadrupled in any of them; nor do they seem to have been made with very great nicety. It may be collected from them generally, that the elasticity of the air is very nearly proportional to its density; and accordingly this law was almost immediately acquiesced in, and was called the Boylean law: it is accordingly affirmed by almost all writers on the subject as exact. Of late years, however, there occurred questions in which it was of importance that this point should be more scrupulously settled, and the former experiments were repeated and extended. Sulzer and Fontana have carried them farther than any other. Sulzer compressed air into one-eighth of its former dimensions.

Considerable varieties and irregularities are to be observed in these experiments. It is extremely difficult to preserve the temperature of the apparatus, particularly the experiment of the leg AB, which is most handled. A great quantity of mercury must be employed; and it does not appear that philosophers have been careful to have it precisely similar to that in the barometer, which gives us the unit of compressing force and of elasticity. The mercury in the barometer should be pure and boiled. If the mercury in the syphon is adulterated with bismuth and tin, which it commonly is to a considerable degree, the compressing force, and consequently the elasticity, will appear greater than the truth. If the barometer has not been nicely fitted, it will be lower than it should be, and the compressing force will appear too great, because the unit is too small; and this error will be most remarkable in the smaller compressions.

The greatest source of error and irregularity in the heterogeneous nature of the air itself. Air is a solvent of all fluids, all vapours, and perhaps of many solid bodies. It is highly improbable that the different compounds shall have the same elastic source of elasticity, or even the same law of elasticity: and it is well known, that air, loaded with water or other volatile bodies, is much more expansible by heat than pure air; nay, it would appear from many experiments, that certain determinate changes both of density and of temperature, cause air to let go the vapours which it holds in solution. Cold causes it to precipitate water, as appears in dew; so does rarefaction, as is seen in the receiver of an air-pump.

In general, it appears that the elasticity of air does not increase quite so fast as its density. This will be best seen by the following tables, calculated from the experiments of Mr Sulzer. The column E in each fast as its set of experiments expresses the length of the column density. GH, the unit being FH, while the column D expresses \( \frac{AB}{AE} \). There appears in these experiments sufficient grounds for calling in question the Boylean law; and the writer of this article thought it incumbent on him to repeat them with some precautions, which probably had not been attended to by Mr Sulzer. He was particularly anxious to have the air as free as possible from moisture. For this purpose, having detached the short leg of the syphon, which was 34 inches long, he boiled mercury in it, and filled it with mercury boiling hot. He took a tinplate vessel of sufficient capacity, and put into it a quantity of powdered quicklime just taken from the kiln; and having closed the mouth, he agitated the lime through the air in the vessel, and allowed it to remain there all night. He then emptied the mercury out of the syphon into this vessel, keeping the open end far within it. By this means the short leg of the syphon was filled with very dry air. The other part was now joined, and boiled mercury put into the bend of the syphon; and the experiment was then prosecuted with mercury which had been recently boiled, and was the same with which the barometer had been carefully filled.

The results of the experiments are expressed in the following table.

| | 1st Set. | 2nd Set. | 3rd Set. | |-------|----------|----------|----------| | D | E | D | E | D | E | | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | | 1,100 | 1,093 | 1,236 | 1,224 | 1,091 | 1,076 | | 1,222 | 1,211 | 1,294 | 1,288 | 1,200 | 1,183 | | 1,375 | 1,284 | 1,375 | 1,332 | 1,333 | 1,303 | | 1,571 | 1,559 | 1,466 | 1,417 | 1,500 | 1,472 | | 1,692 | 1,669 | 1,571 | 1,515 | 1,714 | 1,659 | | 1,833 | 1,796 | 1,692 | 1,647 | | | | 2,000 | 1,958 | 2,000 | 1,964 | 2,000 | 1,900 | | 2,288 | 2,130 | | | | | | 2,444 | 2,375 | 2,444 | 2,392 | 2,400 | 2,241 | | 3,143 | 2,936 | 3,143 | 3,078 | 3,000 | 2,793 | | 3,666 | 3,391 | 3,666 | 3,575 | | | | 4,000 | 3,766 | | | | | | 4,444 | 4,035 | 4,444 | 4,320 | 4,000 | 3,631 | | 4,888 | 4,438 | | | | | | 5,500 | 4,922 | 5,500 | 5,096 | | | | 5,882 | 5,522 | 7,333 | 6,604 | 8,000 | 6,835 |

Here it appears again in the clearest manner that the elasticities do not increase as fast as the densities, and the differences are even greater than in Mr Sulzer's Elasticity experiments.

The second table contains the results of experiments made on very damp air in a warm summer's morning. In these it appears that the elasticities are almost precisely proportional to the densities + a small constant quantity, nearly 0.11, deviating from this rule chiefly between the densities 1 and 1.5, within which limits we have very nearly $D = E^{1.007}$. As this air is nearer to the constitution of atmospheric air than the former, this rule may be safely followed in cases where atmospheric air is concerned, as in measuring the depths of pits by the barometer.

The third table shows the compression and elasticity of air strongly impregnated with the vapors of camphire. Here the Boylean law appears pretty exact, or rather the elasticity seems to increase a little faster than the density.

Dr Hooke examined the compression of air by immersing a bottle to great depths in the sea, and weighing the water which got into it without any escape of air. But this method was liable to great uncertainty, on account of the unknown temperature of the sea at great depths.

Hitherto we have considered only such air as is not Mode of rarer than what we breathe; we must take a very different method for examining the elasticity of rarefied air.

Let $g h$ (fig. 67.) be a long tube, formed a-top into fig. 67. a cup, and of sufficient diameter to receive another smaller tube $a f$, open at first at both ends. Let the outer tube and cup be filled with mercury, which will rise in the inner tube to the same level. Let $a f$ now be stopped at $a$. It contains air of the same density and elasticity with the adjoining atmosphere. Note exactly the space $a b$ which it occupies. Draw it up into the position of fig. 68, and let the mercury stand in it at the height $d e$, while $c e$ is the height of the mercury in the barometer. It is evident that the column $d e$ is in equilibrium between the pressure of the atmosphere and the elasticity of the air included in the space $a d$. And since the weight of $c e$ would be in equilibrium with the whole pressure of the atmosphere, the weight of $c d$ is equivalent to the elasticity of the included air. While therefore $c e$ is the measure of the elasticity of the surrounding atmosphere, $c d$ will be the measure of the elasticity of the included air; and since the air originally occupied the space $a b$, and has now expanded into $a d$, we have $\frac{a b}{a d}$ for the measure of its density. N.B. $c e$ and $c d$ are measured by the perpendicular heights of the columns, but $a b$ and $a d$ must be measured by their solid capacities.

By raising the inner tube still higher, the mercury will also rise higher, and the included air will expand still farther, and we obtain another $c d$, and another $\frac{a b}{a d}$; and in this manner the relation between the density and elasticity of rarefied air may be discovered.

This examination may be managed more easily by an easier means of the air-pump. Suppose a tube $a e$ (fig. 69.) method by containing a small quantity of air $a b$, set up in a cistern means of mercury, which is supported in the tube at the height pump $e b$, Fig. 69.

Let \( e b \) be the height of the mercury in the barometer. Let this apparatus be set under a tubulated receiver on the pump-plate, and let \( g n \) be the pump-gage, and \( m n \) be equal to \( c e \).

Then, as has been already shown, \( e b \) is the measure of the elasticity of the air in \( a b \), corresponding to the bulk \( a b \). Now let some air be abstracted from the receiver. The elasticity of the remainder will be diminished by its expansion; and therefore the mercury in the tube \( a e \) will descend to some point \( d \). For the same reason, the mercury in the gage will rise to some point \( o \), and \( m o \) will express the elasticity of the air in the receiver. This would support the mercury in the tube \( a e \) at the height \( e r \), if the space \( a r \) were entirely void of air. Therefore \( r d \) is the effect and measure of the elasticity of the included air when it has expanded to the bulk \( a d \); and thus its elasticity, under a variety of other bulks, may be compared with its elasticity when of the bulk \( a b \). When the air has been so far abstracted from the receiver that the mercury in \( a e \) descends to \( e \), then \( m o \) will be the precise measure of its elasticity.

In all these cases it is necessary to compare its bulk \( a b \) with its natural bulk, in which its elasticity balances the pressure of the atmosphere. This may be done by laying the tube \( a e \) horizontally, and then the air will collapse into its ordinary bulk.

Another easy method may be taken for this examination. Let an apparatus \( a b c d e f \) (fig. 70.) be made, consisting of a horizontal tube \( a e \) of even bore, a ball \( d g e \) of a large diameter, and a swan-neck tube \( h f \). Let the ball and part of the tube \( g e b \) be filled with mercury, so that the tube may be in the same horizontal plane with the surface \( d e \) of the mercury in the ball. Then seal up the end \( a \), and connect \( f \) with an air-pump. When the air is abstracted from the surface \( d e \), the air in \( a b \) will expand into a larger bulk \( a c \), and the mercury in the pump-gage will rise to some distance below the barometric height. It is evident that this distance, without any farther calculation, will be the measure of the elasticity of the air pressing on the surface \( d e \), and therefore of the air in \( a e \).

The most exact of all methods is to suspend in the receiver of an air-pump a glass vessel, having a very narrow mouth, over a cistern of mercury, and then abstract the air till the gage rises to some determined height. The difference \( e \) between this height and the barometric height determines the elasticity of the air in the receiver and in the suspended vessel. Now lower down that vessel by the slip-wire till its mouth is immersed into the mercury, and admit the air into the receiver; it will press the mercury into the little vessel. Lower it still farther down, till the mercury within it is level with that without; then stop its mouth, take it out and weigh the mercury, and let its weight be \( w \). Subtract this weight from the weight \( v \) of the mercury, which would completely fill the whole vessel; then the natural bulk of the air will be \( v - w \), while its bulk, when of the elasticity \( e \) in the rarefied receiver, was the bulk or capacity \( w \) of the vessel. Its density therefore, corresponding to this elasticity \( e \), was \( \frac{v - w}{w} \).

And thus may the relation between the density and elasticity in all cases be obtained.

A great variety of experiments to this purpose have been made, with different degrees of attention, according to the interest which the philosophers had in the result. Those made by M. de Luc, General Roy, Mr. Trembley, and Sir George Shuckburgh, are by far the most accurate; but they are all confined to very various extreme rarefactions. The general result has been, that periments the elasticity of rarefied air is very nearly proportional to its density. We cannot say with confidence that any this particular deviation from this law has been observed, there being as many observations on one side as on the other; but we think that it is not unworthy the attention of philosophers to determine it with precision in the cases of extreme rarefaction, where the irregularities are most remarkable. The great source of error is a certain adhesive fluffiness of the mercury when the impelling forces are very small; and other fluids can hardly be used, because they either smear the inside of the tube and diminish its capacity, or they are converted into vapour, which alters the law of elasticity.

Let us, upon the whole, assume the Boylean law, viz. The Boylean Law. That the elasticity of the air is proportional to its density, an law may be assumed. The law deviates not in any sensible degree from the truth in those cases which are of the greatest practical importance, that is, when the density does not much exceed or fall short of that of ordinary air.

Let us now see what information this gives us with respect to the action of the particles on each other.

The investigation is extremely easy. We have seen that a force eight times greater than the pressure of the atmosphere will compress common air into the other eighth part of its common bulk, and give it eight times its common density: and in this case we know, that the particles are at half their former distance, and that the number which are now acting on the surface of the piston employed to compress them is quadruple of the number which act on it when it is of the common density. Therefore, when this eightfold compressing force is distributed over a fourfold number of particles, the portion of it which acts on each is double. In like manner, when a compressing force \( 27 \) is employed, the air is compressed into \( \frac{1}{27} \) of its former bulk, the particles are at \( \frac{1}{3} \) of their former distance, and the force is distributed among 9 times the number of particles; the force on each is therefore \( \frac{1}{x} \).

In short, let \( \frac{1}{x} \) be the distance of the particles, the number of them in any given vessel, and therefore the density will be as \( x^3 \), and the number pressing by their elasticity on its whole internal surface will be as \( x^2 \). Experiment shows, that the compressing force is as \( x^3 \), which being distributed over the number as \( x^2 \), will give the force on each as \( x \).

Now this force is in immediate equilibrium with the elasticity of the particle immediately contiguous to the compressing surface. This elasticity is therefore as \( x \): and it follows from the nature of perfect fluidity, that the particle adjoining to the compressing surface presses with an equal force on its adjoining particles on every side. Hence we must conclude, that the corpuscular repulsions exerted by the adjoining particles are inversely as their distances from each other, or that the adjoining particles tend to recede from each other with forces inversely proportional to their distances.

Sir Isaac Newton was the first who reasoned in this manner from the phenomena. Indeed he was the first who had the patience to reflect on the phenomena with any precision. His discoveries in gravitation naturally led him to consider the nature of the forces between the particles of matter. gave his thoughts this turn, and he very early hinted his suspicions that all the characteristic phenomena of tangible matter were produced by forces which were exerted by the particles at small and inensible distances:

And he considers the phenomena of air as affording an excellent example of this investigation, and deduces from them the law which we have now demonstrated; and says, that air consists of particles which avoid the adjoining particles with forces inversely proportional to their distances from each other. From this he deduces (in the 2d book of his Principles) several beautiful propositions, determining the mechanical constitution of the atmosphere.

But it must be noticed that he limits this action to the adjoining particles: and this is a remark of immense consequence, though not attended to by the numerous experimenters who adopt the law.

It is plain that the particles are supposed to act at a distance, and that this distance is variable, and that the forces diminish as the distances increase. A very ordinary air-pump will rarely the air 125 times. The distance of the particles is now 5 times greater than before; and yet they still repel each other: for air of this density will still support the mercury in a syphon-gage at the height of 0.24, or $\frac{24}{100}$ of an inch; and a better pump will allow this air to expand twice as much, and still leave it elastic. Thus we see that whatever is the distance of the particles of common air, they can act five times farther off. The question comes now to be, Whether, in the state of common air, they really do act five times farther than the distance of the adjoining particles? While the particle $a$ acts on the particle $b$ with the force 5, does it also act on the particle $c$ with the force 2.5, on the particle $d$ with the force 1.667, on the particle $e$ with the force 1.25, on the particle $f$ with the force 1, on the particle $g$ with the force 0.8333, &c. &c.?

Sir Isaac Newton shows in the plainest manner, that this is by no means the case; for if this were the case, he makes it appear that the sensible phenomena of condensation would be totally different from what we observe. The force necessary for a quadruple condensation would be eight times greater, and for a nonuple condensation the force must be 27 times greater. Two spheres filled with condensed air must repel each other, and two spheres containing air that is rarer than the surrounding air must attract each other, &c. &c. All this will appear very clearly, by applying to air the reasoning which Sir Isaac Newton has employed in deducing the sensible law of mutual tendency of two spheres, which consist of particles attracting each other with forces proportional to the square of the distance inversely.

If we could suppose that the particles of air repelled each other with invariable forces at all distances within some small and inensible limit, this would produce a compressibility and elasticity similar to what we observe. For if we consider a row of particles, within this limit, as compressed by an external force applied to the two extremities, the action of the whole row on the extreme points would be proportional to the number of particles, that is, to their distance inversely and to their density: and a number of such parcels, ranged in a straight line, would constitute a row of any sensible magnitude having the same law of compression. But this law of corpuscular force is unlike every thing we observe in nature, and to the last degree improbable.

We must therefore continue the limitation of this mutual repulsion of the particles of air, and be contented for the present with having established it as an experimental fact, that the adjoining particles of air are kept asunder by forces inversely proportional to their distances: or perhaps it is better to abide by the sensible law, that the density of air is proportional to the compressing force. This law is abundantly sufficient for explaining all the subordinate phenomena, and for giving us a complete knowledge of the mechanical constitution of our atmosphere.

And in the first place, this view of the compressibility of the air must give us a very different notion of the height of the atmosphere from what we deduced on a former occasion from our experiments. It is found, considering that when the air is of the temperature 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and the mercury in the barometer stands at 30 inches, it will descend one-tenth of an inch if we take it to a place 87 feet higher. Therefore, if the air were equally dense and heavy throughout, the height of the atmosphere would be $30 \times 10 \times 87$ feet, or 5 miles and 100 yards. But the loose reasoning adduced on that occasion was enough to show us that it must be much higher; because every stratum as we ascend must be successively rarer as it is less compressed by incumbent weight. Not knowing to what degree air expanded when the compression was diminished, we could not tell the successive diminutions of density and consequent augmentation of bulk and height; we could only say, that several atmospheric appearances indicated a much greater height. Clouds have been seen much higher; but the phenomenon of the twilight is the most convincing proof of this. There is no doubt that the visibility of the sky or air is owing to its want of perfect transparency, each particle (whether of matter purely aerial or heterogeneous) reflecting a little light.

Let $b$ (fig. 71.) be the last particle of illuminated air Fig. 71., which can be seen in the horizon by a spectator at $A$. This must be illuminated by a ray $SD$, touching the earth's surface at some point $D$. Now it is a known fact, that the degree of illumination called twilight is perceived when the sun is 18° below the horizon of the spectator, that is, when the angle $EBS$ or $ACD$ is 18 degrees; therefore $BC$ is the secant of 9 degrees (it is less, viz. about 8½ degrees, on account of refraction). We know the earth's radius to be about 3970 miles; hence we conclude $BB$ to be about 45 miles; nay, a very sensible illumination is perceptible much farther from the sun's place than this, perhaps twice as far, and the air is sufficiently dense for reflecting a sensible light at the height of nearly 200 miles.

We have now seen that air is prodigiously expansible. None of our experiments have distinctly shown us any fixed no limit. But it does not follow that it is expansible without end; nor is this at all likely. It is much more probable that there is a certain distance of the parts in which they no longer repel each other; and this would be the distance at which they would arrange themselves if they were not heavy. But at the very summit of the atmosphere they will be a very small matter nearer to each other, on account of their gravitation to the earth. Till we know precisely the law of this mutual repulsion, we cannot say what is the height of the atmosphere.

But if the air be an elastic fluid whose density is always proportionable to the compressing force, we can tell what is its density at any height above the surface of the earth; and we can compare the density so calculated with the density discovered by observation: for this last is measured by the height at which it supports mercury in the barometer. This is the direct measure of the pressure of the external air; and as we know the law of gravitation, we can tell what would be the pressure of air having the calculated density in all its parts.

Let us therefore suppose a prismatic or cylindric column of air reaching to the top of the atmosphere. Let this be divided into an indefinite number of strata of very small and equal depths or thicknesses; and let us, for greater simplicity, suppose at first that a particle of air is of the same weight at all distances from the centre of the earth.

The absolute weight of any one of these strata will on these conditions be proportional to the number of particles or the gravity of air contained in it; and since the depth of each stratum is the same, this quantity of air will evidently be as the density of the stratum: but the density of any stratum is as the compressing force; that is, as the pressure of the strata above it; that is, as their weight; that is, as their quantity of matter—therefore the quantity of air in each stratum is proportional to the quantity of air above it; but the quantity in each stratum is the difference between the column incumbent on its bottom and on its top: these differences are therefore proportional to the quantities of which they are the differences. But when there is a series of quantities which are proportional to their own differences, both the quantities and their differences are in continual or geometrical progression: for let \(a, b, c\) be three such quantities that

\[ \frac{b}{c} = \frac{a-b}{b-c}, \quad \text{then by alter.} \]

\[ \frac{b}{a} = \frac{b-c}{b-c} \quad \text{and by comp.} \]

\[ \frac{b}{a} = \frac{a-c}{b-c} \quad \text{and by comp.} \]

therefore the densities of these strata decrease in a geometrical progression; that is, when the elevations above the centre or surface of the earth increase, or their depths under the top of the atmosphere decrease, in an arithmetical progression, the densities decrease in a geometrical progression.

Let ARQ (fig. 72.) represent the section of the earth by a plane through its centre O, and let m OAM be a vertical line, and AE perpendicular to OA will be a horizontal line through A, a point on the earth's surface. Let AE be taken to represent the density of the air at A; and let DH, parallel to AE, be taken to AE as the density at D is to the density at A: it is evident, that if a logistic or logarithmic curve EHN be drawn, having AN for its axis, and passing through the points E and H, the density of the air at any other point C, in this vertical line, will be represented by CG, the ordinate to the curve in that point: for it is the property of this curve, that if portions AB, AC, AD, of its axis be taken in arithmetical progression, the ordinates, AE, BF, CG, DH, will be in geometrical progression.

It is another fundamental property of this curve, that if EK or HS touch the curve in E or H, the subtangent AK or DS is a constant quantity.

And a third fundamental property is, that the infinitely extended area MAEN is equal to the rectangle KAEL of the ordinate and subtangent; and, in like manner, the area MDHN is equal to SD × DH, or to KA × DH; consequently the area lying beyond any ordinate is proportional to that ordinate.

These geometrical properties of this curve are all analogous to the chief circumstances in the constitution of the atmosphere, on the supposition of equal gravity. The area MCGN represents the whole quantity of aerial matter which is above C: for CG is the density at C, and CD is the thickness of the stratum between C and D; and therefore CGHD will be as the quantity of matter or air in it; and in like manner of all the others, and of their sums, or the whole area MCGN: and as each ordinate is proportional to the area above it, so each density, and the quantity of air in each stratum, is proportional to the quantity of air above it: and as the whole area MAEN is equal to the rectangle KAEL, to the whole air of variable density above A might be contained in a column KA, if, instead of being compressed by its own weight, it were without weight, and compressed by an external force equal to the pressure of the air at the surface of the earth. In this case, it would be of the uniform density AE, which it has at the surface of the earth, making what we have repeatedly called the homogeneous atmosphere.

Hence we derive this important circumstance, that the height of the homogeneous atmosphere is the subtangent of that curve whose ordinates are as the densities of the air at different heights, on the supposition of equal gravity. This curve may with propriety be called the atmospherical logarithm; and as the different logarithmics are all characterized by their subtangents, it is of importance to determine this one.

It may be done by comparing the densities of mercury and air. For a column of air of uniform density, reaching to the top of the homogeneous atmosphere, is in equilibrium with the mercury in the barometer. Now it is found, by the best experiments, that when mercury and air are of the temperature 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and the barometer stands at 30 inches, the mercury is nearly 10440 times denser than air. Therefore the height of the homogeneous atmosphere is 10440 times 30 inches, or 20100 feet, or 8700 yards, or 4350 fathoms, or 5 miles wanting 100 yards.

Or it may be found by observations on the barometer. It is found, that when the mercury and air are of the above temperature, and the barometer on the sea-shore stands at 30 inches, if we carry it to a place 884 feet higher it will fall to 29 inches. Now, in all logarithmic curves having equal ordinates, the portions of the axes intercepted between the corresponding pairs of ordinates are proportional to the subtangents. And the subtangents of the curve belonging to our common tables is 0.4342945, and the difference of the logarithms of 30 and 29 (which is the portion of the axis intercepted between the ordinates 30 and 29), or 0.0147233, is to 0.4342945 as 883 is to 26058 feet, or 8686 yards, or 4343 fathoms, or 5 miles wanting 114 yards. This determination is 14 yards less than the other, and it is uncertain which is the more exact. It is extremely difficult. to measure the respective densities of mercury and air; and in measuring the elevation which produces a fall of one inch in the barometer, an error of \( \frac{1}{20} \) of an inch would produce all the difference. We prefer the last, as depending on fewer circumstances.

But all this investigation proceeds on the supposition of equal gravity, whereas we know that the weight of a particle of air decreases as the square of its distance from the centre of the earth increases. In order, therefore, that a superior stratum may produce an equal pressure at the surface of the earth, it must be denser, because a particle of it gravitates less. The density, therefore, at equal elevations, must be greater than on the supposition of equal gravity, and the law of diminution of density must be different.

Make \( OD : OA = OA : Od \); \( OC : OA = OA : Oc \); \( OB : OA = OA : Ob \); &c.; so that \( Od, Oc, Ob, OA \), may be reciprocals to \( OD, OC, OB, OA \); and through the points \( A, B, C, D \), draw the perpendiculars \( AE, BF, CG, DH \), making them proportional to the densities in \( A, B, C, D \); and let us suppose \( CD \) to be exceedingly small, so that the density may be supposed uniform through the whole stratum.

Thus we have

\[ OD \times Od = OA^2 = OC \times Oc \]

and \( Oc : Od = OD : OC \);

and \( Oc : Oc = Od : OD = OC \),

or \( Oc : c = OD : DC \);

and \( cd : CD = Oc : OD \);

or, because \( OC \) and \( OD \) are ultimately in the ratio of equality, we have

\[ cd : CD = Oc : OC = OA^2 : OC^2, \]

and \( cd = CD \times \frac{OA^2}{OC^2} \), and \( cd \times cg = CD \times cg \times \frac{OA^2}{OC^2} \);

but \( CD \times cg \times \frac{OA^2}{OC^2} \) is as the pressure at \( C \) arising from the absolute weight of the stratum \( CD \). For this weight is as the bulk, as the density, and as the gravitation of each particle jointly. Now \( CD \) expresses the bulk, \( cg \) the density, and \( \frac{OA^2}{OC^2} \) the gravitation of each particle. Therefore, \( cd \times cg \) is as the pressure on \( C \) arising from the weight of the stratum \( DC \); but \( cd \times cg \) is evidently the element of the curvilinear area \( AMnE \), formed by the curve \( Efghn \) and the ordinates \( AE, BF, CG, AH, \) &c. \( mn \). Therefore the sum of all the elements, such as \( cd \times cg \), that is, the area \( cmng \) below \( cg \), will be as the whole pressure on \( C \), arising from the gravitation of all the air above it; but, by the nature of air, this whole pressure is as the density which it produces, that is, as \( cg \). Therefore the curve \( Eg n \) is of such a nature that the area lying below or beyond any ordinate \( cg \) is proportional to that ordinate. This is the property of the logarithmic curve, and \( Eg n \) is a logarithmic curve.

But farther, this curve is the same with \( EGN \). For let \( B \) continually approach to \( A \), and ultimately coincide with it. It is evident that the ultimate ratio of \( BA \) to \( Ab \), and of \( BF \) to \( bf \), is that of equality; and if \( EFK, Ef k \), be drawn, they will contain equal angles with the ordinate \( AE \), and will cut off equal subtangents \( Ak, Ak \). The curves \( EGN, Eg n \) are therefore the same, but in opposite positions.

Lastly, if \( OA, Ob, Oc, Od, \) &c. be taken in arithmetical progression decreasing, their reciprocals \( OA, OB, OC, OD, \) &c. will be in harmonical progression increasing, as is well known; but, from the nature of the logarithmic curve, when \( OA, Ob, Oc, Od, \) &c. are in arithmetical progression, the ordinates \( AE, BF, CG, DH, \) &c. are in geometrical progression. Therefore when \( OA, OB, OC, OD, \) &c. are in harmonical progression, the densities of the air at \( A, B, C, D, \) &c. are in geometrical progression; and thus may the density of the air at all elevations be discovered. Thus to find the density of the air at \( K \) the top of the homogeneous atmosphere, make \( OK : OA = OA : OL \), and draw the ordinate \( LT \), \( LT \) is the density at \( K \).

The celebrated Dr Halley was the first who observed the relation between the density of the air and the ordinates of the logarithmic curve, or common logarithms. This he did on the supposition of equal gravity; and his discovery is acknowledged by Sir Isaac Newton in Princip. ii. prop. 22. schol. Halley's dissertation on the subject is in No. 185 of the Phil. Trans. Newton, with his usual sagacity, extended the same relation to the true state of the case, where gravity is as the square of the distance inversely; and showed that when the distances from the earth's centre are in harmonic progression, the densities are in geometric progression. He shows indeed, in general, what progression of the distance, on any supposition of gravity, will produce a geometrical progression of the densities, so as to obtain a set of lines \( OA, Ob, Oc, Od, \) &c. which will be logarithms of the densities. The subject was afterwards treated in a more familiar manner by Cotes in his Hydrost. Lect. and in his Harmonia Mensurarum; also by Dr Brook Taylor, Meth. Increment.; Wolf in his Aerometria; Herman in his Phoronnia; &c. &c. and lately by Horley, Phil. Trans. tom. lxiv.

An important corollary is deducible from these principles, viz. that the air has a finite density at an infinite distance from the centre of the earth, namely, an infinite such as will be represented by the ordinate \( OP \) drawn through the centre. It may be objected to this conclusion, that it would infer an infinity of matter in the centre of the universe, and that it is inconsistent with the phenomena of the planetary motions, which appear to be performed in a space void of all resistance, and therefore of all matter. But this fluid must be so rare at great distances, that the resistance will be insensible, even though the retardation occasioned by it has been accumulated for ages. Even at the very moderate distance of 500 miles, the rarity is so great that a cubic inch of common air expanded to that degree would occupy a sphere equal to the orbit of Saturn; and the whole retardation which this planet would sustain after some millions of years would not exceed what would be occasioned by its meeting one bit of matter of half a grain weight.

This being the case, it is not unreasonable to suppose the visible universe occupied by air, which, by its gravitation, will accumulate itself round every body in it, in a proportion depending on their quantities of matter, the larger bodies attracting more of it than the smaller ones, and thus forming an atmosphere about each. And many appearances warrant this supposition. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Venus, are evidently surrounded by atmospheres. The constitution of these atmospheres may differ exceedingly from other causes. If the plam net has nothing on its surface which can be dissolved by the air or volatilized by heat, the atmosphere will be continually clear and transparent, like that of the moon.

Mars has an atmosphere which appears precisely like our own, carrying clouds, or depositing snows: for when, by the obliquity of his axis to the plane of his ecliptic, he turns his north pole towards the sun, it is observed to be occupied by a broad white spot. As the summer of that region advances, this spot gradually wastes, and sometimes vanishes, and then the south pole comes in sight, surrounded in like manner with a white spot, which undergoes similar changes. This is precisely the appearance which the snowy circumpolar regions of this earth will exhibit to an astronomer on Mars. It may not, however, be known that we see; thick clouds will have the same appearances.

The atmosphere of the planet Jupiter is also very similar to our own. It is diversified by streaks or belts parallel to his equator, which frequently change their appearance and dimensions, in the same manner as those tracts of similar sky which belong to different regions of this globe. There is a certain kind of weather that more properly belongs to a particular climate than to any other. This is nothing but a certain general state of the atmosphere which is prevalent there, though with considerable variations. This must appear to a spectator in the moon like a streak spread over that climate, distinguishing it from others. But the most remarkable similarity is in the motion of the clouds on Jupiter. They have plainly a motion from east to west relative to the body of the planet: for there is a remarkable spot on the surface of the planet, which is observed to turn round the axis in 9h. 51' 16"; and there frequently appear variable and perilishing spots in the belts, which sometimes last for several revolutions. These are observed to circulate in 9. 55. 05. These numbers are the results of a long series of observations by Dr Herschel. This plainly indicates a general current of the clouds westward, precisely similar to what a spectator in the moon must observe in our atmosphere arising from the trade-winds. Mr Schroeter has made the atmosphere of Jupiter a study for many years; and deduces from his observations that the motion of the variable spots is subject to great variations, but is always from east to west. This indicates variable winds.

The atmosphere of Venus appears also to be like ours, loaded with vapours, and in a state of continual change of absorption and precipitation. About the middle of the 17th century the surface of Venus was pretty distinctly seen for many years chequered with irregular spots, which are described by Campani, Bianchini, and other astronomers in the south of Europe, and also by Cassini at Paris, and Hooke and Townley in England. But the spots became gradually more faint and indistinct; and, for near a century, have disappeared. The whole surface appears now of one uniform brilliant white. The atmosphere is probably filled with a reflecting vapour, thinly diffused through it, like water faintly tinged with milk. A great depth of this must appear as white as a small depth of milk itself; and it appears to be of a very great depth, and to be refractive like our air. For Dr Herschel has observed, by the help of his fine telescopes, that the illuminated part of Venus is considerably more than a hemisphere, and that the light dies gradually away to the bounding margin. This is the very appearance that the earth would make if furnished with such an atmosphere. The boundary of illumination would have a penumbra reaching about nine degrees beyond it. If this be the constitution of the atmosphere of Venus, the may be inhabited by beings like ourselves. They would not be dazzled by the intolerable splendour of a sun four times as big and as bright, and fifteen times more glaring, than ours: for they would seldom or never see him, but instead of him an uniformly bright and white sky. They would probably never see a star or planet, unless the dog-star and Mercury; and perhaps the earth might pierce through the bright haze which surrounds their planet. For the same reason the inhabitants would not perhaps be incumbered by the sun's heat. It is indeed a very questionable thing, whether the sun would cause any heat, even here, if it were not for the chemical actions of his rays on our air. This is rendered not improbable by the intense cold felt on the tops of the highest mountains, in the clearest air, and even under a vertical sun in the torrid zone.

The atmosphere of comets seems of a nature totally different. This seems to be of inconceivable rarity, even when it reflects a very sensible light. The tail is always turned nearly away from the sun. It is thought that this is by the impulse of the solar rays. If this be the case, we think it might be discovered by the aberration and the refraction of the light by which we see the tail: for this light must come to our eye with a much smaller velocity than the sun's light, if it be reflected by repulsive or elastic forces, which there is every reason in the world to believe; and therefore the velocity of the reflected light will be diminished by all the velocity communicated to the reflecting particles. This is almost inconceivably great. The comet of 1680 went half round the sun in ten hours, and had a tail at least a hundred millions of miles long, which turned round at the same time, keeping nearly in the direction opposite to the sun. The velocity necessary for this is prodigious, approaching to that of light. And perhaps the tail extends much farther than we see it, but is visible only as far as the velocity with which its particles recede from the sun is less than a certain quantity, namely, what would leave a sufficient velocity for the reflected light to enable it to affect our eyes. And it may be demonstrated, that although the real form of the visible tail is concave on the anterior side to which the comet is moving, it may appear convex on that side, in consequence of the very great aberration of the light by which the remote parts are seen. All this may be discovered by properly contrived observations; and the conjecture merits attention. But of this digression there is enough; and we return to our subject, the constitution of our air.

We have shown how to determine *a priori* the density of the air at different elevations above the surface of the earth. But the densities may be discovered in all taking accessible elevations by experiments; namely, by observing the heights of the mercury in the barometer. This is a direct measure of the pressure of the incumbent atmosphere; and this is proportional to the density which it produces.

Therefore, by means of the relation subsisting between the densities and the elevations, we can discover the elevations by observations made on the densities by means of the barometer; and thus we may measure elevations by means of the barometer; and, with very little trouble, take the level of any extensive tract of country. Of this we have an illustrious example in the section which the Abbé Chappe D'Auteroche has given of the whole country between Brest and Ekaterinburg in Siberia. This is a subject which deserves a minute consideration: we shall therefore present it under a very simple and familiar form; and trace the method through its various steps of improvement by De Luc, Roy, Shuckburgh, &c.

We have already observed, oftener than once, that if the mercury in the barometer stands at 30 inches, and if the air and mercury be of the temperature 32° in Fahrenheit's thermometer, a column of air 87 feet thick has the same weight with a column of mercury \( \frac{1}{15} \) of an inch thick. Therefore, if we carry the barometer to a higher place, so that the mercury falls to 29.9, we have ascended 87 feet. Now, suppose we carry it still higher, and that the mercury stands at 29.8; it is required to know what height we have now got to? We have evidently ascended through another stratum of equal weight with the former: but it must be of greater thickness, because the air in it is rarer, being less compressed. We may call the density of the first stratum 300, measuring the density by the number of tenths of an inch of mercury which its elasticity proportional to its density enables it to support. For the same reason, the density of the second stratum must be 290; but when the weights are equal, the bulks are inversely as the densities; and when the bases of the strata are equal, the bulks are as the thicknesses. Therefore, to obtain the thickness of this second stratum, say \( 290 : 300 = 87 : 87.29 \); and this fourth term is the thickness of the second stratum, and we have ascended in all 174.29 feet. In like manner we may rise till the barometer shows the density to be 298: then say \( 298 : 300 = 87 : 87.584 \) for the thickness of the third stratum, and 261.875 or 261\( \frac{3}{4} \) for the whole ascent; and we may proceed in the same way for any number of mercurial heights, and make a table of the corresponding elements as follows: Where the first column is the height of the mercury in the barometer, the second column is the thickness of the stratum, or the elevation above the preceding station; and the third column is the whole elevation above the first station.

| Bar. | Strat. | Elev. | |------|--------|-------| | 30 | 00.000 | 00.000 | | 29.9 | 87.000 | 87.000 | | 29.8 | 87.291 | 174.291 | | 29.7 | 87.584 | 261.875 | | 29.6 | 87.879 | 349.754 | | 29.5 | 88.176 | 437.930 | | 29.4 | 88.475 | 526.405 | | 29.3 | 88.776 | 615.181 | | 29.2 | 89.079 | 704.260 | | 29.1 | 89.384 | 793.644 | | 29 | 89.691 | 883.335 |

Having done this, we can now measure any elevation within the limits of our table, in this manner.

Observe the barometer at the lower and at the upper stations, and write down the corresponding elevations. Subtract the one from the other, and the remainder is the height required. Thus suppose that at the lower station the mercurial height was 29.8, and that at the upper station it was 29.1

\[ \begin{align*} 29.1 & \quad 793.644 \\ 29.8 & \quad 174.291 \\ \end{align*} \]

\[ \text{Elevation} = \frac{619.353}{m} \]

We may do the same thing with tolerable accuracy without the table, by taking the medium \( m \) of the mercurial heights, and their difference \( d \) in tenths of an inch; and then lay, as \( m \) to 300, so is 87 \( d \) to the height required \( h \); or \( h = \frac{300 \times 87d}{m} = \frac{26100d}{m} \). Thus, in the foregoing example, \( m \) is 294.5, and \( d \) is 7; and therefore \( h = \frac{7 \times 26100}{294.5} = 620.4 \), differing only one foot from the former value.

Either of these methods is sufficiently accurate for most purposes, and even in very great elevations will not produce any error of consequence: the whole error of the elevation 883 feet 4 inches, which is the extent of the above table, is only \( \frac{1}{4} \) of an inch.

But we need not confine ourselves to methods of approximation, when we have an accurate and scientific method that is equally easy. We have seen that, upon the supposition of equal gravity, the densities of the air are as the ordinates of a logarithmic curve, having the line of elevations for its axis. We have also seen that, in the true theory of gravity, if the distances from the centre of the earth increase in a harmonic progression, the logarithm of the densities will decrease in an arithmetical progression; but if the greatest elevation above the surface be but a few miles, this harmonic progression will hardly differ from an arithmetical one. Thus, if \( A_b, A_c, A_d \) are 1, 2, and 3 miles, we shall find that the corresponding elevations \( A_B, A_C, A_D \) are sensibly in arithmetical progression also; for the earth's radius AC is nearly 4000 miles. Hence it plainly follows that \( BC - AB \) is \( \frac{1}{4000 \times 4000} \), or \( \frac{1}{1600000} \) of a mile, or \( \frac{1}{250} \) of an inch; a quantity quite insignificant. We may therefore affirm without hesitation, that in all accessible places, the elevations increase in an arithmetical progression, while the densities decrease in a geometrical progression. Therefore the ordinates are proportional to the numbers which are taken to measure the densities, and the portions of the axis are proportional to the logarithms of these numbers. It follows, therefore, that we may take such a scale for measuring the densities that the logarithms of the numbers of this scale shall be the very portions of the axis; that is, of the vertical line in feet, yards, fathoms, or what measure we please: and we may, on the other hand, choose such a scale for measuring our elevations, that the logarithms of our scale of densities shall be parts of this scale of elevations; and we may find either of these scales scientifically. For it is a known property of the logarithmic curves, that when the ordinates are the same, the intercepted portion of the abscissae are proportioned to their subtangents. Now we know the subtangent of the atmospherical logarithmic: it is the height of the homogeneous atmosphere in any measure we please, suppose fathoms: we find this height by comparing the gravities of air and mercury, when both

both are of some determined density. Thus, in the temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, when the barometer stands at 30 inches, it is known (by many experiments) that mercury is 10423.068 times heavier than air; therefore the height of the balancing column of homogeneous air will be 10423.068 times 30 inches; that is, 4342.945 English fathoms. Again, it is known that the subtangent of our common logarithmic tables, where 1 is the logarithm of the number 10, is 0.4342945. Therefore the number 0.4342945 is to the difference D of the logarithms of any two barometric heights as 4342.945 fathoms are to the fathoms F contained in the portion of the axis of the atmospherical logarithmic, which is intercepted between the ordinates equal to these barometrical heights; or that 0.4342945 : D = 4342.945 : F; and 0.4342945 : 4342.945 = D : F; but 0.4342945 is the ten-thousandth part of 4342.945, and therefore D is the ten-thousandth part of F.

And thus it happens, by mere chance, that the logarithms of the densities, measured by the inches of mercury which their elasticity supports in the barometer, are just the ten-thousandth part of the fathoms contained in the corresponding portions of the axis of the atmospherical logarithmic. Therefore, if we multiply our common logarithms by 10000, they will express the fathoms of the axis of the atmospherical logarithmic; nothing is more easily done. Our logarithms contain what is called the index or characteristic, which is an integer and a number of decimal places. Let us just remove the integer-place four figures to the right hand: thus the logarithm of 60 is 1.7781513, which is one integer and 7781513. Multiply this by 10000, and we obtain 7781513/1000 = 7781.513, or 7781 513/1000.

The practical application of all this reasoning is obvious and easy: observe the heights of the mercury in the barometer at the upper and lower stations in inches and decimals; take the logarithms of these, and subtract the one from the other: the difference between them (accounting the four first decimal figures as integers) is the difference of elevation of fathoms.

Example.

| Merc. Height at the lower station | 29.8 | 1.4742163 | |---------------------------------|------|------------| | upper station | 29.1 | 1.4638930 |

Diff. of Log. × 10000 = 0.0103.233

or 103 fathoms and 233/1000 of a fathom, which is 619.392 feet, or 619 feet 4 1/3 inches; differing from the approximated value formerly found about 1/2 an inch.

Such is the general nature of the barometric measurement of heights first suggested by Dr Halley; and it has been verified by numberless comparisons of the heights calculated in this way with the same heights measured geometrically. It was indeed in this way that the precise specific gravity of air and mercury was most accurately determined; namely, by observing, that when the temperature of air and mercury was 32, the difference of the logarithms of the mercurial heights were precisely the fathoms of elevation. But it requires many corrections to adjust this method to the circumstances of the case; and it was not till very lately that it has been so far adjusted to them as to become useful. We are chiefly indebted to Mr de Luc for the improvements. The great elevations in Switzerland enabled him to make an immense number of observations, in almost every variety of circumstances. Sir George Shuckburgh also made a great number with most accurate instruments in much greater elevations, in the same country; and he made many chamber experiments for determining the laws of variation in the subordinate circumstances. General Roy also made many to the same purpose. And to these two gentlemen we are chiefly obliged for the corrections which are now generally adopted.

It is easy to perceive that the method, as already expressed, cannot apply to every case: it depends on the specific gravity of air and mercury, combined with specific gravity of air, the supposition that this is affected only by a change of pressure. But since all bodies are expanded by heat, and as there is no reason to suppose that they are equally expanded by it, it follows that a change of temperature will change the relative gravity of mercury and air, even although both suffer the same change of temperature: and since the air may be warmed or cooled when the mercury is not, or may change its temperature independent of it, we may expect still greater variations of specific gravity.

The general effect of an augmentation of the specific gravity of the mercury must be to increase the subtangent of the atmospherical logarithmic; in which case the logarithms of the densities, as measured by inches of mercury, will express measures that are greater than fathoms in the same proportion that the subtangent is increased; or, when the air is more expanded than the mercury, it will require a greater height of homogeneous atmosphere to balance 30 inches of mercury, and a given fall of mercury will then correspond to a thicker stratum of air.

In order, therefore, to perfect this method, we must learn by experiment how much mercury expands by an increase of temperature; we must also learn how much the air expands by the same, or any change of temperature; and how much its elasticity is affected by it. Both these circumstances must be considered in the case of air; for it might happen that the elasticity of the air is not so much affected by heat as its bulk is.

It will, therefore, be proper to state in this place the experiments which have been made for ascertaining these two expansions.

The most accurate, and the best adapted experiments General Roy, published in the 67th volume of the Philosophical Transactions. He exposed 30 inches of mercury, actually supported by the atmosphere in a barometer, in a nice apparatus, by which it could be made of one uniform temperature through its whole length; and he noted the expansion of it in decimals of an inch. These are contained in the following table, where the first column expresses the temperature by Fahrenheit's thermometer, the second column expresses the bulk of the mercury, and the third column the expansion of an inch of mercury for an increase of one degree in the adjoining temperatures. This table gives rise to some reflections. The scale of the thermometer is constructed on the supposition that the successive degrees of heat are measured by equal increments of bulk in the mercury of the thermometer. How comes it, therefore, that this is not accompanied by equal increments of bulk in the mercury of the column, but that the corresponding expansions of this column do continually diminish? General Roy attributes this to the gradual detachment of elastic matter from the mercury by heat, which preludes on the top of the column, and therefore shortens it. He applied a boiling heat to the vacuum a-top, without producing any farther depression; a proof that the barometer had been carefully filled. It had indeed been boiled through its whole length. He had attempted to measure the mercurial expansion in the usual way, by filling 30 inches of the tube with boiled mercury, and exposing it to the heat with the open end uppermost. But here it is evident that the expansion of the tube, and its solid contents, must be taken into the account. The expansion of the tube was found to exceedingly irregular, and so incapable of being determined with precision for the tubes which were to be employed, that he was obliged to have recourse to the method with the real barometer. In this no regard was necessary to any circumstance but the perpendicular height. There was, besides, a propriety in examining the mercury in the very condition in which it was used for measuring the pressure of the atmosphere; because, whatever complication there was in the results, it was the same in the barometer in actual use.

The most obvious manner of applying these experiments on the expansion of mercury to our purpose, is to reduce the observed height of the mercury to what it would have been if it were of the temperature 32°. Thus, suppose that the observed mercurial height is 29.2, and that the temperature of the mercury is 72°, make $30.1392 : 30 = 29.2 : 29.0738$. This will be the true measure of the density of the air of the standard temperature. In order that we may obtain the exact temperature of the mercury, it is proper that the observation be made by means of a thermometer attached to the barometer-frame, so as to warm and cool along with it.

Or, this may be done without the help of a table, and with sufficient accuracy, from the circumstance that the expansion of an inch of mercury for one degree diminishes very nearly $\frac{1}{36}$th part in each succeeding degree. If therefore we take from the expansion at 32° its thousandth part for each degree of any range above it, we obtain a mean rate of expansion for that range. If the observed temperature of the mercury is below 32°, we must add this correction to obtain the mean expansion. This rule will be made more exact if we suppose the expansion at 32° to be $= 0.0001127$. Then multiply the observed mercurial height by this expansion, and we obtain the correction, to be subtracted or added according as the temperature of the mercury was above or below 32°. Thus to abide by the former example of 72°. This exceeds 32° by 40°; therefore take 40 from 0.0001127, and we have 0.0001087 for the medium expansion for that range. Multiply this by 40, and we have the whole expansion of one inch of mercury, $= 0.004348$. Multiply the inches of mercurial height, viz. 29.2 by this expansion, and we have for the correction $0.12666$; which being subtracted from the observed height leaves 29.07304, differing from the accurate quantity less than the thousandth part of an inch. This rule is very easily kept in the memory, and supersedes the use of a table.

This correction may be made with all necessary exactness by a rule still more simple; namely, by multiplying the observed height of the mercury by the difference of its temperature from 32°, and cutting off four cyphers before the decimals of the mercurial height. This will seldom err $\frac{1}{36}$th of an inch. We even believe that it is the most exact method within the range of temperatures that can be expected to occur in measuring heights: for it appears, by comparing many experiments and observations, that General Roy's measure of the mercurial expansion is too great, and that the expansion of an inch of mercury between 20° and 70° of Fahrenheit's thermometer does not exceed $0.000102$ per degree. Having thus corrected the observed mercurial heights by reducing them to what they would have been if the mercury had been of the standard temperature, the logarithms of the corrected heights are taken, and their difference, multiplied by 10000, will give the difference of elevations in English fathoms.

There is another way of applying this correction, fully more expeditious and equally accurate. The difference of the logarithms of the mercurial heights is the measure of the ratio of those heights. In like manner the difference of the logarithms of the observed and corrected heights at any station is the measure of the ratio of those heights. Therefore this last difference of the logarithms is the measure of the correction of this ratio. Now the observed height is to the corrected height nearly as 1 to 1.000102. The logarithm of this ratio, or the difference of the logarithms of 1 and 1.000102, is 0.0000444. This is the correction for each degree that... Therefore multiply \(0.000444\) by the difference of the mercurial temperatures from 32°, and the products will be the corrections of the respective logarithms.

But there is still an easier way of applying the logarithmic correction. If both the mercurial temperatures are the same, the differences of their logarithms will be the same, although each may be a good deal above or below the standard temperature, if the expansion be very nearly equable. The correction will be necessary only when the temperatures at the two stations are different, and will be proportional to this difference. Therefore, if the difference of the mercurial temperatures be multiplied by \(0.000444\), the product will be the correction to be made on the difference of the logarithms of the mercurial heights.

But farther, since the differences of the logarithms of the mercurial heights are also the differences of elevation in English fathoms, it follows that the correction is also a difference of elevation in English fathoms, or that the correction for one degree of difference of mercurial temperature is \(\frac{4}{5}\) of a fathom, or 32 inches, or 2 feet 8 inches.

This correction of 2.8 for every degree of difference of temperature must be subtracted from the elevation found by the general rate, when the mercury at the upper station is colder than that at the lower. For when this is the case, the mercurial column at the upper station will appear too short, the prelude of the atmosphere too small; and therefore the elevation in the atmosphere will appear greater than it really is.

Therefore the rule for this correction will be to multiply \(0.000444\) by the degrees of difference between the mercurial temperatures at the two stations, and to add or subtract the product from the elevation found by the general rule, according as the mercury at the upper station is hotter or colder than at the lower.

If the experiments of General Roy on the expansion of the mercury in a real barometer be thought most deserving of attention, and the expansion be considered as variable, the logarithmic difference corresponding to this expansion for the mean temperature of the two barometers may be taken. These logarithmic differences are contained in the following table, which is carried as far as 112°, beyond which it is not probable that any observations will be made. The number for each temperature is the difference between the logarithms of 30 inches of the temperature 32°, and of 30 inches expanded by that temperature.

| Temp. | Log. diff. | Dec. of Fath. | Ft. In. | |-------|------------|--------------|---------| | 112° | 0.000427 | .427 | 2.7 | | 102 | 0.000436 | .436 | 2.7 | | 92 | 0.000444 | .444 | 2.8 | | 82 | 0.000453 | .453 | 2.9 | | 72 | 0.000460 | .460 | 2.9 | | 62 | 0.000468 | .468 | 2.10 | | 52 | 0.000475 | .475 | 2.10 | | 42 | 0.000482 | .482 | 2.11 | | 32 | 0.000489 | .489 | 2.11 | | 22 | 0.000497 | .497 | 3.0 | | 12 | 0.000504 | .504 | 3.0 |

It is also necessary to attend to the temperature of the air; and the change that is produced by heat in its density is of much greater consequence than that of the mercury. The relative gravity of the two, on which the subtangent of the logarithmic curve depends, and therefore consequently the unit of our scale of elevations, is much more affected by the heat of the air than by the heat of the mercury.

This adjustment is of incomparably greater difficulty than the former, and we can hardly hope to make it perfect. We shall narrate the chief experiments which have been made on the expansion of air, and deduce from them such rules as appear to be necessary consequences of them, and then notice the circumstances which leave the matter still imperfect.

General Roy compared a mercurial and an air thermometer, each of which was graduated arithmetically, so that the units of the scales were equal bulks of mercury and air, and equal bulks (perhaps different from the former) of air. He found their progress as in the following table.

| Merc. | Diff. | Air. | Diff. | |-------|-------|------|------| | 212 | 20 | 212.0| 17.6 | | 192 | 20 | 194.4| 18.2 | | 172 | 20 | 176.2| 18.8 | | 152 | 20 | 157.4| 19.4 | | 132 | 20 | 138.0| 20.0 | | 112 | 20 | 118.0| 20.8 | | 92 | 20 | 97.2 | 21.6 | | 72 | 20 | 75.6 | 22.6 | | 52 | 20 | 53.0 | 21.6 | | 32 | 20 | 31.4 | 20.0 | | 12 | 20 | 11.4 | |

It has been established by many experiments that equal increments of heat produce equal increments in the bulk of mercury. The differences of temperature are therefore expressed by the second column, and may be considered as equal; and the numbers of the third column must be allowed to express the same temperatures with those of the first. They directly express the bulks of the air, and the numbers of the fourth column express the difference of these bulks. These are evidently unequal, and show that common air expands most of all when of the temperature 62° nearly.

The next point was to determine what was the actual increase of bulk by some known increase of heat. For this purpose he took a tube having a narrow bore, and actual in a ball at one end. He measured with great care the capacity of both the ball and the tube, and divided the tube into equal spaces which bore a determined proportion to the capacity of the ball. This apparatus was set in a long cylinder filled with frigorific mixtures or with water, which could be uniformly heated up to the boiling temperature, and was accompanied by a nice thermometer. The expansion of the air was measured by means of a column of mercury which rose or sunk in the tube. The tube being of a small bore, the mercury did not drop out of it; and the bore being chosen as equable as possible, this column remained of an uniform length, whatever part of the tube it chanced to occupy. By this contrivance he was able to examine the Barometer, the expansibility of air of various densities. When the column of mercury contained only a single drop or two, the air was nearly of the density of the external air. If he wished to examine the expansion of air twice or thrice as dense, he used a column of 30 or 60 inches long; and to examine the expansion of air that is rarer than the external air, he placed the tube with the ball uppermost, the open end coming through a hole in the bottom of the vessel containing the mixtures or water. By this position the column of mercury was hanging in the tube, supported by the pressure of the atmosphere; and the elasticity of the included air was measured by the difference between the suspended column and the common barometer.

The following table contains an expansion of 1000 parts of air, nearly of the common density, by heating it from 0 to 212°. The first column contains the height of the barometer; the second contains this height augmented by the small column of mercury in the tube of the manometer, and therefore expresses the density of the air examined; the third contains the total expansion of 1000 parts; and the fourth contains the expansion for 1°, supposing it uniform throughout.

**Table D.**

| Barom. | Density of Air examined | Expansion of 1000 pts by 212° | Expansion by 1° | |--------|-------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------| | 29.95 | 31.52 | 483.89 | 2.2825 | | 30.07 | 30.77 | 482.10 | 2.2741 | | 29.48 | 29.90 | 480.74 | 2.2676 | | 29.90 | 30.73 | 485.86 | 2.2018 | | 29.96 | 30.92 | 480.45 | 2.3087 | | 29.90 | 30.55 | 476.04 | 2.2453 | | 29.95 | 30.60 | 487.55 | 2.2998 | | 30.07 | 30.60 | 482.80 | 2.2774 | | 29.48 | 30.00 | 489.47 | 2.3087 |

Mean 30.62 484.21 2.2840

Hence it appears, that the mean expansion of 1000 parts of air of the density 30.62 by one degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer is 2.284, or that 1000 becomes 102.284.

If this expansion be supposed to follow the same rate that was observed in the comparison of the mercurial and air thermometer, we shall find that the expansion of a thousand parts of air for one degree of heat at the different intermediate temperatures will be as in the following table.

**Table E.**

| Temp. | Total Expansion | Expansion for 1° | Temp. | Total Expansion | Expansion for 1° | |-------|-----------------|------------------|-------|-----------------|------------------| | 212 | 484.210 | 2.0099 | 72 | 172.671 | 2.5581 | | 192 | 444.011 | 2.0080 | 62 | 147.090 | 2.6037 | | 172 | 402.452 | 2.1475 | 52 | 121.053 | 2.5124 | | 152 | 359.503 | 2.2155 | 42 | 95.920 | 2.4211 | | 132 | 315.193 | 2.2840 | 32 | 71.718 | 2.3297 | | 112 | 269.513 | 2.3754 | 22 | 48.421 | 2.2383 | | 92 | 222.006 | 2.4711 | 12 | 26.038 | 2.1698 | | 72 | 172.671 | 2.5124 | | | |

If we would have a mean expansion for any particular range, as between 12° and 92°, which is the most likely to comprehend all the geodetical observations, we need only take the difference of the bulks 26.038 and 222.006 = 195.968, and divide this by the interval of temperature 80°, and we obtain 2.4496, or 2.45 for the mean expansion for 1°.

It would perhaps be better to adapt the table to a mass of 1000 parts of air of the standard temperature 32°; for in its present form it shows the expansibility of air originally of the temperature 0°. This will be done with sufficient accuracy by saying (for 212°) \( \frac{1071.718}{1484.210} = 1000 : 13849 \), and so of the rest. Thus we shall construct the following table of the expansion of 10,000 parts of air.

**Table F.**

| Temp. | Bulk | Differ. | Expans. for 1° | |-------|------|---------|----------------| | 212 | 13489| 375 | 18.7 | | 192 | 13474| 387 | 19.3 | | 172 | 13087| 392 | 19.6 | | 152 | 12685| 413 | 20.6 | | 132 | 12272| 426 | 21.3 | | 112 | 11846| 443 | 22.1 | | 92 | 11403| 226 | 22.6 | | 82 | 11177| 235 | 23.5 | | 72 | 10942| 238 | 23.8 | | 62 | 10704| 243 | 24.3 | | 52 | 10461| 235 | 23.5 | | 42 | 10226| 226 | 22.6 | | 32 | 10000| 217 | 21.7 | | 22 | 9783 | 209 | 20.9 | | 12 | 9574 | 243 | 20.2 | | 0 | 9331 | | |

This will give for the mean expansion of 1000 parts of air between 12° and 92° = 2.29.

Although it cannot happen that in measuring the General differences of elevation near the earth's surface, we shall Roy's experiments have occasion to employ air greatly exceeding the common density, we may infer the experiments made by above the General Roy on such airs. They are expressed in the following table; where column first contains the densities measured by the inches of mercury that they will support when of the temperature 32°; column second is the expansion of 1000 parts of such air by being heated from 0 to 212°; and column third is the mean expansion for 1°.

**Table G.**

| Density | Expansion for 212° | Expans. for 1° | |---------|--------------------|----------------| | 101.7 | 451.54 | 2.130 | | 92.3 | 423.23 | 1.996 | | 80.5 | 412.09 | 1.944 | | 54.5 | 439.87 | 2.075 | | 49.7 | 443.24 | 2.091 | | Mean | 75.7 | 2.047 |

We have much more frequent occasion to operate in air that is rarer than the ordinary state of the superficial below that atmosphere. General Roy accordingly made many experiments on such airs. He found in general, that their expansibility by heat was analogous to that of air in its ordinary density, being greatest about the temperature 60°. He found, too, that its expansibility by heat diminished with its density, but he could not determine the law of gradation. When reduced to about one-fifth of the density of common air, its expansion was as follows.

| Temp. | Bulk. | Difference | Expansion for 1° | |-------|---------|------------|------------------| | 212 | 1141.504| 7.075 | 0.354 | | 192 | 1134.429| 12.204 | 0.613 | | 172 | 1122.165| 14.150 | 0.708 | | 152 | 1108.015| 14.151 | 0.708 | | 132 | 1093.864| 14.228 | 0.711 | | 112 | 1079.636| 14.937 | 0.747 | | 92 | 1064.699| 20.911 | 1.045 | | 72 | 1043.788| 25.943 | 1.297 | | 52 | 1017.845| 17.845 | 0.892 | | 32 | 1000.000| | |

Mean expansion: 0.786

From this very extensive and judicious range of experiments, it is evident that the expansibility of air by heat is greatest when the air is about its ordinary density, and that in small densities it is greatly diminished. It appears also, that the law of compression is altered; for in this specimen of the rare air half of the whole expansion happens about the temperature 99°, but in air of ordinary density at 105°. This being the case, we see that the experiments of Mr Amontons, narrated in the Memoirs of the Academy at Paris 1702, &c. are not inconsistent with those more perspicuous experiments of General Roy. Amontons found, that whatever was the density of the air, at least in cases much denser than ordinary air, the change of 185° of temperature increased its elasticity in the same proportion: for he found, that the column of mercury which it supported when of the temperature 50°, was increased one-third at the temperature 212°. Hence he hastily concluded, that its expansibility was increased in the same proportion; but this by no means follows, unless we are certain that in every temperature the elasticity is proportional to the density. This is a point which still remains undecided; and it merits attention, because if true it establishes a remarkable law concerning the action of heat, which would seem to go to prove that the elasticity of fluids is the property of the matter of fire, which it superinduces on every body with which it combines in the form of vapour.

After this account of the expansion of air, we see that the height through which we must rise in order to produce a given fall of the mercury in the barometer, or the thickness of the stratum of air equiponderant with a tenth of an inch of mercury, must increase with the expansion of air; and that if \( \frac{2.29}{1000} \) be the expansion for one degree, we must multiply the excess of the temperature of the air above 32° by 0.00229, and multiply the product by 87, in order to obtain the thickness of the stratum where the barometer stands at 30 inches: or whatever be the elevation indicated by the difference of the barometrical heights, upon the supposition that the air is of the temperature 32°, we must multiply this by 0.00229 for every degree that the air is warmer or colder than 32°. The product must be added to the elevation in the first case, and subtracted in the latter.

Sir George Shuckburgh deduces 0.0024 from his experiments as the mean expansion of air in the ordinary cases: and this is probably nearer the truth; because General Roy's experiments were made on air which was freer from damp than the ordinary air in the fields: and it appears from his experiments, that a very minute quantity of damp increases its expansibility by heat in a prodigious degree.

The great difficulty is how to apply this correction; or rather, how to determine the temperature of the air in this in those extensive and deep strata in which the elevations are measured. It seldom or never happens that the stratum is of the same temperature throughout. It is commonly much colder aloft; it is also of different constitutions. Below it is warm, loaded with vapour, and very expansible; above it is cold, much drier, and less expansible, both by its dryness and its rarity. The currents of wind are often disposed in strata, which long retain their places; and as they come from different regions, are of different temperatures and different constitutions. We cannot therefore determine the expansion of the whole stratum with precision, and must content ourselves with an approximation: and the best approximation that we can make is, by supposing the whole stratum of a mean temperature between those of its upper and lower extremity, and employ the expansion corresponding to that mean temperature.

This, however, is founded on a gratuitous supposition, that the whole intermediate stratum expands alike, and that the expansion is equable in the different intermediate temperatures; but neither of these is warranted by experiment. Rare air expands less than what is denser; and therefore the general expansion of the whole stratum renders its density more uniform. Dr Horsey has pointed out some curious consequences of this in Phil. Transl. vol. lxiv. There is a particular elevation at which the general expansion, instead of diminishing the density of the air, increases it by the superior expansion of what is below; and we know that the expansion is not equable in the intermediate temperatures: but we cannot find out a rule which will give us a more accurate correction than by taking the expansion for the mean temperature.

When we have done this, we have carried the method of measuring heights by the barometer as far as it can go; and this source of remaining error makes it needless to attend to some other very minute equations which theory points out. Such is the diminution of the weight of the mercury by the change of distance from the centre of the earth. This accompanies the diminution of the weight of the air, but neither so as to compensate it, nor to go along with it pari passu.

After all, there are found cases where there is a regular deviation from those rules, of which we cannot give any very satisfactory account. Thus it is found, that in the province of Quito in Peru, which is at a great elevation above the surface of the ocean, the heights obtained by these rules fall considerably short of the PNEUMATICS.

Barometer, the real heights; and at Spitzbergen they considerably exceed them. It appears that the air in the circumpolar regions is denser than the air of the temperate climates when of the same heat and under the same pressure; and the contrary seems to be the case with the air in the torrid zone. It would seem that the specific gravity of air to mercury is at Spitzbergen about 1 to 10224, and in Peru about 1 to 13100. This difference is with great probability ascribed to the greater dryness of the circumpolar air.

This source of error will always remain; and it is combined with another, which should be attended to by all who practise this method of measuring heights, namely, a difference in the specific gravity of the quicksilver. It is thought sufficiently pure for a barometer when it is cleared of all calcinable matter, so as not to drag or foul the tube. In this state it may contain a considerable portion of other metals, particularly of silver, bismuth, and tin, which will diminish its specific gravity. It has been obtained by revivification from cinnabar of the specific gravity 14.229, and it is thought very fine if 13.65. Sir George Shuckburgh found the quicksilver which agreed precisely with the atmospheric observations on which the rules are founded, to have the specific gravity 13.61. It is seldom obtained so heavy. It is evident that these variations will change the whole results; and that it is absolutely necessary, in order to obtain precision, that we know the density of the mercury employed. The subtangent of the atmospheric logarithmic, or the height of the homogeneous atmosphere, will increase in the same proportion with the density of the mercury; and the elevation corresponding to one-tenth of an inch of barometric height will change in the same proportion.

We must be contented with the remaining imperfections: and we can readily see, that, for any purpose that can be answered by such measurements of great heights, the method is sufficiently exact; but it is quite inadequate to the purpose of taking accurate levels, for directing the construction of canals, aqueducts, and other works of this kind, where extreme precision is absolutely necessary.

We shall now deduce from all that has been said on this subject sets of easy rules for the practice of this mode of measurement, illustrating them by an example.

1. M. DE LUC's Method.

I. Subtract the logarithm of the barometrical height at the upper station from the logarithm of that at the lower, and count the index and four first decimal figures of the remainder as fathoms, the rest as a decimal fraction. Call this the elevation.

II. Note the different temperatures of the mercury at the two stations, and the mean temperature. Multiply the logarithmic expansion corresponding to this mean temperature (in Table B, p. 709.) by the difference of the two temperatures, and subtract the product from the elevation if the barometer has been coldest at the upper station, otherwise add it. Call the difference or the sum the approximated elevation.

III. Note the difference of the temperatures of the air at the two stations by a detached thermometer, and also the mean temperature and its difference from 32°. Multiply this difference by the expansion of air for the mean temperature, and multiply the approximate elevation by this product, according as the air is above or below 32°. The product is the correct elevation in fathoms and decimals.

Example.

Suppose that the mercury in the barometer at the lower station was at 29.4 inches, that its temperature was 50°, and the temperature of the air was 45°; and let the height of the mercury at the upper station be 25.19 inches, its temperature 46°, and the temperature of the air 39°. Thus we have

| Gal Hts. | Temp. | Mean. | Temp. Air. Mean. | |----------|-------|-------|-----------------| | 29.4 | 50 | 48 | 45 | | 25.19 | 46 | 30 | 42 |

I. Log. of 29.4 = 1.4683473 Log. of 25.19 = 1.4012282

Elevation in fathoms = 671.191

II. Expans. for 48° = 473 Multiply = 1.892

Approximated elevation = 669.299

III. Expans. of air at 42° = 0.00238 × 42 - 32 = 10° = 10

Multiply = 0.0238

By = 1.0238

Product = the correct elevation = 685.228

2. Sir GEORGE SHUCKBURGH's Method.

I. Reduce the barometric heights to what they would be if they were of the temperature 32°.

II. The difference of the logarithms of the reduced barometrical heights will give the approximate elevation.

III. Correct the approximated elevation as before.

Same Example.

I. Mean expans. for 1° from Tab. A, is 0.000111 18° × 0.000111 × 29.4 = 0.059 Subtract this from = 29.4

Reduced barometric height = 29.341

Expans. from Tab. A is 0.000111. 14° × 0.000111 × 25.19 = 0.039 Subtract from = 25.190

Reduced barometric height = 25.151

II. Log. 29.341 = 1.4674749 Log. 25.151 = 1.4005553

Approximated elevation = 669.196

III. This multiplied by 1.0238 gives 685.125

Remark. If 0.000101 be supposed the mean expansion of mercury for 1°, as Sir George Shuckburgh determines it, the reduction of the barometric heights will be had sufficiently exact by multiplying the observed heights of the mercury by the difference of its temperatures.

Corr. for temp. of mercury, =4 x 2.83

Corrected elevation in feet - 4111.92 Ditto in fathoms - 685.32 Differing from the former only 15 inches.

This rule may be expressed by the following simple and easily remembered formula, where \(a\) is the difference between 32° and the mean temperature of the air, \(d\) is the difference of barometric heights in tenths of an inch, \(m\) is the mean barometric height, \(\delta\) the difference between the mercurial temperatures, and \(E\) is the correct elevation.

\[ E = \frac{30(87 + 0.21a)d}{m} \times 2.83. \]

We shall now conclude this subject by an account of Heights of some of the most remarkable mountains, &c., on the most earth, above the surface of the ocean, in feet.

| Mountain Name | Height (feet) | |--------------------------------------|--------------| | Mount Puy de Domme in Auvergne | 5088 | | Mount Blanc | 15662 | | Monte Rosa | 15084 | | Aiguille d'Argenture | 13402 | | Monastery of St Bernard | 7944 | | Mount Cenis | 9212 | | Pic de los Reyes | 7620 | | Pic du Médi | 9300 | | Pic d'Offano | 11700 | | Canegou | 8544 | | Lake of Geneva | 1232 | | Mount Ætna | 10954 | | Mount Vesuvius | 3938 | | Mount Hekla in Iceland | 4887 | | Snowdown | 3555 | | Ben More | 3723 | | Ben Lawers | 3858 | | Ben Gloe | 3472 | | Schellion | 3461 | | Ben Lomond | 3180 | | Tinto | 2342 | | Table Hill, Cape of Good Hope | 3454 | | Gondar city in Abyssinia | 8440 | | Source of the Nile | 8882 | | Pic of Teneriffe | 14026 | | Chimborazo | 19595 | | Cayambourou | 19391 | | Antifana | 19290 | | Pinchinha (see Peru, No. 56.) | 15670 | | City of Quito (see ditto) | 9977 | | Cañian sea below the ocean | 306 |

This last is so singular, that it is necessary to give the authority on which this determination is founded. It is deduced from nine years observations with the barometer at Afrachan by Mr Lecre, compared with a series of observations made with the same barometer at St Peterburgh.

This employment of the barometer has caused it to become a very interesting instrument to the philosopher barometers, and to the traveller; and many attempts have been made of late to improve it, and render it more portable.

The improvements have either been directed to the enlargement of its range, or to the more accurate measurement of its present scale. Of the first kind are Hooke's wheel barometer, the diagonal barometer, and the horizontal barometer, described in a former part of this work.

Remark 2. If 0.0024 be taken for the expansion of air for one degree, the correction for this expansion will be had by multiplying the approximated elevation by 12, and this product by the sum of the differences of the temperatures from 32°, counting the difference as negative when the temperature is below 32, and cutting off four places; thus 669.196 x 12 x 13 + 0.7 x 1/1000 = 16.061, which added to 669.196 gives 685.257, differing from the former only 9 inches.

From the same premises we may derive a rule, which is abundantly exact for all geodetical purposes, and which requires no tables of any kind, and is easily remembered.

1. The height through which we must rise in order to produce any fall of the mercury in the barometer, is inversely proportional to the density of the air, that is, to the height of the mercury in the barometer.

2. When the barometer stands at 30 inches, and the air and quicksilver are of the temperature 32°, we must rise through 87 feet, in order to produce a depression of \( \frac{1}{25} \) of an inch.

3. But if the air be of a different temperature, this 87 feet must be increased or diminished by 0.21 of a foot for every degree of difference of the temperature from 32°.

4. Every degree of difference of the temperatures of the mercury at the two stations makes a change of 2.833 feet, or 2 feet 10 inches in the elevation.

Hence the following rule.

1. Take the difference of the barometric heights in tenths of an inch. Call this \(d\).

2. Multiply the difference \(a\) between 32 and the mean temperature of the air by 21, and take the sum or difference of this product and 87 feet. This is the height through which we must rise to cause the barometer to fall from 30 inches to 29.9. Call this height \(h\).

Let \(m\) be the mean between the two barometric heights. Then \( \frac{30hd}{m} \) is the approximated elevation very nearly.

Multiply the difference \( \delta \) of the mercurial temperatures by 2.83 feet, and add this product to the approximated elevation if the upper barometer has been the warmest, otherwise subtract it. The result, that is, the sum or difference, will be the corrected elevation.

**Same Example.**

\[ \begin{align*} d &= 294 - 251.9 = 42.1 \\ b &= 87 + 10 \times 0.21 = 89.1 \\ m &= \frac{29.4 + 25.19}{2} = 27.29 \\ \text{Approx. elevation} &= \frac{30 \times 42.1 \times 89.1}{27.29} = 4123.24 \text{ feet}. \end{align*} \] work. See Barometer. In that place are also described two very ingenious contrivances of Mr Rownings, which are evidently not portable. Of all the barometers with an enlarged scale the best is that invented by Dr Hooke in 1668, and described in the Phil. Trans. No. 185. The invention was also claimed by Huyghens and by De la Hire; but Hooke's was published long before.

It consists of a compound tube ABCDEFG (fig. 73.), of which the parts AB and DE are equally wide, and EFG as much narrower as we would amplify the scale. The parts A.B and E.G must also be as perfectly cylindrical as possible. The part HBCDI is filled with mercury, having a vacuum above in AB. IF is filled with a light fluid, and FG with another light fluid which will not mix with that in IF. The cistern G is of the same diameter as AB. It is easy to see that the range of the separating surface at F must be as much greater than that of the surface I as the area of I is greater than that of F. And this ratio is in our choice. This barometer is free from all the bad qualities of those formerly described, being most delicately moveable; and is by far the fittest for a chamber, for amusement, by observations on the changes of the atmospheric pressure. The slightest breeze causes it to rise and fall, and it is continually in motion.

But this, and all other contrivances of the kind, are inferior to the common barometer for measurement of heights, on account of their bulk and cumbersome-ness; nay, they are inferior for all philosophical purposes in point of accuracy; and this for a reason that admits of no reply. Their scale must be determined in all its parts by the common barometer; and, therefore, notwithstanding their great range, they are susceptible of no greater accuracy than that with which the scale of a common barometer can be observed and measured. This will be evident to any person who will take the trouble to consider how the points of their scale must be ascertained. The most accurate method for graduating such a barometer as we have now described would be to make a mixture of vitriolic acid and water, which should have \( \frac{1}{2} \) of the density of mercury. Then, let a long tube stand vertical in this fluid, and connect its upper end with the open end of the barometer by a pipe which has a branch to which we can apply the mouth. Then if we suck through this pipe, the fluid will rise both in the barometer and in the other tube; and 10 inches rise in this tube will correspond to one inch descent in the common barometer. In this manner may every point of the scale be adjusted in due proportion to the rest. But it still remains to determine what particular point of the scale corresponds to some determined inch of the common barometer. This can only be done by an actual comparison; and this being done, the whole becomes equally accurate. Except therefore for the mere purpose of chamber amusement, in which case the barometer last described has a decided preference, the common barometer is to be preferred; and our attention should be entirely directed to its improvement and portability.

For this purpose it should be furnished with two microscopes or magnifying glasses, one of them stationed at the beginning of the scale; which should either be moveable, so that it may always be brought to the surface of the mercury in the cistern, or the cistern should be so contrived that its surface may always be brought to the beginning of the scale. The glasses will enable us to see the coincidence with accuracy. The other microscope must be moveable, so as to be set opposite to the surface of the mercury in the tube; and the scale should be furnished with a vernier which divides an inch into 1000 parts, and be made of materials of which we know the expansion with great precision.

For an account of many ingenious contrivances to make the instruments accurate, portable, and commodious, consult Magellan, Différ. de diverses Infir. de Phys.; Phil. Trans. lxvii. lxviii.; Journ. de Phys. xix. 108. 346. xvi. 392. xviii. 391. xxii. 436. xxii. 390.; Sulzer, Act. Helvet. iii. 259.; De Luc, Recherches sur les Modifications de l'Atmosphère, i. 401. ii. 459. 490. De Luc's seems the most simple and perfect of them all. Cardinal de Luynes (Mem. Par. 1768); Prinf. De Luc, Recherches, § 63.; Van Swinden's Positiones Physici; Com. Acad. Petrop. i.; Com. Acad. Petrop. Nov. ii. 200 viii.

Thus we have given an elementary account of the distinguishing properties of air as a heavy and compressible fluid, and of the general phenomena which are immediate consequences of these properties. This we have done in a set of propositions analogous to those which form the doctrines of hydrostatics. It remains to consider it in another point of view, namely, as moveable and inert. The phenomena consequent on these properties are exhibited in the velocities which air acquires by pressure, in the resistance which bodies meet with to their motion through the air, and in the impression which air in motion gives to bodies exposed to its action.

We shall first consider the motions of which air is susceptible when the equilibrium of pressure (whether arising from its weight or its elasticity) is removed; and in the next place, we shall consider its action on solid bodies exposed to its current, and the resistance which it makes to their motion through it.

In this consideration we shall avoid the extreme of doctrine of generality, which renders the discussion too abstract and inadmissible, and adapt our investigation to the circumstances in which compressible fluids (of which air is acted on by taken for the representative) are most commonly found, equal and We shall consider air therefore as it is commonly found parallel in accessible situations, as acted on by equal and parallel gravity; and we shall consider it in the same order in which water is treated in a system of hydraulics.

In that science the leading problem is to determine analogous with what velocity the water will move through a given to the orifice when impelled by some known pressure; and it has been found, that the best form in which this most difficult and intricate proposition can be put, is to determine the velocity of water flowing through this orifice when impelled by its weight alone. Having determined this, we can reduce to this case every question which can be proposed; for, in place of the pressure of any piston or other mover, we can always substitute a perpendicular column of water or air whose weight shall be equal to the given pressure.

The first problem, therefore, is to determine with The velocity what velocity air will rush into a void when impelled city by its weight alone. This is evidently analogous to the hydraulic problem of water flowing out of a vessel.

And here we must be contented with referring our own readers to the solutions which have been given of that weight, problem. problem, and the demonstration that it flows with the velocity which a heavy body would acquire by falling from a height equal to the depth of the hole under the surface of the water in the vessel. In whatever way we attempt to demonstrate that proposition, every step, may, every word, of the demonstration applies equally to the air, or to any fluid whatever. Or, if our readers should wish to see the connection or analogy of the cases, we only desire them to recollect an undoubted maxim in the science of motion, that when the moving force and the matter to be moved vary in the same proportion, the velocity will be the same. If therefore there be similar vessels of air, water, oil, or any other fluid, all of the height of a homogeneous atmosphere, they will all run through equal and similar holes with the same velocity; for in whatever proportion the quantity of matter moving through the hole be varied by a variation of density, the pressure which forces it out, by acting in circumstances perfectly similar, varies in the same proportion by the same variation of density.

We must therefore affirm it as the leading proposition, that air rushes from the atmosphere into a void with the velocity which a heavy body would acquire by falling from the top of a homogeneous atmosphere.

It is known that air is about 840 times lighter than water, and that the pressure of the atmosphere supports water at the height of 33 feet nearly. The height therefore of a homogeneous atmosphere is nearly $33 \times 840$, or 27720 feet. Moreover, to know the velocity acquired by any fall, recollect that a heavy body by falling one foot acquires the velocity of 8 feet per second; and that the velocities acquired by falling through different heights are as the square roots of the heights. Therefore to find the velocity corresponding to any height, expressed in feet per second, multiply the square root of the height by 8. We have therefore in the present instance $V = \sqrt{27720} = 8 \times 166.493 = 1332$ feet per second. This therefore is the velocity with which common air will rush into a void; and this may be taken as a standard number in pneumatics, as 16 and 32 are standard numbers in the general science of mechanics, expressing the action of gravity at the surface of the earth.

It is easy to see that greater precision is not necessary in this matter. The height of a homogeneous atmosphere is a variable thing, depending on the temperature of the air. If this reason seems any objection against the use of the number 1332, we may retain $8\sqrt{H}$ in place of it, where $H$ expresses the height of a homogeneous atmosphere of the given temperature. A variation of the barometer makes no change in the velocity, nor in the height of the homogeneous atmosphere, because it is accompanied by a proportional variation in the density of the air. When it is increased $\frac{1}{\sqrt{D}}$, for instance, the density is also increased $\frac{1}{\sqrt{D}}$; and thus the expelling force and the matter to be moved are changed in the same proportion, and the velocity remains the same. N.B. We do not here consider the velocity which the air acquires after its issuing into the void by its continual expansion. This may be ascertained by the 30th prop. of Newton's Principia, b. i. Nay, which appears very paradoxical, if a cylinder of air, communicating in this manner with a void, be compressed by a piston loaded with a weight, which presses it down as the air flows out, and thus keep it of the same density, the velocity of efflux will still be the same, however great the pressure may chance to be: for the first and immediate effect of the load on the piston is to reduce the air in the cylinder to such a density that its elasticity shall exactly balance the load; and because the elasticity of air is proportional to its density, the density of the air will be increased in the same proportion with the load, that is, with the expelling power (for we are neglecting at present the weight of the included air as too inconceivable to have any sensible effect). Therefore, since the matter to be moved is increased in the same proportion with the pressure, the velocity will be the same as before.

It is equally easy to determine the velocity with which and the air of the atmosphere will rush into a space containing with which rarer air. Whatever may be the density of this air, it rushes into its elasticity, which follows the proportion of its density, to a space will balance a proportional part of the pressure of the containing atmosphere; and it is the excess of this last only which is the moving force. The matter to be moved is the same as before. Let $D$ be the natural density of the air, and $\delta$ the density of the air contained in the vessel into which it is supposed to run, and let $P$ be the pressure of the atmosphere, and therefore equal to the force which impels it into a void; and let $\pi$ be the force with which this rarer air would rush into a void.

We have $D : \delta = P : \pi$, and $\pi = \frac{PD}{D}$. Now the moving force in the present instance is $P - \pi$, or $P - \frac{PD}{D}$.

Lastly, let $V$ be the velocity of air rushing into a void, and $v$ the velocity with which it will rush into this rarified air.

It is a theorem in the motion of fluids, that the pressures are as the squares of the velocities of efflux. Therefore $P : P - \frac{PD}{D} = V^2 : v^2$. Hence we derive

$$v^2 = V^2 \times \frac{D}{D - \delta}$$

and $v \times V = \sqrt{\frac{D}{D - \delta}}$. We do not here consider the resistance which the air of the atmosphere will meet with from the inertia of that in the vessel which it must displace in its motion.

Here we see that there will always be a current into the vessel while $\delta$ is less than $D$.

We also learn the gradual diminution of the velocity as the vessel fills; for $\delta$ continually increases, and therefore $1 - \frac{\delta}{D}$ continually diminishes.

It remains to determine the time $t$ expressed in seconds, in which the air of the atmosphere will flow into this vessel from its state of vacuity till the air in the vessel has acquired any proposed density $\delta$.

For this purpose, let $H$, expressed in feet, be the height through which a heavy body must fall in order to acquire the velocity $V$, expressed also in feet per second. This we shall express more briefly in future, by calling it the height producing the velocity $V$. Let $C$ represent the capacity of the vessel, expressed in cubic feet, and $O$ the area or section of the orifice, expressed in superficial or square feet; and let the natural density of the air be $D$.

Since the quantity of aerial matter contained in a vessel depends on the capacity of the vessel and the density of the air jointly, we may express the air which would fill this vessel by the symbol \( CD \) when the air is in its ordinary state, and by \( C \delta \) when it has the density \( \delta \). In order to obtain the rate at which it fills, we must take the fluxion of this quantity \( C \delta \). This is \( C \delta \); for \( C \) is a constant quantity, and \( \delta \) is a variable or flowing quantity.

But we also obtain the rate of influx by our knowledge of the velocity, and the area of the orifice, and the density. The velocity is \( V \), or \( 8\sqrt{H} \), at the first instant; and when the air in the vessel has acquired the density \( \delta \), that is, at the end of the time \( t \), the velocity is \( 8\sqrt{H} \frac{\delta}{D} \), or \( 8\sqrt{H} \frac{\delta}{D} \),

or \( 8\sqrt{H} \frac{\delta}{\sqrt{D}} \).

The rate of influx therefore (which may be conceived as measured by the little mass of air which will enter during the time \( t \) with this velocity) will be

\[ 8\sqrt{HOD} \frac{\delta}{\sqrt{D}} \]

multiplying the velocity by the orifice and the density;

Here then we have two values of the rate of influx. By stating them as equal we have a fluxionary equation, from which we may obtain the fluents, that is, the time \( t \) seconds necessary for bringing the air in the vessel to the density \( \delta \), or the density \( \delta \) which will be produced at the end of any time \( t \). We have the equation

\[ 8\sqrt{HOD} \frac{\delta}{\sqrt{D}} = C \delta. \]

Hence we derive

\[ \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HOD}} \times \frac{\delta}{\sqrt{D}}. \]

Of this the fluent is

\[ \frac{C}{4\sqrt{HOD}} \times \sqrt{D} - \delta + A, \]

in which \( A \) is a conditional constant quantity. The condition which determines it is, that \( t \) must be nothing when \( \delta \) is nothing, that is, when \( \sqrt{D} - \delta = \sqrt{D} \); for this is evidently the case at the beginning of the motion. Hence it follows, that the constant quantity is \( \sqrt{D} \), and the complete fluent, suited to the case, is

\[ \frac{C}{4\sqrt{HOD}} \times \sqrt{D} - \delta. \]

The motion ceases when the air in the vessel has acquired the density of the external air; that is, when \( \delta = D \), or when \( t = \frac{C}{4\sqrt{HOD}} \times \sqrt{D} = \frac{C}{4\sqrt{HO}} \).

Therefore the time of completely filling the vessel is

\[ \frac{C}{4\sqrt{HO}}. \]

Let us illustrate this by an example in numbers.

Supposing then that air is 840 times lighter than water, and the height of the homogeneous atmosphere 27720 feet, we have \( 4\sqrt{H} = 666 \). Let us further suppose the vessel to contain 8 cubic feet, which is nearly a wine hogshead, and that the hole by which the air of the ordinary density, which we shall make =1, enters is an inch square, or \( \frac{1}{144} \) of a square foot. Then the time in seconds of completely filling it will be

\[ \frac{8}{144666}, \]

or \( \frac{1152}{666} \), or \( 1.7297 \). If the hole is only \( \frac{1}{100} \) of a square inch, that is, if its side is \( \frac{1}{10} \) of an inch, the time of completely filling the hogshead will be \( 173 \) very nearly, or something less than three minutes.

If we make the experiment with a hole cut in a thin plate, we shall find the time greater nearly in the proportion of 63 to 100, for reasons obvious to all who have studied hydraulics. In like manner we can tell the time necessary for bringing the air in the vessel to \( \frac{1}{4} \) of its ordinary density. The only variable part of our fluent is the coefficient \( \frac{\sqrt{D} - \delta}{\sqrt{D}} \), or \( \frac{\sqrt{I} - \delta}{\sqrt{I}} \). Let \( \delta \) be \( \frac{1}{4} \), then \( \frac{\sqrt{I} - \delta}{\sqrt{I}} = \frac{1}{2} \), and \( \frac{\sqrt{I} - \delta}{\sqrt{I}} = \frac{1}{2} \);

and the time is \( 86 \) very nearly when the hole is \( \frac{1}{10} \) of an inch wide.

Let us now suppose that the air in the vessel ABCD (fig. 81.) is compressed by a weight acting on the cover AD, which is moveable down the vessel, and is thus with the additional expelled into the external air.

The immediate effect of this external pressure is to impale of compresses the air and give it another density. The weight density \( D \) of the external air corresponds to its pressure down the P. Let the additional pressure on the cover of the vessel be \( p \), and the density of the air in the vessel be \( d \). We shall have \( P : P + p = D : d \); and therefore

\[ p = P \times \frac{d - D}{D}. \]

Then, because the pressure which expels the air is the difference between the force which compresses the air in the vessel and the force which compresses the external air, the expelling force is \( p \). And because the quantities of motion are as the forces which similarly produce them, we shall have

\[ P : P \times \frac{d - D}{D} = MV : mv; \]

where \( M \) and \( m \) express the quantities of matter expelled, \( V \) expresses the velocity with which air rushes into a void, and \( v \) expresses the velocity sought. But because the quantities of aerial matter which issue from the same orifice in a moment are as the densities and velocities jointly, we shall have \( MV : mv = DV^2 : dv^2 \).

Therefore \( P : p \times \frac{d - D}{D} = DV^2 : dv^2 \). Hence we deduce

\[ v = V \times \frac{\sqrt{d - D}}{d}. \]

We may have another expression of the velocity without considering the density. We had \( P : P + p = D : d \);

therefore \( d = \frac{D \times P + p}{P} \), and \( d - D = \frac{D \times P + p}{P} - D \),

\[ = \frac{D \times P + p - DP}{P}, \]

and \( \frac{d - D}{d} = \frac{D \times P + p - DP}{D \times P + p} = \frac{P + p - P}{P + p} = \frac{p}{P + p}: \]

therefore \( v = V \times \frac{\sqrt{p}}{\sqrt{P + p}} \), which is a very simple and convenient expression.

Hitherto we have considered the motion of air as produced by its weight only. Let us now consider the effect of its elasticity.

Let ABCD (fig. 81.) be a vessel containing air of considerable density \( D \). This air is in a state of compression; and if the compressing force be removed it will expand, and its elasticity will diminish along with its density. Its elasticity in any state is measured by the force which keeps it in that state. The force which keeps common air in its ordinary density is the weight of the atmosphere, and is the same with the weight of a column of water 33 feet high. If therefore we suppose that this air, air, instead of being confined by the top of the vessel, is pressed down by a moveable piston carrying a column of water 33 feet high; its elasticity will balance this pressure as it balances the pressure of the atmosphere; and as it is a fluid, and propagates through every part the pressure exerted on any one part, it will press on any little portion of the vessel by its elasticity in the same manner as when loaded with this column.

The consequence of this reasoning is, that if this small portion of the vessel be removed, and thus a passage be made into a void, the air will begin to flow out with the same velocity with which it would flow when impelled by its weight alone, or with the velocity acquired by falling from the top of a homogeneous atmosphere, or 1332 feet in a second nearly.

But as soon as some air has come out, the density of the remaining air is diminished, and its elasticity is diminished; therefore the expelling force is diminished. But the matter to be moved is diminished in the very same proportion, because the density and elasticity are found to vary according to the same law; therefore the velocity will continue the same from the beginning to the end of the efflux.

This may be seen in another way. Let P be the pressure of the atmosphere, which being the counterbalance and measure of the initial elasticity, is equal to the expelling force at the first instant. Let D be the initial density, and V the initial velocity. Let d be its density at the end of the time t of efflux, and v the contemporaneous velocity. It is plain that at the end of this time we shall have the expelling force \( \frac{P}{D} = \frac{Pd}{D} \).

These forces are proportional to the quantities of motion which they produce; and the quantities of motion are proportional to the quantities of matter M and m and the velocities V and v jointly: therefore we have

\[ P : \frac{Pd}{D} = MV : mv. \]

But the quantities of matter which escape through a given orifice are as the densities and velocities jointly; that is, \( M : m = DV : dv \); therefore

\[ P : \frac{Pd}{D} = DV^2 : dv^2, \quad \text{and} \quad P \times dv^2 = \frac{PdDV^2}{D} = PdV^2, \]

and \( V^2 = v^2 \), and \( V = v \), and the velocity of efflux is constant. Hence follows, what appears very unlikely at first sight, that however much the air in the vessel is condensed, it will always issue into a void with the same velocity.

In order to find the quantity of aerial matter which will issue during any time t, and consequently the density of the remaining air at the end of this time, we must get the rate of efflux. In the element of time \( dt \) there issues (by what has been said above) the bulk \( 8\sqrt{HO}dt \) (for the velocity V is constant); and therefore the quantity \( 8\sqrt{HO}dt \). On the other hand, the quantity of air at the beginning was CD, C being the capacity of the vessel; and when the air has acquired the density d, the quantity is Cd, and the quantity run out is CD - Cd; therefore the quantity which has run out in the time \( dt \) must be the fluxion of CD - Cd, or \( -Cd \). Therefore we have the equation \( 8\sqrt{HO}dt = -Cd \), and \( i = \frac{-Cd}{8\sqrt{HO}dt} = \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \times \frac{d}{dt} \).

The fluent of this is \( \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \log d \). This fluent must be so taken that \( i \) may be zero when \( d = D \). Therefore the correct fluent will be \( \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \log \frac{D}{d} \), for \( \log \frac{D}{d} = \log 1 = 0 \). We deduce from this, that it requires an infinite time for the whole air of a vessel to flow out of it into a void. N.B. By log, d, &c., is meant the hyperbolic logarithm of d, &c.

Let us next suppose that the vessel, instead of letting out its air into a void, emits it into air of a less density, which remains constant during the efflux, as we it into rarer may suppose to be the case when a vessel containing condensed air emits it into the surrounding atmosphere. Let the initial density of the air in the vessel be \( \delta \), and that of the atmosphere D. Then it is plain that the expelling force is \( P - \frac{PD}{\delta} \), and that after the time \( t \) it is \( \frac{Pd}{\delta} - \frac{PD}{\delta} \). We have therefore \( P - \frac{PD}{\delta} = \frac{Pd}{\delta} - \frac{PD}{\delta} = MV : mv, \Rightarrow V^2 : dv^2 \). Whence we derive \( v = V \sqrt{\frac{\delta - D}{d - D}} \).

From this equation we learn that the motion will be at an end when \( d = D \); and if \( \delta = D \) there can be no efflux.

To find the relation between the time and the density, let H as before be the height producing the velocity V. The height producing the velocity of efflux when issuing into a void.

On the other hand, it is \( -Cd \).

Hence we deduce the fluxionary equation \( i = \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \times \frac{d}{\sqrt{d^2 - D^2}} \). The fluent of this, corrected so as to make \( i = 0 \) when \( d = \delta \), is \( \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \times \log \left( \frac{\delta - D + \sqrt{\delta^2 - D^2}}{\delta - D - \sqrt{\delta^2 - D^2}} \right) \). And the time of completing the efflux, when \( d = D \), is \( \frac{C}{8\sqrt{HO}} \times \log \left( \frac{\delta - D + \sqrt{\delta^2 - D^2}}{\delta - D - \sqrt{\delta^2 - D^2}} \right) \).

Lastly, let ABCD, CFGH (fig. 82.) be two vessels containing airs of different densities, and communicating by the orifice C, there will be a current from the vessel containing the denser air into that containing the rarer: supposing from ABCD into CFGH.

Let P be the elastic force of the air in ABCD, Q its density, and V its velocity, and D the density of the air in CFGH. And, after the time \( t \), let the density of the air in \( \text{ABCD} \) be \( q \), its velocity \( v \), and the density of the air in \( \text{CFGH} \) be \( \delta \). The expelling force from \( \text{ABCD} \) will be \( P = \frac{\text{PD}}{Q} \) at the first instant, and at the end of the time \( t \) it will be \( \frac{\text{Pq}}{Q} - \frac{\text{P}}{Q} \). Therefore we shall have \( \frac{\text{PD}}{Q} : \frac{\text{Pq}}{Q} - \frac{\text{P}}{Q} = QV^2 : qv^4 \), which gives \( v = V \times \sqrt{\frac{Q(q-\delta)}{q(Q-D)}} \), and the motion will cease when \( \delta = q \).

Let \( A \) be the capacity of the first vessel, and \( B \) that of the second. We have the second equation \( AQ + BD = Aq + B\delta \), and therefore \( \delta = \frac{A(Q-q)+BD}{B} \).

Substituting this value of \( \delta \) in the former value of \( v \), we have \( v = V \times \sqrt{\frac{Q(B(q-D)-A(Q-q))}{q(B-Q)}} \), which gives the relation between the velocity \( v \) and the density \( q \).

In order to ascertain the time when the air in \( \text{ABCD} \) has acquired the density \( q \), it will be convenient to abridge the work by some substitutions. Therefore make \( Q(B+A)=M \), \( BQD+BQ^2=N \), \( BQ-BD=R \) and \( \frac{N}{M}=m \). Then, proceeding as before, we obtain the fluxionary equation

\[ 8\sqrt{HOq}\sqrt{MQ-N} = \frac{A/R}{\sqrt{R/q}} \]

\[ AQ-Aq=-Ag \], whence \( i = \frac{A/R}{8\sqrt{HO/M} \times \sqrt{q^2-mq}} \)

of which the fluent, completed so that \( t=0 \) when \( q=Q \), is \( t = \frac{A/R}{8\sqrt{HO/M}} \times \log \left( \frac{Q-\frac{1}{2}m+\sqrt{(Q^2-mQ)}}{q-\frac{1}{2}m+\sqrt{(q^2-mq)}} \right) \).

Some of these questions are of difficult solution, and they are not of frequent use in the more important and usual applications of the doctrines of pneumatics, at least in their present form. The cases of greatest use are when the air is expelled from a vessel by an external force, as when bellows are worked, whether of the ordinary form or consisting of a cylinder fitted with a moveable piston. This last case merits a particular consideration; and, fortunately, the investigation is extremely easy.

Let \( AD \), fig. 31, be considered as a piston moving downward with the uniform velocity \( f \), and let the area of the piston be \( n \) times the area of the hole of efflux, then the velocity of efflux arising from the motion of the piston will be \( nf \). Add this to the velocity \( V \) produced by the elasticity of the air in the first question, and the whole velocity will be \( V+nf \). It will be the same in the other. The problem is also freed from the consideration of the time of efflux. For this depends now on the velocity of the piston. It is still, however, a very intricate problem to ascertain the relation between the time and the density, even though the piston is moving uniformly; for at the beginning of the motion the air is of common density. As the piston descends, it both expels and compresses the air, and the density of the air in the vessel varies in a very intricate manner, as also its resistance or reaction on the piston. For this reason, a piston which moves uniformly by means of an external force will never make an uniform blast by successive strokes; it will always be weaker at the beginning of the stroke. The best way for securing an uniform blast is to employ the external force only for lifting up the piston, and then to let the piston descend by its own weight. In this way it will quickly sink down, compressing the air, till its density and corresponding elasticity exactly balance the weight of the piston. After this the piston will descend equably, and the blast will be uniform. We shall have occasion to consider this more particularly under the head of Pneumatic Machines. These observations and theorems will serve to determine the initial velocity of the air in all important cases of its expulsion. The philosopher will learn the rate of its efflux out of one vessel into another; the chemist will be able to calculate the quantities of the different gases which are employed in the curious experiments of the ingenious but unfortunate Lavoisier on Combustion, and will find them extremely different from what he supposed; the engineer will learn how to proportion the motive force of his machine to the quantity of aerial matter which his bellows must supply. But it is not enough, for this purpose, that the air begin to issue in the proper quantity; we must see whether it be not affected by the circumstances of its subsequent passage.

All the modifications of motion which are observed in water conduits take place also in the passage of air through pipes and holes of all kinds. There is the pipe, &c., same diminution of quantity passing through a hole in the motion similar to that (abating the small effect of friction) water itself conduits with the velocity acquired by falling from the surface; and yet if we calculate by this velocity and by the area of the orifice, we shall find the quantity of water deficient nearly in the proportion of 63 to 100. This is owing to the water pressing towards the orifice from all sides, which occasions a contraction of the jet. The same thing happens in the efflux of air. Also the motion of water is greatly impeded by all contractions of its passage. These oblige it to accelerate its velocity, and therefore require an increase of pressure to force it through them, and this in proportion to the squares of the velocities. Thus, if a machine working a pump causes it to give a certain number of strokes in a minute, it will deliver a determined quantity of water in that time. Should it happen that the passage of the water is contracted to one half in any part of the machine (a thing which frequently happens at the valves), the water must move through this contraction with twice the velocity that it has in the rest of the passage. This will require four times the force to be exerted on the piston. Nay (which will appear very odd, and is never suspected by engineers), if no part of the passage is narrower than the barrel of the pump, but on the contrary a part much wider, and if the conduit be again contracted to the width of the barrel, an additional force must be applied to the piston to drive the water through this passage, which would not have been necessary if the passage had not been widened in any part. It will require a force equal to the weight of a column of water of the height necessary for communicating a velocity, the square of which is equal to the difference of the squares of the velocities of the water in the wide and the narrow part of the conduit. The same thing takes place in the motion of air, and therefore all contractions and dilatations must be carefully avoided, when we want to preserve the velocity unimpaired.

Air also suffers the same retardation in its motion along pipes. By not knowing, or not attending to that, engineers of the first reputation have been prodigiously disappointed in their expectations of the quantity of air which will be delivered by long pipes. Its extreme mobility and lightness hindered them from suspecting that it would suffer any sensible retardation. Dr Papin, a most ingenious man, proposed this as the most effectual method of transferring the action of a moving power to a great distance. Suppose, for instance, that it was required to raise water out of a mine by a water-machine, and that there was no fall of water nearer than a mile's distance. He employed this water to drive a piston, which should compress the air in a cylinder communicating, by a long pipe, with another cylinder at the mouth of the mine. This second cylinder had a piston in it, whose rod was to give motion to the pumps at the mine. He expected, that as soon as the piston at the water-machine had compressed the air sufficiently, it would cause the air in the cylinder at the mine to force up its piston, and thus work the pumps. Dr Hooke made many objections to the method, when laid before the Royal Society, and it was much debated there. But dynamics was at this time an infant science, and very little understood. Newton had not then taken any part in the business of the society, otherwise the true objections would not have escaped his sagacious mind. Notwithstanding Papin's great reputation as an engineer and mechanic, he could not bring his scheme into use in England; but afterwards, in France and in Germany, where he settled, he got some persons of great fortunes to employ him in this project; and he erected great machines in Auvergne and Westphalia for draining mines. But, so far from being effective machines, they would not even begin to move. He attributed the failure to the quantity of air in the pipe of communication, which must be condensed before it can condense the air in the remote cylinder. This indeed is true, and he should have thought of this earlier. He therefore diminished the size of this pipe, and made his water-machine exhaust instead of condensing, and had no doubt but that the immense velocity with which air rushes into a void would make a rapid and effectual communication of power. But he was equally disappointed here, and the machine at the mine stood still as before.

Near a century after this, a very intelligent engineer attempted a much more feasible thing of this kind at an iron-foundery in Wales. He erected a machine at a powerful fall of water, which worked a set of cylinder bellows, the blowpipe of which was conducted to the distance of a mile and a half, where it was applied to a blast furnace. But notwithstanding every care to make the conducting pipe very air-tight, of great size, and as smooth as possible, it would hardly blow out a candle. The failure was ascribed to the impossibility of making the pipe air-tight. But, what was surprising, above ten minutes elapsed after the action of the pistons in the bellows before the least wind could be perceived at the end of the pipe; whereas the engineer expected an interval of 6 seconds only.

No very distinct theory can be delivered on this subject; but we may derive considerable assistance in understanding the causes of the obstruction to the motion of water in long pipes, by considering what happens in the elasticity of the air, and its great compressibility, have given us the distinctest notions of fluidity in general, showing us, in a way that can hardly be controverted, that the particles of a fluid are kept at a distance from each other, and from other bodies, by the corporeal forces. We shall therefore take this opportunity to give a view of the subject, which did not occur to us when treating of the motion of water in pipes, reserving a further discussion to the articles RIVER, WATER-WORKS.

The writers on hydrodynamics have always considered the obstruction to the motion of fluids along canals or any kind, as owing to something like the friction which the motion of solid bodies on each other is obstructed; but we cannot form to ourselves any distinct notion of resemblance, or even analogy between them. The fact is, however, that a fluid running along a canal has its motion obstructed; and that this obstruction is greatest in the immediate vicinity of the solid canal, and gradually diminishes to the middle of the stream. It appears, therefore, that the parts of fluids can no more move among each other than among solid bodies, without suffering a diminution of their motion. The parts in physical contact with the sides and bottom are retarded by these immovable bodies. The particles of the next stratum of fluid cannot preserve their initial velocities without overpowering the particles of the first stratum; and it appears from the fact that they are by this means retarded. They retard in the same manner the particles of the third stratum, and so on to the middle stratum or thread of fluid. It appears from the fact, therefore, that this sort of friction is not a consequence of rigidity alone, but that it is equally competent to fluids. Nay, since it is a matter of fact in air, and is even more remarkable there than in any other fluid, as we shall see by the experiments which have been made on the subject; and as our experiments on the compression of air show us the particles of air ten times nearer to each other in some cases than in others (viz. when we see air a thousand times denser in these cases), and therefore force us to acknowledge that they are not in contact; it is plain that this obstruction has no analogy to friction, which supposes roughness or inequality of surface. No such inequality can be supposed in the surface of an aerial particle; nor would it be of any service in explaining the obstruction, since the particles do not rub on each other, but pass each other at some small and imperceptible distance.

We must therefore have recourse to some other mode of explication. We shall apply this to air only in this place; and, since it is proved by the incontrovertible experiments of Canton, Zimmerman, and others, that water, mercury, oil, &c. are also compressible and perfectly elastic, the argument from this principle, which is conclusive in air, must equally explain the similar phenomenon in hydraulics.

The most highly polished body which we know must be conceived as having an uneven surface when we compare it with the small spaces in which the corporeal forces are exerted; and a quantity of air moving in a polished pipe may be compared to a quantity of small shot sliding down a channel with undulated sides and bottom. The row of particles immediately contiguous to the sides will therefore have an undulated motion; but this undulation of the contiguous particles of air will not be so great as that of the surface along which they glide; for not only every motion requires force to produce it, but also every change of motion. The particles of air resist this change from a rectilinear to an undulating motion; and, being elastic, that is, repelling each other and other bodies, they keep a little nearer to the surface as they pass over an eminence, and their path is less incurvated than the surface. The difference between the motion of the particles of air and the particles of a fluid quite elastic is, in this respect, somewhat like the difference between the motion of a spring-carriage and that of a common carriage. When the common carriage passes along a road not perfectly smooth, the line described by the centre of gravity of the carriage keeps perfectly parallel to that described by the axis of the wheels, rising and falling along with it. Now let a spring body be put on the same wheels and pass along the same road. When the axis rises over an eminence perhaps half an inch, sinks down again into the next hollow, and then rises a second time, and so on, the centre of gravity of the body describes a much straighter line; for upon the rising of the wheels, the body resists the motion, and compresses the springs, and thus remains lower than it would have been had the springs not been interposed. In like manner, it does not sink so low as the axle does when the wheels go into a hollow. And thus the motion of spring-carriages becomes less violently undulated than the road along which they pass. This illustration will, we hope, enable the reader to conceive how the deviation of the particles next to the sides and bottom, of the canal from a rectilinear motion is less than that of the canal itself.

It is evident that the same reasoning will prove that the undulation of the next row of particles will be less than that of the first, that the undulation of the third row will be less than that of the second, and so on, as is represented in fig. 83. And thus it appears, that while the mass of air has a progressive motion along the pipe or canal, each particle is describing a waving line, of which a line parallel to the direction of the canal is the axis, cutting all these undulations. This axis of each undulated path will be straight or curved as the canal is, and the excursions of the path on each side of its axis will be less and less as the axis of the path is nearer to the axis of the canal.

Let us now see what sensible effect this will have; for all the motion which we here speak of is imperceptible. It is demonstrated in mechanics, that if a body moving with any velocity be deflected from its rectilinear path by a curved and perfectly smooth channel, to which the rectilinear path is a tangent, it will proceed along this channel with undiminished velocity. Now the path, in the present case, may be considered as perfectly smooth, since the particles do not touch it. It is one of the undulations which we are considering, and we may at present conceive this as without any subordinate inequalities. There should not, therefore, be any diminution of the velocity. Let us grant this of the absolute velocity of the particle; but what we observe is the velocity of the mass, and we judge of it perhaps by the motion of a feather carried along by it. Let us suppose a single atom to be a sensible object, and let us attend to two such particles, one at the side, and the other in the middle: although we cannot perceive the undulations of these particles during their progressive motions, we see the progressive motions themselves. Let us suppose then that the middle particle has moved without any undulation whatever, and that it has advanced ten feet. The lateral particle will also have moved ten feet; but this has not been in a straight line. It will not be far advanced, therefore, in the direction of the canal; it will be left behind, and will appear to us to have been retarded in its motion; and in like manner each thread of particles will be more and more retarded (apparently only) as it recedes farther from the axis of the canal, or what is usually called the thread of the stream.

And thus the observed fact is shown to be a necessary consequence of what we know to be the nature of the whole of a compressible or elastic fluid; and that without supposing any diminution in the real velocity of each particle, there will be a diminution of the velocity of the sensible threads of the general stream, and a diminution of the whole quantity of air which passes along it during a given time.

Let us now suppose a parcel of air impelled along a pipe, which is perfectly smooth, out of a larger vessel, and issuing from this pipe with a certain velocity. It requires a certain force to change its velocity in the vessel to the greater velocity which it has in the pipe. This is abundantly demonstrated. How longsoever we suppose this pipe, there will be no change in the velocity, or in the force to keep it up. But let us suppose that about the middle of this pipe there is a part of it which has suddenly got an undulated surface, however imperceptible. Let us further suppose that the final velocity of the middle thread is the same as before. In this case it is evident that the sum total of the motions of all the particles is greater than before, because the absolute motions of the lateral particles is greater than that of the central particle, which we suppose the same as before. This absolute increase of motion cannot be without an increase of propelling force: the force acting now, therefore, must be greater than the force acting formerly. Therefore, if only the former force had continued to act, the same motion of the central particle could not have been preserved, or the progressive motion of the whole stream must be diminished.

And thus we see that this internal insensible undulatory motion becomes a real obstruction to the sensible motion which we observe, and occasions an expense of power.

Let us see what will be the consequence of extending this obstructing surface further along the canal, till it must evidently be accompanied by an augmentation of the motion produced, if the central velocity be kept up; for the particles which are now in contact with the sides do not continue to occupy that situation; given the middle particles moving faster forward get over them, and in their turn come next the side; and as they are really moving equally fast, but not in the direction into which they are now to be forced, force is necessary for changing the direction also; and this is in addition addition to the force necessary for producing the undulations so minutely treated of. The consequence of this must be, that an additional force will be necessary for preserving a given progressive motion in a longer obstruing pipe, and that the motion produced in a pipe of greater length by a given force will be less than in a shorter one, and the efflux will be diminished.

There is another consideration which must have an influence here. Nothing is more irrefragably demonstrated than the necessity of an additional force for producing an efflux through any contraction, even though it should be succeeded by a dilatation of the passage. Now both the inequalities of the sides and the undulations of the motions of each particle are equivalent to a succession of contractions and dilatations; although each of these is next to infinitely small; their number is also next to infinitely great, and therefore the total effect may be sensible.

We have hitherto supposed that the absolute velocity of the particles was not diminished; this we did, having assumed that the interval of each undulation of the sides was without inequalities. But this was gratuitous: it was also gratuitous that the sides were only undulated. We have no reason for excluding angular apertures. These will produce, and most certainly often produce, real diminutions in the velocity of the contiguous particles; and this must extend to the very axis of the canal, and produce a diminution of the sum total of motion: and in order to preserve the same sensible progressive motion, a greater force must be employed. This is all that can be meant by saying that there is a resistance to the motion of air through long pipes.

There remains another cause of diminution, viz. the want of perfect fluidity, whether arising from the differentiation of solid particles in a real fluid, or from the viscosity of the fluid. We shall not insist on this at present, because it cannot be shown to obtain in air, at least in any case which deserves consideration. It seems of no importance to determine the motion of air hurrying along with it foot or dust. The effect of fogs on a particular modification of the motion of air has been considered under Acoustics. What has been said on this subject is sufficient for our purpose, as explaining the prodigious and unexpected obstruction to the passage of air through long and narrow pipes. We are able to collect an important maxim from it, viz. that all pipes of communication should be made as wide as circumstances will permit; for it is plain that the obstruction depends on the internal surface, and the force to overcome it must be in proportion to the mass of matter which is in motion. The first increases as the diameter of the pipe, and the last as the square. The obstruction must therefore bear a greater proportion to the whole motion in a small pipe than in a large one.

It would be desirable to know the law by which the retardation extends from the axis to the sides of the canal, and the proportion which subsists between the lengths of the canal and the forces necessary for overcoming the obstructions when the velocity is given; as also whether the proportion of the obstruction to the whole motion varies with the velocity: but all this is unknown. It does not, however, seem a desperate case in air: we know pretty distinctly the law of action among its particles, viz. that their mutual repulsions are inversely as their distances. This promises to enable us to trace the progress of undulation from the sides of the canal to the axis.

We can see that the retardations will not increase so fast as the square of the velocity. Were the fluid incompressible, so that the undulatory path of a particle as fast as the square of the velocity were invariable, the deflecting forces by which each individual particle is made to describe its undulating path would be precisely such as arise from the path itself and the motion in it; for each particle would be in the situation of a body moving along a fixed path. But in a very compressible fluid, such as air, each particle may be considered as a solitary body, actuated by a projectile and a transverse force, arising from the action of the adjoining particles. Its motion must depend on the adjustment of these forces, in the same manner as the elliptical motion of a planet depends on the adjustment of the force of projection, with a gravitation inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the focus. The transverse force in the present case has its origin in the pressure on the air which is propelling it along the pipe: this, by squeezing the particles together, brings their mutual repulsion into action. Now it is the property of a perfect fluid, that a pressure exerted on any part of it is propagated equally through the whole fluid; therefore the transverse forces which are excited by this pressure are proportional to the pressure itself; and we know that the pressures exerted on the surface of a fluid, so as to expel it through any orifice, or along any canal, are proportional to the squares of the velocities which they produce. Therefore, in every point of the undulatory motion of any particle, the transverse force by which it is deflected into a curve is proportional to the square of its velocity. When this is the case, a body would continue to describe the same curve as before; but by the very compression, the curvatures are increased, supposing them to remain similar. This would require an increase of the transverse forces; but this is not to be found: therefore the particle will not describe a similar curve, but one which is less incurvated in all its parts; consequently the progressive velocity of the whole, which is the only thing perceivable by us, will not be so much diminished; that is, the obstructions will not increase so fast as they would otherwise do, or as the squares of the velocities.

This reasoning is equally applicable to all fluids, and is abundantly confirmed by experiments in hydraulics, as we shall see when considering the motion of rivers. We have taken this opportunity of delivering our notions on this subject; because, as we have often said, it is in the avowed discrete constitution of air that we see most distinctly the operation of those natural powers which constitute fluidity in general.

We would beg leave to mention a form of experiment Mr. Boffet's for discovering the law of retardation with considerable experimental accuracy. Experiments have been made on pipes and canals. Mr. Boffet, in his Hydrodynamique, has given pipes and canals, a very beautiful set made on pipes of an inch and two inches diameter, and 200 feet long: but although these experiments are very instructive, they do not give us any rule by which we can extend the result to pipes of greater length and different diameters.

Let a smooth cylinder be set upright in a very large vessel or pond, and be moveable round its axis: let it be turned round by means of a wheel and pulley with an uniform... uniform motion and determined velocity. It will exert the same force on the contiguous water which would be exerted on it by water turning round it with the same velocity; and as this water would have its motion gradually retarded by the fixed cylinder, so the moving cylinder will gradually communicate motion to the surrounding water. We should observe the water gradually dragged round by it; and the vortex would extend farther and farther from it as the motion is continued, and the velocities of the parts of the vortex will be less and less as we recede from the axis. Now, we apprehend, that when a point of the surface of the cylinder has moved over 200 feet, the motion of the water at different distances from it will be similar and proportional to, if not precisely the same with, the retardations of water flowing 200 feet at the same distance from the side of a canal; at any rate, the two are susceptible of an accurate comparison, and the law of retardation may be accurately deduced from observations made on the motions of this vortex.

Air in motion is a very familiar object of observation; and it is interesting. In all languages it has got a name; we call it wind; and it is only upon reflection that we consider air as wind in a quiescent state. Many persons hardly know what is meant when air is mentioned; but they cannot refuse that the blast from a bellows is the expulsion of what they contained; and thus they learn that wind is air in motion.

It is of consequence to know the velocity of wind; but no good and unexceptionable method has been contrived for this purpose. The best seems to be by measuring the space passed over by the shadow of a cloud; but this is extremely fallacious. In the first place, it is certain, that although we suppose that the cloud has the velocity of the air in which it is carried along, this is not an exact measure of the current on the surface of the earth; we may be almost certain that it is greater; for air, like all other fluids, is retarded by the sides and bottom of the channel in which it moves. But, in the next place, it is very gratuitous to suppose, that the velocity of the cloud is the velocity of the stratum of air between the cloud and the earth; we are almost certain that it is not. It is abundantly proved by Dr Hutton of Edinburgh, that clouds are always formed when two parcels of air of different temperatures mix together, each containing a proper quantity of vapour in the state of chemical solution. We know that different strata of air will frequently flow in different directions for a long time. In 1781 while a great fleet rendezvoused in Leith Roads during the Dutch war, there was a brisk easterly wind for about five weeks; and, during the last fortnight of this period, there was a brisk westerly current at the height of about three-fourths of a mile. This was distinctly indicated by frequent fleecy clouds at a great distance above a lower stratum of these clouds, which were driving all this time from the eastward. A gentleman who was at the siege of Quebec in 1759, informed us, that one day while there blew a gale from the west, so hard that the ships at anchor in the river were obliged to strike their topsails, and it was with the utmost difficulty that some well-manned boats could row against it, carrying some artillery stores to a post above the town, several shells were thrown from the town to destroy the boats: one of the shells burst in the air near the top of its flight, which was about half a mile high. The smoke of this bomb remained in the same spot for above a quarter of an hour, like a great round ball, and gradually dissipated by diffusion, without removing many yards from its place. When, therefore, two strata of air come from different quarters, and one of them flows over the other, it will be only in the contiguous surfaces that a precipitation of vapour will be made. This will form a thin fleecy cloud; and it will have a velocity and direction which neither belongs to the upper nor to the lower stratum of air which produced it. Should one of these strata come from the east and the other from the west with equal velocities, the cloud formed between them will have no motion at all; should one come from the east, and the other from the north, the cloud will move from the north-east with a greater velocity than either of the strata. So uncertain then is the information given by the clouds either of the velocity or the direction of the wind. A thick smoke from a furnace will give us a much less equivocal measure; and this, combined with the effects of the wind in impelling bodies, or deflecting a loaded plane from the perpendicular, or other effects of this kind, may give us measures of the different currents of wind with a precision sufficient for all practical uses.

The celebrated engineer Mr John Smeaton has given, in the fifth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, the speeds of wind corresponding to the usual denominations of our language. These are founded on a great number of observations made by himself in the course of head, his practice in erecting wind-mills. They are contained in the following table:

| Miles per hour | Feet per second | Names | |---------------|-----------------|---------------------| | 1 | 1.47 | Light airs | | 2 | 2.93 | | | 3 | 4.40 | Breeze | | 4 | 5.87 | | | 5 | 7.33 | Brisk gale | | 10 | 14.67 | | | 15 | 22.00 | Fresh gale | | 20 | 29.34 | | | 25 | 36.67 | Strong gale | | 30 | 44.01 | | | 35 | 51.34 | Hard gale | | 40 | 58.68 | | | 45 | 66.01 | Storm | | 50 | 73.35 | | | 60 | 88.02 | Hurricane, tearing up trees, overturning buildings, &c. |

See also some valuable experiments by him on this subject, Philosophical Transactions 1760 and 1761.

One of the most ingenious and convenient methods of measuring the velocity of the wind is to employ its pressure in supporting a column of water, in the same way as Mr Pitot measures the velocity of a current of water. We believe that it was first proposed by Dr James Lind of Windsor, a gentleman eminent for his great knowledge in all the branches of natural science, and for his ingenuity in every matter of experiment or practical application.

His anemometer (as these instruments are called) consists Velocity of gills of a glass tube of the form ABCD (fig. 84.), open at both ends, and having the branch AB at right angles to the branch CD. This tube contains a few inches of water or any fluid (the lighter the better); it is held with the part CD upright, and AB horizontal and in the direction of the wind; that is, with the mouth A facing the wind. The wind acts in the way of pressure on the air in AB, compresses it, and causes it to press on the surface of the liquor; forcing it down to F, while it rises to E in the other leg. The velocity of the wind is concluded from the difference EF between the heights of the liquor in the legs. As the wind does not generally blow with uniform velocity, the liquor is apt to dance in the tube, and render the observation difficult and uncertain: to remedy this, it is proper to contract very much the communication at C between the two legs. If the tube has half an inch of diameter (and it should not have less), a hole of \( \frac{1}{3} \) of an inch is large enough; indeed the hole can hardly be too small, nor the tubes too large.

This instrument is extremely ingenious, and will undoubtedly give the proportions of the velocities of different currents with the greatest precision; for in whatever way the pressure of wind is produced by its motion, we are certain that the different pressures are as the squares of the velocities: if, therefore, we can obtain one certain measure of the velocity of the wind, and observe the degree to which the pressure produced by it raises the liquor, we can at all other times observe the pressures and compute the velocities from them, making proper allowances for the temperature and the height of the mercury in the barometer; because the velocity will be in the subduplicate ratio of the density of the air invariably when the pressure is the same.

It is usually concluded, that the velocity of the wind is that which would be acquired by falling from a height which is to EF as the weight of water is to that of an equal bulk of air. Thus, supposing air to be 840 times lighter than water, and that EF is \( \frac{1}{25} \) of an inch, the velocity will be about 63 feet per second, which is that of a very hard gale, approaching to a storm. Hence we see by the bye, that the scale of this instrument is extremely short, and that it would be a great improvement of it to make the leg CD not perpendicular, but very much sloping; or perhaps the following form of the instrument will give it all the perfection of which it is capable. Let the horizontal branch AB (fig. 85.) be contracted at B, and continued horizontally for several inches BG of a much smaller bore, and then turned down for two or three inches GC, and then upwards with a wide bore. To use this instrument, hold it with the part DC perpendicular; and (having sheltered the mouth A from the wind) pour in water at D till it advances along GB to the point B, which is made the beginning of the scale; the water in the upright branch standing at f in the same horizontal line with BG. Now, turn the mouth A to the wind; the air in AB will be compressed and will force the water along BG to F, and cause it to rise from f to E; and the range fE will be to the range BF on the scale as the section of the tube BG to that of CD. Thus, if the width of DC be \( \frac{1}{2} \) of an inch, and that of BG \( \frac{1}{25} \), we shall have 25 inches in the scale for one inch of real pressure EF.

But it has not been demonstrated in a very satisfactory manner, that the velocity of the wind is that acquired by falling through the height of a column of air whose weight is equal to that of the column of water EF. Experiments made with Pitot's tube in currents of water show that several corrections are necessary for concluding the velocity of the current from the elevations in the tube; these corrections may however be made, and safely applied to the present case; and then the instrument will enable us to conclude the velocity of the wind immediately, without any fundamental comparison of the elevation, with a velocity actually determined upon other principles. The chief use which we have for this information is in our employment of wind as an impelling power, by which we can actuate machinery or navigate ships. These are very important applications of pneumatic doctrines, and merit a particular consideration; and this naturally brings us to the last part of our subject, viz. the consideration of the impulse of air on bodies exposed to its action, and the resistance which it opposes to the passage of bodies through it.

This is a subject of the greatest importance; being the foundation of that art which has done the greatest honour to the ingenuity of man, and the greatest service to human society, by connecting together the most distant inhabitants of this globe, and making a communication of benefits which would otherwise have been impossible; we mean the art of Navigation or Seamanship. Of all the machines which human art has constructed, a ship is not only the greatest and most magnificent, but also the most ingenious and intricate; and the clever seaman possesses a knowledge founded on the most difficult and abstruse doctrines of mechanics. The seaman probably cannot give any account of his own science; and he possesses it rather by a kind of intuition than by any process of reasoning; but the success and efficacy of all the mechanism of this complicated engine, and the propriety of all the manoeuvres which the seaman practises, depend on the invariable laws of mechanics; and a thorough knowledge of these would enable an intelligent person not only to understand the machine and the manner of working it, but to improve both.

Unfortunately this is a subject of very great difficulty; and although it has employed the genius of Newton, and he has considered it with great care, and his followers have added more to his labours on this subject than on any other, it still remains in a very imperfect state.

A minute discussion of this subject cannot therefore be expected in a work like this: we must content ourselves with such a general statement of the most approved doctrine on the subject as shall enable our readers to conceive it distinctly, and judge with intelligence and confidence of the practical deductions which may be made from it.

It is evidently a branch of the general theory of the impulse and resistance of fluids, which belongs to Hydraulics, but will be better understood when the mechanical properties of compressible fluids have been considered. It was thought very reasonable to suppose that the circumstances of elasticity would introduce the same changes in the impulse and resistance of fluids that it does in solid bodies. It would greatly divert the attention from the distinctive properties of air, if we should in this place enter on this subject, which is both extensive and difficult. We reckon it better therefore to take the whole together: this we shall do under the article "Resistance." Velocity of Resistance of Fluids, and confine ourselves at present to what relates to the impulse and resistance of air alone; anticipating a few of the general propositions of that theory, but without demonstration, in order to understand the applications which may be made of it.

Suppose then a plane surface, of which \(aC\) (fig. 86.) is the section, exposed to the action of a stream of wind blowing in the direction \(QC\), perpendicular to \(aC\). The motion of the wind will be obstructed, and the surface \(aC\) pressed forward. And as all impulse or pressure is exerted in a direction perpendicular to the surface, and is resisted in the opposite direction, the surface will be impelled in the direction \(CD\), the continuation of \(QC\). And as the mutual actions of bodies depend on their relative motions, the force acting on the surface \(aC\) will be the same, if we shall suppose the air at rest, and the surface moving equally swift in the opposite direction. The resistance of the air to the motion of the body will be equal to the impulse of the air in the former case. Thus resistance and impulse are equal and contrary.

If the air be moving twice as fast, its particles will give a double impulse; but in this case a double number of particles will exert their impulse in the same time: the impulse will therefore be fourfold; and in general it will be as the square of the velocity: or if the air and body be both in motion, the impulse and resistance will be proportional to the square of the relative velocity.

This is the first proposition on the subject, and it appears very consonant to reason. There will therefore be some analogy between the force of the air's impulse or the resistance of a body, and the weight of a column of air incumbent on the surface; for it is a principle in the action of fluids, that the heights of the columns of fluid are as the squares of the velocities which their pressures produce. Accordingly the second proposition is, that the absolute impulse of a stream of air, blowing perpendicularly on any surface, is equal to the weight of a column of air which has that surface for its base, and for its height the space through which a body must fall in order to acquire the velocity of the air.

Thirdly, Suppose the surface \(AC\) equal to \(aC\) no longer to be perpendicular to the stream of air, but inclined to it in the angle \(ACD\), which we shall call the angle of incidence; then, by the resolution of forces, it follows, that the action of each particle is diminished in the proportion of radius to the sine of the angle of incidence, or of \(AC\) to \(AL\), \(AL\) being perpendicular to \(CD\).

Again: Draw \(AK\) parallel to \(CD\). It is plain that no air lying farther from \(CD\) than \(KA\) is will strike the plane. The quantity of impulse therefore is diminished still farther in the proportion of \(aC\) to \(KC\), or of \(AC\) to \(AL\). Therefore, on the whole, the absolute impulse is diminished in the proportion of \(AC^2\) to \(AL^2\); hence the proposition, that the impulse and resistance of a given surface are in the proportion of the square of the sine of the angle of incidence.

Fourthly, This impulse is in the direction \(PL\), perpendicular to the impelled surface, and the surface tends to move in this direction: but suppose it moveable only in some other direction \(PO\), or that it is in the direction \(PO\) that we wish to employ this impulse, its action is therefore oblique; and if we wish to know the intensity of the impulse in this direction, it must be diminished farther in the proportion of radius to the cosine of the angle \(LPO\) or fine of \(CPO\). Hence the general proposition: The effective impulse is as the surface, as the square of the velocity of the wind, as the square of the sine of the angle of incidence, and as the sine of the obliquity jointly, which we may express by the symbol \(R = S \cdot V^2 \cdot \sin^2 \cdot \frac{1}{\sin} \cdot O\); and as the impulse depends on the density of the impelling fluid, we may take in every circumstance by the equation \(R = S \cdot D \cdot V^2 \cdot \sin^2 \cdot \frac{1}{\sin} \cdot O\). If the impulse be estimated in the direction of the stream, the angle of obliquity \(ACD\) is the same with the angle of incidence, and the impulse in this direction is as the surface, as the square of the velocity, and as the cube of the angle of incidence jointly.

It evidently follows from these premises, that if \(ACA'\) be a wedge, of which the base \(AA'\) is perpendicular to the wind, and the angle \(ACA'\) bisected by its direction, the direct or perpendicular impulse on the base is to the oblique impulse on the sides as radius to the square of the sine of half the angle \(ACA'\).

The same must be affirmed of a pyramid or cone \(ACA'\), of which the axis is in the direction of the wind.

If \(ACA'\) (fig. 87.) represent the section of a solid, produced by the revolution of a curve line \(APC\) round the axis \(CD\), which lies in the direction of the wind, the impulse on this body may be compared with the direct impulse on this base, or the resistance to the motion of this body through the air may be compared with the direct resistance of its base, by resolving its surface into elementary planes \(PP\), which are coincident with a tangent plane \(PR\), and comparing the impulse on \(PP\) with the direct impulse on the corresponding part \(KK\) of the base.

In this way it follows that the impulse on a sphere is one half of the impulse on its great circle, or on the base of a cylinder of equal diameter.

We shall conclude this sketch of the doctrine with a very important proposition to determine the most advantageous position of a plane surface, when required to move in one direction while it is impelled by the wind blowing in a different direction. Thus,

Let \(AB\) (fig. 88.) be the sail of a ship, \(CA\) the di-impotent reaction in which the wind blows, and \(AD\) the line of inference of the ship's course. It is required to place the yard \(AC\) from this in such a position that the impulse of the wind upon the sail may have the greatest effect possible in impelling the ship along \(AD\).

Let \(AB, A'b\), be two positions of the sail very near Fig. 88., the best position, but on opposite sides of it. Draw \(BE, b'e\), perpendicular to \(CA\), and \(BF, b'f\), perpendicular to \(AD\), calling \(AB\) radius; it is evident that \(BE, b'E\), are the fines of impulse and obliquity, and that the effective impulse is \(BE^2 \times BF\), or \(b'E^2 \times b'f\). This must be a maximum.

Let the points \(B, b\), continually approach and ultimately coincide; the chord \(bB\) will ultimately coincide with a straight line \(CBD\) touching the circle in \(B\); the triangles \(CBF, cbe\) are similar, as also the triangles \(DBF, dbf\); therefore \(BE^2 : bE^2 = BC^2 : bC^2\), and \(BF : bF = BD : bD\); and \(BE^2 \times BF : bE^2 \times bF = CB^2 \times RD : c^2 \times bD\). Therefore when \(AB\) is in the best position, so that \(RE^2 \times BF\) is greater than \(bE^2 \times bF\), we shall have \(CB \times BD\) greater than \(c^2 \times bD\), or \(c^2 \times BD\) is

Velocity of wind moving one foot per second is about \( \frac{1}{380} \) velocity of a pound on a square foot. Therefore to find the impulse on a foot corresponding to any velocity, divide the square of the velocity by 380, and we obtain the impulse in pounds. Mr Roufe of Leicestershire made many experiments, which are mentioned with great approbation by Mr Smeaton. His great sagacity and experience in the erection of windmills oblige us to pay a considerable deference to his judgment. These experiments confirm our opinion, that the impulses increase faster than the surfaces. The following table was calculated from Mr Roufe's observations, and may be considered as pretty near the truth.

| Velocity in Feet | Impulse on a Foot in Pounds | |------------------|----------------------------| | 0 | 0,000 | | 10 | 0,229 | | 20 | 0,915 | | 30 | 2,039 | | 40 | 3,660 | | 50 | 5,718 | | 60 | 8,234 | | 70 | 11,207 | | 80 | 14,638 | | 90 | 18,526 | | 100 | 22,872 | | 110 | 27,975 | | 120 | 32,926 | | 130 | 38,654 | | 140 | 44,830 | | 150 | 51,462 |

If we multiply the square of the velocity in feet by \( \frac{1}{16} \), the product will be the impulse or resistance in a square foot in grains, according to Mr Roufe's numbers.

The greatest deviation from the theory occurs in the oblique impulses. Mr Robins compared the resistance of a wedge, whose angle was 90°, with the resistance of its base; and instead of finding it less in the proportion of \( \sqrt{2} \) to 1, as determined by the theory, he found it greater in the proportion of 55 to 68 nearly; and when he formed the body into a pyramid, of which the sides had the same surface and the same inclination as the sides of the wedge, the resistance of the base and face were now as 55 to 39 nearly: so that here the same surface with the same inclination had its resistance reduced from 68 to 39, by being put into this form. Similar deviations occur in the experiments of the Chevalier Borda; and it may be collected from both, that the resistances diminish more nearly in the proportion of the squares of those fines.

The irregularity in the resistance of curved surfaces is as great as in plane surfaces. In general, the theory gives the oblique impulses on plane surfaces much too small, and the impulses on curved surfaces too great. The resistance of a sphere does not exceed the fourth part of the resistance of its great circle, instead of being its half; but the anomaly is such as to leave hardly any room for calculation. It would be very desirable to have the experiments on this subject repeated in a greater variety of cases, and on larger surfaces, so that the errors of the experiments may be of less consequence.

Till

Till this matter be reduced to some rule, the art of working ships must remain very imperfect, as must also the construction of windmills.

The case in which we are most interested in the knowledge of the resistance of the air is the motion of bullets and shells. Writers on artillery have long been sensible of the great effect of the air's resistance. It seems to have been this consideration that chiefly engaged Sir Isaac Newton to consider the motions of bodies in a resisting medium. A proposition or two would have sufficed for showing the incompatibility of the planetary motions with the supposition that the celestial spaces were filled with a fluid matter; but he has with great solicitude considered the motion of a body projected on the surface of the earth, and its deviation from the parabolic track assigned by Galileo. He has bestowed more pains on this problem than any other in his whole work; and his investigation has pointed out almost all the improvements which have been made in the application of mathematical knowledge to the study of nature. Nowhere does his sagacity and fertility of resource appear in so strong a light as in the second book of the Principia, which is almost wholly occupied by this problem. The celebrated mathematician John Bernoulli engaged in it as the finest opportunity of displaying his superiority. A mistake committed by Newton in his attempt to a solution was matter of triumph to him; and the whole of his performance, though a piece of elegant and elaborate geometry, is greatly hurt by his continually bringing this mistake (which is a mere trifle) into view. The difficulty of the subject is so great, that subsequent mathematicians seem to have kept aloof from it; and it has been entirely overlooked by the many voluminous writers who have treated professedly on military projectiles. They have spoken indeed of the resistance of the air as affecting the flight of shot, but have saved themselves from the task of investigating this effect (a task to which they were unequal), by supposing that it was not so great as to render their theories and practical deductions very erroneous. Mr Robins was the first who seriously examined the subject. He showed, that even the Newtonian theory (which had been corrected, but not in the smallest degree improved or extended in its principles) was sufficient to show that the path of a cannon ball could not resemble a parabola. Even this theory showed that the resistance was more than eight times the weight of the ball, and should produce a greater deviation from the parabola than the parabola deviated from a straight line.

This simple but singular observation was a strong proof how faulty the professed writers on artillery had been, in rather amusing themselves with elegant but useless applications of easy geometry, than in endeavouring to give their readers any useful information. He added, that the difference between the ranges by the Newtonian theory and by experiment was so great, that the resistance of the air must be vastly superior to what that theory supposed. It was this which suggested to him the necessity of experiments to ascertain this point. We have seen the result of these experiments in moderate velocities; and that they were sufficient for calling the whole theory in question, or at least for rendering it useless. It became necessary, therefore, to settle every point by means of a direct experiment. Here was a great difficulty. How shall we measure either these great velocities which are observed in the motions of cannon-shot, or the resistances which these enormous velocities occasion? Mr Robins had the ingenuity to do both. The method which he took for measuring the velocity of a musket-ball was quite original; and it was susceptible of great accuracy. We have already given an account of it under the article GUNNERY. Having gained this point, the other was not difficult. In the moderate velocities he had determined the resistances by the forces which balanced them, the weights which kept the resisting body in a state of uniform motion. In the great velocities, he proposed to determine the resistances by their immediate effects, by the retardations which they occasioned. This was to be done by first ascertaining the velocity of the ball, and then measuring its velocity after it had passed through a certain quantity of air. The difference of these velocities is the retardation, and the proper measure of the resistance; for, by the initial and final velocities of the ball, we learn the time which was employed in passing through this air with the medium velocity. In this time the air's resistance diminished the velocity by a certain quantity. Compare this with the velocity which a body projected directly upwards would lose in the same time by the resistance of gravity. The two forces must be in the proportion of their effects. Thus we learn the proportion of the resistance of the air to the weight of the ball. It is indeed true, that the time of passing through this space is not accurately had by taking the arithmetical medium of the initial and final velocities, nor does the resistance deduced from this calculation accurately correspond to this mean velocity; but both may be accurately found by the experiment by a very troublesome computation, as is shown in the 5th and 6th propositions of the second book of Newton's Principia. The difference between the quantities thus found and those deduced from the simple process is quite trifling, and far within the limits of accuracy attainable in experiments of this kind; it may, therefore, be safely neglected.

Mr Robins made many experiments on this subject; but unfortunately he has published only a very few, such as were sufficient for ascertaining the point he had in view. He intended a regular work on the subject, in which the gradual variations of resistance corresponding to different velocities should all be determined by experiment; but he was then newly engaged in an important and laborious employment, as chief engineer to the East India Company, in whose service he went out to India, where he died in less than two years. It is to be regretted that no person has prosecuted these experiments. It would be neither laborious nor difficult, and would add more to the improvement of artillery than anything that has been done since Mr Robins's death, if we except the prosecution of his experiments on the initial velocities of cannon-shot by Dr Charles Hutton royal professor at the Woolwich Academy. It is to be hoped that this gentleman, after having with such effect and success extended Mr Robins's experiments on the initial velocities of musket-shot to cannon, will take up this other subject, and thus give the art of artillery all the scientific foundation which it can receive in the present state of our mathematical knowledge. Till then we must content ourselves with the practical rules which Robins has deduced from his own experiments. As he has not given us the mode of deduction, we must compare the results with experiment. He has indeed given a very extensive comparison with the numerous experiments made both in Britain and on the continent; and the agreement is very great. His learned commentator Euler has been at no pains to investigate these rules, and has employed himself chiefly in detecting errors, most of which are supposed, because he takes for a finished work what Mr Robins only gives to the public as a hasty but useful sketch of a new and very difficult branch of science.

The general result of Robins's experiments on the retardation of musket-shot is, that although in moderate velocities the resistance is so nearly in the duplicate proportion of the velocities that we cannot observe any deviation, yet in velocities exceeding 200 feet per second the retardations increase faster, and the deviation from this rate increases rapidly with the velocity. He attributes this to the causes already mentioned, viz. the condensation of the air before the ball and to the rarefaction behind, in consequence of the air not immediately occupying the space left by the bullet. This increase is so great, that if the resistance to a ball moving with the velocity of 1700 feet in a second be computed on the supposition that the resistance observed in moderate velocities is increased in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, it will be found hardly one-third part of its real quantity. He found, for instance, that a ball moving through 1670 feet in a second lost about 125 feet per second of its velocity in passing through 50 feet of air. This it must have done in the \( \frac{1}{4} \) of a second, in which time it would have lost one foot if projected directly upwards; from which it appears that the resistance was about 125 times its weight, and more than three times greater than if it had increased from the resistance in small velocities in the duplicate ratio of the velocities. He relates other experiments which show similar results.

But he also mentions a singular circumstance, that till the velocities exceed 1100 feet per second, the resistances increase pretty regularly, in a ratio exceeding the duplicate ratio of the velocities; but that in greater velocities the resistances become suddenly triple of what they would have been, even according to this law of increase. He thinks this explicable by the vacuum which is then left behind the ball, it being well known that air rushes into a vacuum with the velocity of 1132 feet per second nearly. Mr Euler controverts this conclusion, as inconsistent with that gradation which is observed in all the operations of nature; and says, that although the vacuum is not produced in smaller velocities than this, the air behind the ball must be so rare (the space being but imperfectly filled), that the pressure on the anterior part of the ball must gradually approximate to that pressure which an absolute vacuum would produce; but this is like his other criticisms. Robins does nowhere assert that this sudden change of resistance happens in the transition of the velocity from 1132 feet to that of 1131 feet 11 inches or the like, but only that it is very sudden and very great. It may be strictly demonstrated, that such a change must happen in a narrow enough limit of velocities to justify the appellation of sudden: a similar fact may be observed in the motion of a solid through water. If it be gradually accelerated, the water will be found nearly to fill up its place, till the velocity arrives at a certain magnitude, corresponding to the immersion of the body in the water; and then the smallest augmentation of its motion immediately produces a void behind it, into which the water rushes in a violent manner and is dashed into froth. A gentleman, who has had many opportunities for such observations, affirms us, that when standing near the line of direction of a cannon discharging a ball with a large allotment of powder, so that the initial velocity certainly exceeded 1100 feet per second, he always observed a very sudden diminution of the noise which the bullet made during its passage. Although the ball was coming towards him, and therefore its noise, if equable, would be continually increasing, he observed that it was loudest at first. That this continued for a second or two, and suddenly diminished, changing to a sound which was not only weaker, but differed in kind, and gradually increased as the bullet approached him. He said, that the first noise was like the hissing of red-hot iron in water, and that the subsequent noise rather resembled a hazy whistling. Such a change of sound is a necessary consequence of the different agitation of the air in the two cases. We know also, that air rushing into a void, as when we break an exhausted bottle, makes a report like a musket.

Mr Robins's assertion therefore has every argument for its truth that the nature of the thing will admit. But we are not left to this vague reasoning: his experiments show us this diminution of resistance. It clearly appears from them, that in a velocity of 1700 feet the resistance is more than three times the resistance determined by the theory which he supposes the common one. When the velocity was 1065 feet, the actual resistance was \( \frac{1}{4} \) of the theoretical; and when the velocity was 400 feet, the actual resistance was about \( \frac{1}{4} \) of the theoretical. That he assumed a theory of resistance which gave them all too small, is of no consequence in the present argument.

Mr Robins, in summing up the results of his observations on this subject, gives a rule very easily remembered for computing the resistances to those very rapid motions. It has been already mentioned in the article very Gunney, but we repeat it here, in order to accommodate it to the quantities which have been determined in some degree by experiment.

Let \( AB \) represent the velocity of 1700 feet per second, and \( AC \) any other velocity. Make \( BD \) to \( AD \) as the resistance given by the ordinary theory to the resistance actually observed in the velocity 1700: then will \( CD \) be to \( AD \) as the resistance assigned by the ordinary theory to the velocity \( AC \) is to that which really corresponds to it.

To accommodate this to experiment, recollected that a * See Gunney of the size of a 12 pound iron shot, moving 25 feet per second, had a resistance of \( \frac{1}{4} \) of a pound. Augment &c., this in the ratio of 25 to 1700, and we obtain 210 nearly for the theoretical resistance to this velocity; but by comparing its diameter of 4½ inches with \( \frac{3}{4} \), the diameter of the leaden ball, which had a resistance of at least 11 pounds with this velocity, we conclude that the 12 pound shot would have had a resistance of 396 pounds: therefore \( BD : AD = 210 : 396 \), and \( AB : AD = 186 : 396 \); and \( AB \) being 1700, \( AD \) will be 3613.

Let \( AD = a \), \( AC = x \), and let \( R \) be the resistance to a 12 pound iron shot moving one foot per second, and \( r \) the resistance (in pounds) wanted for the velocity \( x \); we have \( r = R \frac{a^4}{a-x} \). Mr Robins's experiments give

\[ R = \frac{1}{13750} \]

very nearly. This gives \( Ra = 0.263235 \).

which is nearly one-fourth. Thus our formula becomes

\[ r = \frac{0.263235 x^4}{3613 - x}, \]

or very nearly

\[ \frac{x^4}{4(3613 - x)}, \]

falling short of the truth about \( \frac{1}{6} \)th part.

The simplicity of the formula recommends it to our use, and when we increase its result \( \frac{1}{3} \), it is incomparably nearer to the true result of the theory as corrected by Mr Robins than we can hope that the theory is to the actual resistance.

We can easily see that Mr Robins's correction is only a fagacious approximation. If we suppose the velocity 3613 feet, a very possible thing, the resistance by this formula is infinite, which cannot be. We may even suppose that the resistance given by the formula is near the truth only in such velocities as do not greatly exceed 1700 feet per second. No military projectile exceeds 2200, and it is great folly to make it go so far, because it is reduced to 1700 almost in an instant, by the enormous resistance.

The resistance to other balls will be made by taking them in the duplicate ratio of the diameters.

It has been already observed, that the first mathematicians of Europe have lately employed themselves in improving this theory of the motion of bodies in a resisting medium; but their discussions are such as few artillerymen can understand. The problem can only be solved by approximation, and this by the quadrature of very complicated curves. They have not been able therefore to deduce from them any practical rules of easy application, and have been obliged to compute Borda's and tables suited to different cases. Of these performances, that of the Chevalier Borda, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1769, seems the best adapted to military readers, and the tables are undoubtedly of considerable use; but it is not too much to say, that the simple rules of Mr Robins are of as much service, and are more easily remembered: besides, it must be observed, that the nature of military service does not give room for the application of any very precise rule. The only advantage that we can derive from a perfect theory would be an improvement in the construction of pieces of ordnance, and a more judicious appropriation of certain velocities to certain purposes. The service of a gun or mortar must always be regulated by the eye.

There is another motion of which air and other elastic fluids are susceptible, viz., an internal vibration of their particles, or undulation, by which any extended portion of air is distributed into alternate parcels of condensed and rarefied air, which are continually changing their condition without changing their places. By this change the condensation which is produced in one part of the air is gradually transferred along the mass of air to the greatest distances in all directions. It is of importance to have some distinct conception of this motion. It is found to be by this means that distant bodies produce upon us the sensation of sound. See Acoustics. Sir Isaac Newton treated this subject with his accustomed ingenuity, and has given us a theory of it in the end of the second book of his Principia. This theory has been objected to with respect to the conduct of the argument, and other explanations have been given by the most eminent mathematicians. Though they appear to differ from Newton's, their results are precisely the same; but, on a close examination, they differ no more than John Bernoulli's theorem of centripetal forces differs from Newton's, viz., the one being expressed by geometry and the other by literal analysis. The celebrated De la Grange reduces Newton's investigation to a tautological proposition or identical equation; but Mr Young of Trinity College, Dublin, has, by a different turn of expression, freed Newton's method from this objection. We shall not repeat it here, but refer our mathematical readers to the article Acoustics, as it is not our business at present to consider its connection with sound.

But since Newton published this theory of aerial undulations, and of their propagation along the air, and used to explain the theory has been so corrected and improved as to be received by the most accurate philosophers as a branch of natural philosophy susceptible of rigid demonstration, it has been freely referred to by many writers on other parts of natural science, who did not profess to be mathematicians, but made use of it for explaining phenomena in their own line on the authority of the mathematicians themselves. Learning from them that this vibration, and the quaveration propagation of the pulses, were the necessary properties of an elastic fluid, and that the rapidity of this propagation had a certain assignable proportion to the elasticity and density of the fluid, they freely made use of these conceptions, and have introduced elastic vibrating fluids into many facts, where others would suspect no such thing, and have attempted to explain by their means many abstruse phenomena of nature. Æthers are everywhere introduced, endowed with great elasticity and tenacity. Vibrations and pulses are supposed in this æther, and these are offered as explanations. The doctrines of animal spirits and nervous fluids, and the whole mechanical system of Hartley, by which the operations of the soul are said to be explained, have their foundation in this theory of aerial undulations. If these fancied fluids, and their internal vibrations, really operate in the phenomena ascribed to them, any explanation that can be given of the phenomena from this principle must be nothing else than showing that the legitimate consequences of these undulations are similar to the phenomena; or, if we are no more able to see this last step than in the case of sound (which we know to be one consequence of the aerial undulations, although we cannot tell how), we must be able to point out, as in the case of sound, certain constant relations between the general laws of these undulations and the general laws of the phenomena. It is only in this way that we think ourselves entitled to say that the aerial undulations are causes, though not the only causes, of sound; and it is because there is no such relation, but, on the contrary, a total dissimilarity, to be observed between the laws of elastic undulations and the laws of the propagation of light, that we assert with confidence that ethereal undulations are not the causes of vision.

Explanations of this kind suppose, therefore, in the first place, that the philosopher who proposes them understands precisely the nature of these undulations; in the next place, that he makes his reader sensible of those circumstances of them which are concerned in the effect to be explained; and, in the third place, that he makes the reader understand how this circumstance of the vibrating fluid is connected with the phenomenon, either by showing it to be its mechanical cause,

Judulation as when the philosopher explains the resounding of a musical chord to a flute or pipe which gave the same tone; or by showing that this circumstance of the undulation always accompanies the phenomenon, as when the philosopher shows that 233 vibrations of air in a second, in whatever manner or by whatever cause they are produced, always are followed by the sensation of the tone C in the middle of the harpsichord.

But here we must observe, that, with the exception of Euler's unsuccessful attempt to explain the optical phenomena by the undulations of ether, we have met with no explanation of natural phenomena, by means of elastic and vibrating fluids, where the author has so much as attempted any one of these three things, so indispensably requisite in a logical explanation. They have talked of vibrations without describing them, or giving the reader the least notion of what kind they are; and in no instance that we can recollect have they showed how such vibrations could have any influence in the phenomenon. Indeed, by not describing with precision the undulations, they were freed from the task of showing them to be mechanical causes of the phenomenon; and when any of them show any analogy between the general laws of elastic undulations and the general laws of the phenomenon, the analogy is so vague, indistinct, or partial, that no person of common prudence would receive it as argument in any case in which he was much interested.

We think it our duty to remonstrate against this slovenly way of writing: we would even hold it up to reprobation. It has been chiefly on this faithless foundation that the blind vanity of men has raised that degrading system of opinions called Materialism, by which the affections and faculties of the soul of man have been resolved into vibrations and pulses of ether.

We also think it our duty to give some account of this motion of elastic fluids. It must be such an account as shall be understood by those who are not mathematicians, because those only are in danger of being misled by the improper application of them. Mathematical discussion is, however, unavoidable in a subject purely mathematical; but we shall introduce nothing that may not be easily understood or confused in; and we trust that mathematical readers will excuse us for a mode of reasoning which appears to them lax and inelegant.

The first thing incumbent on us is to show how elastic fluids differ from the unelastic in the propagation of any agitation of the parts. When a long tube is filled with water, and any one part of it pushed out of its place, the whole is instantly moved like a solid mass. But this is not the case with air. If a door be suddenly shut, the window at the farther end of a long and close room will rattle; but some time will elapse between the shutting of the door and the motion of the window. If some light dust be lying on a braced drum, and another be violently beat at a little distance from it, an attentive observer will see the dust dance up from the parchment; but this will be at the instant he hears the sound of the stroke on the other drum, and a sensible time after the stroke. Many such familiar facts show that the agitation is gradually communicated along the air; and therefore that when one particle is agitated by any sensible motion, a finite time, however small, must elapse before the adjoining particle is agitated in the same manner. This would not be the case in water if water be perfectly incompressible. We think that this Undulation may be made intelligible with very little trouble.

Let A, B, C, D, &c., be a row of aerial particles, at such distances that their elasticity just balances the pressure of the atmosphere; and let us suppose (as is deducible from the observed density of air being proportional to the compressing force) that the elasticity of the particles, by which they keep each other at a distance, is as their distances inversely. Let us further suppose that the particle A has been carried, with an uniform motion, to a by some external force. It is evident that B cannot remain in its present state; for being now nearer to a than to C, it is propelled towards C by the excess of the elasticity of A above the natural elasticity of C. Let E be the natural elasticity of the particles, or the force corresponding to the distance BC or BA, and let F be the force which impels B towards C, and let f be the force exerted by A when at a. We have

\[ E : f = B a : BC, = B a : BA; \]

and

\[ E : f = E = B a : BA - B a = B a : A a; \]

or

\[ E : F = B a : A a. \]

Now in fig. 89, let ABC be the line joining three Fig. 89. particles, to which draw FG, PH parallel, and IAF, HBG perpendicular. Take IF or HG to represent the elasticity corresponding to the distance AB. Let the particle A be supposed to have been carried with an uniform motion to a by some external force, and draw RA M perpendicular to RG, and make FI : RM = B a : BA. We shall then have FI : PM = B a : A a; and PM will represent the force with which the particle B is urged towards C. Suppose this construction to be made for every point of the line AB, and that a point M is thus determined for each of them, mathematicians know that all these points M lie in the curve of a hyperbola, of which FG and GH are the asymptotes. It is also known by the elements of mechanics, that since the motion of A along AB is uniform, Aa or IP may be taken to represent the time of describing Aa; and that the area IPM represents the whole velocity which B has acquired in its motion towards C when A has come to a, the force urging B being always as the portion PM of the ordinate.

Take GX of any length in HG produced, and let GX represent the velocity which the uniform action of the natural elasticity IF could communicate to the particle B during the time that A would uniformly describe AB. Make GX to GY as the rectangle IFGH to the hyperbolic space IFRM, and draw YS cutting MR produced in S, and draw FX cutting MR in T. It is known to the mathematicians that the point S is in a curve line FSr called the logarithmic curve; of which the leading property is, that any line RS parallel to GX is to GX as the rectangle IFGH is to the hyperbolic space IFRM, and that FX touches the curve in F.

This being the case, it is plain, that because RT increases in the same proportion with FR, or with the rectangle IFRM, and RS increases in the proportion of the space IFRM, TS increases in the proportion of the space IPM. Therefore TS is proportional to the velocity. Undulation of B when A has reached a, and RT is proportional to the velocity which the uniform agitation of the natural elasticity would communicate to B in the same time. Then since FT is as the time, and TS is as the velocity, the area FTS will be as the space described by B (urged by the variable force PM); while A, urged by the external force, describes A a; and the triangle FRT will represent the space which the uniform action of the natural elasticity would cause B to describe in the same time.

And thus it is plain that these three motions can be compared together: the uniform motion of the agitated particle A, the uniformly accelerated motion which the natural elasticity would communicate to B by its con- stant action, and the motion produced in B by the agi- tation of A. But this comparison, requiring the qua- drature of the hyperbola and logarithmic curve, would lead us into most intricate and tedious computations. Of these we need only give the result, and make some other comparisons which are palpable.

Let A a be supposed indefinitely small in comparison of AB. The space described by A is therefore inde- finitely small; but in this case we know that the ratio of the space FRT to the rectangle IFRP is indefinitely small. There is therefore no comparison between the agitation of A by the external force, and the agitation which natural elasticity would produce on a single par- ticle in the same time, the last being incomparably smaller than the first. And this space FRT is incompa- rably greater than FTS; and therefore the space which B would describe by the uniform action of the natural elasticity is incomparably greater than what it would describe in consequence of the agitation of A.

From this reasoning we see evidently that A must be sensibly moved, or a finite or measurable time must elapse before B acquires a measurable motion. In like manner B must move during a measurable time before C ac- quires a measurable motion, &c.; and therefore the agitation of A is communicated to the distant particles in gradual succession.

By a farther comparison of these spaces we learn the time in which each succeeding particle acquires the very agitation of A. If the particles B and C only are con- sidered, and the motion of C neglected, it will be found that B has acquired the motion of A a little before it has described \( \frac{3}{4} \) of the space described by A; but if the motion of C be considered, the acceleration of B must be increased by the retreat of C, and B must describe a greater space in proportion to that described by A. By computation it appears, that when both B and C have acquired the velocity of A, B has described nearly \( \frac{7}{9} \) of A's motion, and C more nearly \( \frac{1}{2} \). Extending this to D, we shall find that D has described still more nearly \( \frac{5}{6} \) of A's motion. And from the nature of the compu- tation it appears that this approximation goes on rapid- ly: therefore, supposing it accurate from the very first particle, it follows from the equable motion of A, that each succeeding particle moves through an equal space in acquiring the motion of A.

The conclusion which we must draw from all this is, that when the agitation of A has been fully communi- cated to a particle at a sensible distance, the intervening particles, all moving forward with a common velocity, are equally compressed as to sense, except a very few of the first particles; and that this communication, or this propagation of the original agitation, goes on with an undulation of Air.

These computations need not be attended to by such as do not wish for an accurate knowledge of the precise agitation of each particle. It is enough for such readers to see clearly that time must escape between the agitation of A and that of a distant particle; and this is abundantly manifest from the incomparability (except the term) of the nascent rectangle IFRP with the nas- cent triangle FRT, and the incomparability of FRT with FTS.

What has now been shown of the communication of any sensible motion A a must hold equally with respect to any change of this motion. Therefore if a tremulous motion of a body, such as a spring or bell, should agi- tate the adjoining particle A by pushing it forward in the direction AB, and then allowing it to come back again in the direction BA, an agitation similar to this will take place in all the particles of the row one after the other. Now if this body vibrate according to the Newton's law of motion of a pendulum vibrating in a cycloid, neighbouring particle of air will of necessity vibrate in the same manner; and then Newton's demonstration in Acoustics needs no apology. Its only deficiency was, that it seemed to prove that this would be the way in which every particle would of necessity vibrate; which is not true, for the successive parcels of air will be differently agitated according to the original agita- tion. Newton only wants to prove the uniform propa- gation of the agitations, and he selects that form which renders the proof easiest. He proves, in the most unex- ceptionable manner, that if the particles of a pulse of air are really moving like a cycloidal pendulum, the forces acting on each particle, in consequence of the compression and dilatation of the different parts of the pulse, are precisely such as are necessary for continuing this motion, and therefore no other forces are required. Then since each particle is in a certain part of its path, is moving in a certain direction and with a certain ve- locity, and urged by a determined force, it must move in that very manner. The objection started by John Bernouilli against Newton's demonstration (in a single line) of the elliptical motion of a body urged by a force in the inverse duplicate ratio of the distance from the focus, is precisely the same with the objection against Newton's demonstration of the progress of aerial undu- lations, and is equally futile.

It must, however, be observed, that Newton's demon- stration proceeds on the supposition that the linear agi- tations of a particle are incomparably smaller than the ex- tent of an undulation. This is not strictly the case in any instance, and in many it is far from being true. In a pretty strong twang of a harpsichord wire, the agita- tion of a particle may be near the 50th part of the ex- tent of the undulation. This must disturb the regula- rity of the motion, and cause the agitations in the re- mote undulations to differ from those in the first pulse. In the explosion of a cannon, the breaking of an ex- hausted bottle, and many instances which may be given, the agitations are still greater. The commentators on Newton's Principia, Le Sueur and Jacquier, have shown, and Euler more clearly, that when the original agita- tions are very violent, the particles of air will acquire a subordinate vibration compounded with the regular-cy- cloidal vibration, and the progress of the pulses will be

Indulation somewhat more rapid; but the intricacy of the calculus of Air is so great, that they have not been able to determine with any tolerable precision what the change of velocity will be.

All this, however, is fully confirmed by experiment on founds. The sound of a cannon at 10 or 20 miles distance does not in the least resemble its sound when near. In this case it is a loud instantaneous crack, to which we can assign no musical pitch; at a distance, it ear and at is a grave sound, of which we can tell the note; and it begins softly, swells to its greatest loudness, and then dies away growling. The same may be said of a clap of thunder, which we know to be a loud snap of still less duration. It is highly probable that the appreciable tones which those distant sounds afford are produced by the continuance of these subordinate vibrations which are added together and fortified in the successive pulses, though not perceptible in the first, in a way somewhat resembling the resonance of a musical chord. Newton's explanation gathers evidence therefore from this circumstance. And we must further observe, that all elastic bodies tremble or vibrate almost precisely as a pendulum swinging in a cycloid, unless their vibrations are uncommonly violent; in which case they are quickly reduced to a moderate quantity by the resistance of the air. The only very loud sounds which we can produce in this way are from great bells; and in these the utmost extent of the vibration is very small in comparison with the breadth of the pulse. The velocity of these sounds has not been compared with that of cannon, or perhaps it would be found less, and an objection against Newton's determination removed. He gives 969 feet per second, Experiment 1142.

But it is also very probable, that in the propagation through the air, the agitation gradually and rapidly approaches to this regular cycloidal form in the successive pulses, in the same way as we observe that whatever is the form of agitation in the middle of a smooth pond of water, the spreading circles are always of one gentle form without asperities. In like manner, into whatever form we throw a stretched cord by the twang which we give it, it almost immediately makes smooth undulations, keeping itself in the shape of an elongated trochoid. Of this last we can demonstrate the necessity, because the case is simple. In the wave, the investigation is next to impossible; but we see the fact. We may therefore presume it in air. And accordingly we know that any noise, however abrupt and jarring, near at hand, is smooth at a distance. Nothing is more rough and harsh than the scream of a heron; but at half a mile's distance it is soft. The ruffle of a drum is also smooth at a distance.

Fig. 90 shows the successive situations of the particles of a row. Each line of the figure shows the same particles marked with the same letters; the first particle a being supposed to be removed successively from its quiescent situation and back to it again. The mark X is put on that part of each line where the agitated particles are at their natural distances, and the air is of the natural density. The mark I is put where the air is most of all compressed, and where it is most of all dilated; the curve line drawn through the lowest line of the figure is intended to represent the density in every point, by drawing ordinates to it from the straight line: the ordinates below the line indicate a rarity, and those above the line a density, greater than common.

It appears that when a has come back to its natural situation, the part of greatest density is between the particles i and k, and the greatest rarity between c and d.

We have only to add, that the velocity of this propagation depends on the elasticity and density of the fluid. If these vary in the same proportion, that is, if the fluid has its elasticity proportional to its density, the velocity will remain the same. If the elasticity or density alone be changed, the velocity of the undulations will change in the direct subduplicate ratio of the elasticity and the inverse subduplicate ratio of the density; for should the elasticity be quadrupled, the quantity of motion produced by it in any given time will be quadrupled. This will be the case if the velocity be doubled; for there would then be double the number of particles doubly agitated. Should the density be quadrupled, the elasticity remaining the same, the quantity of motion must remain the same. This will be the case if the velocity be reduced to one half; for this will propagate half the agitation to half the distance, which will communicate it twice the number of particles, and the quantity of motion will remain the same. The same may be said of other proportions, and therefore

\[ V = \frac{\sqrt{E}}{\sqrt{D}}. \]

Therefore a change in the barometer will not affect the velocity of the undulations in air; but they will be accelerated by heat, which diminishes its density, or increases its elasticity. The velocity of the pulses in inflammable air must be at least thrice as great, because its density is but one-tenth of that of air when the elasticity of both are the same.

Let us now attend a little to the propagation of aerial pulses as they really happen; for this hypothesis of a single row of particles is nowhere to be observed.

Suppose a sphere A, fig. 91, filled with condensed air, as they and that the vessel which contains it is suddenly annihilated. The air must expand to its natural dimensions, supposing BCD. But it cannot do this without pressing aside the surrounding air. We have seen that in any single row of particles this cannot be at once diffused to a distance, but must produce a condensation in the air adjoining; which will be gradually propagated to a distance. Therefore this sphere BCD of the common density will form round it a shell, bounded by EFG, of condensed air. Suppose that at this instant the inner air BCD becomes solid. The shell of condensed air can expand only outwards. Let it expand till it is of the common density, occupying the shell HIK. This expansion, in like manner, must produce a shell of condensed air without it: at this instant let HIK become solid. The surrounding shell of condensed air can expand only outward, condensing another shell without it. It is plain that this must go on continually, and the central agitation will be gradually propagated to a distance in all directions. But, in this process, it is not the same numerical particles that go to a distance. Those of the original sphere go no further than BCD, those of the next shall go no further than HIK, &c. Farther, the expansion outwards of any particle will be more moderate as the diffusion advances; for the whole motion of each Undulation each shell cannot exceed the original quantity of motion; and the number of particles in each successive shell increases as the surface, that is, as the square of the distance from the centre; therefore the agitation of the particles will decrease in the same ratio, or will be in the inverse duplicate ratio of the distance from the centre. Each successive shell, therefore, contains the same quantity of motion, and the successive agitations of the particles of any row out from the centre will not be equal to the original agitation, as happens in the solitary row. But this does not affect the velocity of the propagation, because all agitations are propagated equally fast.

We supposed the air A to become solid as soon as it acquired the common density; but this was to facilitate the conception of the diffusion. It does not stop at this bulk; for while it was denser it had a tendency to expand. Therefore each particle has attained this distance with an accelerated motion. It will, therefore, continue this motion like a pendulum that has passed the perpendicular, till it is brought to rest by the air without it; and it is now rarer than common air, and collapses again by the greater elasticity of the air without it. This outward air, therefore, in regaining its natural density, must expand both ways. It expands towards the centre, following the collapsing of the air within it; and it expands outwards, condensing the air beyond it. By expanding inwards, it will again condense the air within it, and this will again expand; a similar motion happens in all the outward shells; and thus there is propagated a succession of condensed and rarefied shells of air, which gradually swell to the greatest distance.

It may be demonstrated, that when the central air has for the second time acquired the natural density, it will be at rest, and be disturbed no more; and that this will happen to all the shells in succession. But the demonstration is much too intricate for this place; we must be contented with pointing out a fact perfectly analogous. When we drop a small pebble into water, we see it produce a series of circular waves, which go along the surface of smooth water to a great distance, becoming more and more gentle as they recede from the centre; and the middle, where the agitation was first produced, remains perfectly smooth, and this smoothness extends continually; that is, each wave when brought to a level remains at rest. Now these waves are produced and propagated by the depression and elevation made at the centre. The elevation tends to diffuse itself; and the force with which each particle of water is actuated is a force acting directly up and down, and is proportional to the elevation or depression of the particle. This hydrostatical pressure operates precisely in the same way as the condensation and rarefaction of the air; and the mathematical investigation of the propagation of the circular undulations on smooth water is similar in every respect to that of the propagation of the spherical waves in still air. For this we appeal to Newton's Principia, or to Euler's Opticks, where he gives a very beautiful investigation of the velocity of the aerial pulses; and to some memoirs de la Grange in the collections of the academies of Berlin and Turin. These two last authors have made the investigation as simple as seems possible, and have freed it from every objection which can be stated against the geometrical one of their great teacher Newton.

Having said this much on the similarity between the Undulation waves on water and the aerial undulations, we shall have recourse to them, as affording us a very sensible object to represent many affections of the other, which it would be extremely difficult to explain. We neither see nor feel the aerial undulations; and they behaved, therefore, to be described very abstractly and imperfectly. In the watery wave there is no permanent progressive motion of the water from the centre. Throw a small bit of cork on the surface, and it will be observed to popple up and down without the least motion outwards. In like manner, the particles of air are only agitated a very little outwards and inwards; which motion is communicated to the particles beyond them, while they themselves come to rest, unless agitated afresh; and this agitation of the particles is inconceivably small. Even the explosion of a cannon at no great distance will but gently agitate a feather, giving it a single impulse outwards, and immediately after another inwards or towards the cannon. When a harpsichord wire is forcibly twanged at a few feet distance, the agitation of the air is next to insensible. It is not, however, nothing; and it differs from that in a watery wave by being really outwards and inwards. In consequence of this, when the condensed shell reaches an elastic body, it impels it slightly. If its elasticity be such as to make it acquire the opposite shape at the instant that the next agitation and condensed shell of air touches it, its agitation will be doubled, and a third agitation will increase it, and so on, till it acquire the agitation competent to that of the shell of air which reaches it, and it is thrown into sensible vibration, and gives a sound extremely faint indeed, because the agitation which it acquires is that corresponding to a shell of air considerably removed from the original firing. Hence it happens that a musical chord, pipe, or bell, will cause another to resound, whose vibrations are isochronous with its own; or if the vibrations of the one coincides with every second, or third, or fourth, &c. of the other; just as we can put a very heavy pendulum into sensible motion by giving it a gentle push with the breath at every vibration, or at every second, third, or fourth, &c. A drum struck in the neighbourhood of another drum will agitate it very sensibly; for here the stroke depresses a very considerable surface, and produces an agitation of a considerable mass of air; it will even agitate the surface of stagnant water. The explosion of a cannon will even break a neighbouring window. The shell of condensed air which comes against the glass has a great surface and a great agitation: the best security in this case is to throw up the sash; this admits the condensed air into the room, which acts on the inside of the window, balancing part of the external impulse.

It is demonstrated in every elementary treatise of natural philosophy, that when a wave on water meets any air and plane obstacle, it is reflected by it from a centre equal, of water plane behind the obstacle; that waves radiating from the focus of a parabola are reflected in waves very similar to those of an ellipse made to converge to the other focus, &c., &c. All this may be affirmed of the aerial undulations; that when part of a wave gets through a hole in the obstacle, it becomes the centre of a new series of waves; that waves bend round the extremities of an obstacle: all this happens in the aerial undulations. And lastly, that when the surface of water is thrown into regular undulations by one agitation, another agitation in another place will produce other regular waves, which will cross the former without disturbing them in the smallest degree. The same thing happens in air; and experiments may be made on water which will illustrate in the most perfect manner many other affections of the aerial pulses, which we should otherwise conceive very imperfectly. We would recommend to our curious readers to make some of these experiments in a large vessel of milk. Take a long and narrow plate of lead, which, when set on the bottom of the vessel, will reach above the surface of the milk; bend this plate into a parabola, elliptical or other curve. Make the undulations by dropping milk on the focus from a small pipe, which will cause the agitations to succeed with rapidity, and then all that we have said will be most distinctly seen, and the experiment will be very amusing and instructive, especially to the musical reader.

We would now request all who make or read explanations of natural phenomena by means of vibrations of ethers, animal spirits, nervous fluids, &c., to fix their attention on the nature of the agitation in one of these undulations. Let him consider whether this can produce the phenomenon, acting as any matter must act, by impulse or by pressure. If he sees that it can produce the phenomenon, he will be able to point out the very motion it will produce, both in quantity and direction, in the same manner as Sir Isaac Newton has pointed out all the irregularities of the moon's motion produced by the disturbing force of the sun. If he cannot do this, he fails in giving the first evidence of a mechanical explanation by the action of an elastic vibrating fluid. Let him then try to point out some palpable connection between the general phenomena of elastic undulations and the phenomenon in question; this would show an accompaniment to have at least some probability. It is thus only we learn that the undulations of air produce sound: we cannot tell how they affect the mechanism of the ear; but we see that the phenomena of sound always accompany them, and that certain modifications of the one are regularly accompanied by certain modifications of the other. If we cannot do this neither, we have derived neither explanation nor illustration from the elastic fluid. And lastly, let him remember that even if he should be able to show the competency of this fluid to the production of the phenomenon, the whole is still an hypothesis, because we do not know that such a fluid exists.

We will venture to say, that whoever will proceed in this prudent manner will soon see the futility of most of the explanations of this kind which have been given. They are unfit for any but confirmed mathematicians; for they alone really understand the mechanism of aerial undulations, and even they speak of them with hesitation as a thing but imperfectly understood. But even the unlearned in this science can see the incompatibility of the hypotheses with many things which they are brought to explain. To take an instance of the conveyance of sensation along the nerves; an elastic fluid is supposed to occupy them, and the undulations of this fluid are thought to be propagated along the nerves. Let us just think a little how the undulations would be conveyed along the surface of a canal which was completely filled up with reeds and bulrushes, or let us make the experiment on such a canal: we may rest assured that the undulations in the one case will resemble those in the other; and we may see that in the canal there will be no regular or sensible propagation of the waves.

Let these observations have their influence, along with others which we have made on other occasions, to wean our readers from this fashionable propensity to introduce invisible fluids and unknown vibrations into our physical difficulties. They have done immense, and we fear irreparable, mischief in science; and there is but one phenomenon that has ever received any explanation by their means.

This may suffice for a loose and popular account of aerial undulations; and with it we conclude our account of the motion, impulse, and resistance of air.

We shall now explain a number of natural appearances, depending on its pressure and elasticity, appearances not sufficiently general, or too complicated for the purposes of argument, while we were employed in the investigation of these properties, but too important to be passed over in silence.

It is owing to the pressure of the atmosphere that the air's two surfaces which accurately fit each other cohere with pressure or such force. This is a fact familiarly known to the glass-cohesion of grinders, polishers of marble, &c. A large lens or two-facetulum, ground on its tool till it becomes very smooth, takes away more than any man's strength to separate it directly from the tool. If the surface is only a square inch, it will require 15 pounds to separate them perpendicularly, though a very moderate force will make them slide along each other. But this cohesion is not observed unless the surfaces are wetted or smeared with oil or grease; otherwise the air gets between them, and they separate without any trouble. That this cohesion is owing to the atmospheric pressure, is evident from the ease with which the plates may be separated in an exhausted receiver.

To the same cause we must ascribe the very strong and the adhesion of snails, periwinkles, limpets, and other animals to valve shells, to the rocks. The animal forms the rim of its shell, so as to fit the shape of the rock to which it intends to cling. It then fills its shell (if not already filled by its own body) with water. In this condition it is evident that we must act with a force equal to 15 pounds for every square inch of touching surface before we can detach it. This may be illustrated by filling a drinking glass to the brim with water; and having covered it with a piece of thin wet leather, whelm it on a table, and then try to pull it straight up; it will require a considerable force. But if we expose a snail adhering to a stone in the exhausted receiver, we shall see it drop off by its own weight. In the same manner do the remora, the polypus, the lamprey, and many other animals, adhere with such firmness. Boys frequently amuse themselves by pulling out large stones from the pavement by means of a circle of stiff wetted leather fastened to a string. It is owing to the same cause that the bivalve shell fishes keep themselves so firmly shut. We think the muscular force of an oyster prodigious, because it requires such force to open it; but if we grind off a bit of the convex shell, so as to make a hole in it, though without hurting the fish in the smallest Effects of the air's pressure.

The pressure of the air, operating in this way, contributes much to the cohesion of bodies, where we do not suspect its influence. The tenacity of our mortars and cements would frequently be ineffectual without this assistance.

It is owing to the pressure of the atmosphere that a cask will not run by the cock unless a hole be opened in some other part of the cask. If the cask is not quite full, some liquor indeed will run out, but it will stop as soon as the diminished elasticity of the air above the liquor is in equilibrium (together with the liquor) with the atmospheric pressure. In like manner, a teapot must have a small hole in its lid to ensure its pouring out the tea. If indeed the hole in the cask is of large dimensions, it will run without any other hole, because air will get in at the upper side of the hole while the liquor runs out by the lower part of it.

On the same principle depends the performance of an instrument used by the spirit dealers for taking out a sample of their spirits. It consists of a long thin plate tube A.B (fig. 74), open at top at A, and ending in a small hole at B. The end B is dipped into the spirits, which rises into the tube; then the thumb is clapped on the mouth A, and the whole is lifted out of the cask. The spirit remains in till the thumb be taken off; it is then allowed to run into a glass for examination.

It seems principally owing to the pressure of the air that frosts immediately occasion a scantiness of water in our fountains and wells. This is erroneously accounted for, by supposing that the water freezes in the bowels of the earth. But this is a great mistake: the most intense frost of a Siberian winter would not freeze the ground two feet deep; but a very moderate frost will consolidate the whole surface of a country, and make it impervious to the air; especially if the frost has been preceded by rain, which has soaked the surface. When this happens, the water which was filtering through the ground is all arrested and kept suspended in its capillary tubes by the pressure of the air, in the very same manner as the spirits are kept suspended in the instrument just now described by the thumb's shutting the hole A. A thaw melts the superficial ice, and allows the water to run in the same manner as the spirits run when the thumb is removed.

Common air is necessary for supporting the lives of most animals. If a small animal, such as a mouse or bird, be put under the receiver of an air-pump, and the air be exhausted, the animal will quickly be thrown into convulsions and fall down dead; if the air be immediately readmitted, the animal will sometimes revive, especially if the rarefaction has been briskly made, and has not been very great. We do not know that any breathing animal can bear the air to be reduced to one-fourth of its ordinary density, nor even one-third; nor have we good evidence that an animal will ever recover if the rarefaction is pushed very far, although continued for a very short time.

But the mere presence of the air is by no means sufficient for preserving the life of the animal; for it is found, that an animal shut up in a vessel of air cannot live in it for any length of time. If a man be shut up in a box, containing a wine hogshead of air, he cannot live in it much above an hour, and long before this he will find his breathing very unsatisfactory and uneasy. A gallon of air will support him about a minute. A box EF (fig. 75.) may be made, having a pipe A.B inserted into its top, and fitted with a very light valve at B, opening upwards. This pipe sends off a lateral branch a D d C, which enters the box at the bottom, and is also fitted with a light valve at C opening upwards. If a person breathe through the pipe, keeping his nostrils shut, it is evident that the air which he expires will not enter the box by the hole B, nor return through the pipe CD d; and by this contrivance he will gradually employ the whole air of the box. With this apparatus experiments can be made without any risk or inconvenience, and the quantity of air necessary for a given time of easy breathing may be accurately ascertained.

How the air of our atmosphere produces this effect, is a question which does not belong to mechanical philosophy to investigate or determine. We can, however affirm, that it is neither the pressure nor the elasticity of the air which is immediately concerned in maintaining the animal functions. We know that we can live and breathe with perfect freedom on the tops of the highest mountains. The valley of Quito in Peru, and the country round Gondar in Abyssinia, are so far elevated above the surface of the ocean, that the pressure and the elasticity of the air are one-third less than in the low countries; yet these are populous and healthy places. And, on the other hand, we know, that when an animal has breathed in any quantity of air for a certain time without renewal, it will not only be suffocated, but another animal put into this air will die immediately; and we do not find either the pressure or elasticity of the air remarkably diminished: it is indeed diminished, but by a very small quantity. Referring the former pressure and elasticity has not the smallest tendency to prevent the death of the animal: for an animal will live no longer under a receiver that has its mouth inverted on water, than in one set upon the pump-plate covered with leather. Now when the receiver is set on water, the pressure of the atmosphere acts completely on the included air, and preserves it in the same state of elasticity.

In short, it is known that the air which has already served to maintain the animal functions has its chemical air and alimentary properties completely changed, and is no longer fit for this purpose. So much of any mists of air animal as has really been thus employed is changed into what functions is called fixed air by Dr Black, or carbonic acid by the quite alchemists of the Lavoisierian school. Any person may be convinced of this by breathing or blowing through a pipe immersed in lime water. Every expiration will produce white clouds on the water, till all the lime which it contains is precipitated in the form of pure chalk. In this case we know that the lime has combined with the fixed air.

The celebrated Dr Stephen Hales made many experiments, with a view to clear the air from the noxious vapour which he supposed to be emitted from the lungs.

He made use of the apparatus which we have been just now mentioning; and he put several diaphragms &c., &c., of thin woollen fluff into the box, and moistened them with various liquids. He found nothing so efficacious as a solution of potash. We now understand stand this perfectly. If the solution is not already saturated with fixed air, it will take it up as fast as it is produced, and thus will purify the air: a solution of caustic alkali therefore will have this effect till it is rendered quite mild.

These experiments have been repeated, and varied in many circumstances, in order to ascertain whether this fixed air was really emitted by the lungs, or whether the inspired air was in part changed into fixed air by its combination with some other substance. This is a question which comes properly in our way, and which the doctrines of pneumatics enable us to answer. If the fixed air be emitted in substance from the lungs, it does not appear how a renewal of the air into which it is emitted is necessary: for this does not hinder the subsequent emission; and the bulk of the air would be increased by breathing in it, viz. by the bulk of all the fixed air emitted; but, on the contrary, it is a little diminished. We must therefore adopt the other opinion; and the discoveries in modern chemistry enable us to give a pretty accurate account of the whole process. Fixed air is acknowledged to be a compound, of which one ingredient is found to constitute about three-eighths of the whole atmospheric fluid; we mean vital air or the oxygen of Lavoisier. When this is combined with phlogiston, according to the doctrine of Stahl, or with charcoal, according to Lavoisier, the result is fixed air or carbonic acid. The change therefore which breathing makes on the air is the solution of this matter by vital air; and the use of air in breathing is the carrying off this noxious principle in the way of solution. When therefore the air is already so far saturated as not to dissolve this substance as fast as it is secreted, or must be secreted in the lungs, the animal suffers the pain of suffocation, or is otherwise mortally affected. Suffocation is not the only consequence; for we can remain for a number of seconds without breathing, and then we begin to feel the true pain of suffocation; but those who have been instantaneously struck down by an inspiration of fixed air, and afterwards recovered to life, complained of no such pain, and seemed to have suffered chiefly by a nervous affection. It is said (but we will not vouch for the truth of it), that a person may safely take a full inspiration of fixed air, if the passages of the nose be shut; and that unless these nerves are stimulated by the fixed air, it is not instantaneously mortal. But these are questions out of our present line of inquiry. They are questions of physiology, and are treated of in other places of this work. See ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY; see also LUNGS and RESPIRATION. Our business is to explain in what manner the pressure and elasticity of the air, combined with the structure and mechanism of the body, operate in producing this necessary secretion and removal of the matter discharged from the lungs in the act of breathing.

It is well ascertained, that the secretion is made from the mass of blood during its passage through the lungs. The blood delivered into the lungs is of a dark blackish colour, and is there changed into a florid red. In the lungs it is exposed to the action of the air in a prodigiously extended surface: for the lungs consist of an inconceivable number of small vessels or bladders, communicating with each other and with the windpipe. These are filled with air in every inspiration. These vessels are everywhere in contact with minute blood-vessels. The blood does not in toto come into immediate contact with the air; and it would seem that it is only the thin fleshy part of it which is acted on by the air at the mouths of the vessels or pores, where it stands by capillary attraction. Dr Priestley found, that venous blood inclosed in thin bladders and other membranes was rendered florid by keeping the bladders in contact with abundance of pure vital air. We know also, that breath is moist or damp, and must have acquired this moisture in the lungs. It is immaterial whether this secretion of water or lymph (as the anatomists call it) be furnished by mere exudation through simple pores, or by a vascular and organic secretion; in either case, some ingredient of the blood comes in contact with air in the lungs, and there unites with it. This is farther confirmed, by observing, that all breathing animals are warmer than the surrounding medium, and that by every process in which fixed air is formed from vital air heat is produced. Hence this solution in air of something from the blood has been assigned by many as the source of animal heat. We touch on these things in a very transitory way in this place, only in order to prove that, for the support of animal life, there must be a very extensive application of air to the blood, and that this is made in the lungs.

The question before us in this place is, How is this brought about by the weight and elasticity of the air? This is done in two ways; by the action of the muscles of the ribs, and by the action of the diaphragm and other muscles of the abdomen. The thorax or chest is a great cavity, completely filled by the lungs. The sides of this cavity are formed by the ribs. These are crooked or arched, and each is moveable round its two ends, one of them being inserted into the vertebrae of the back, and the other into the sternum or breast-bone. The rib turns in a manner resembling the handle of a drawer. The inspection of fig. 76. will illustrate this matter a little. Suppose the curves a c e, b k f, c l g, &c., to represent the ribs moveable round the extremities. Each succeeding rib is more bent than the one above it, and this curvature is both in the vertical and horizontal direction. Suppose each so broad as to project a little over its inferior like the tiles of a roof. It is evident, that if we take the lower one by its middle, and draw it out a little, moving it round the line n p, it will bring out the next d m h along with it. Also, because the distance of the middle point o from the axis of motion n p is greater than the distance of m from the axis d h, and because o will therefore describe a portion of a larger circle than m does, the rib n o p will slide up a little under the rib d m h, or the rib d m h will overlap n o p a little more than before; the distance o m will therefore be diminished. The same must happen to all the superior ribs; but the change of distance will be less and less as we go upwards. Now, instead of this great breadth of the ribs overlapping each other, suppose each inferior rib connected with the one above it by threads or fibres susceptible of contraction at the will of man. The articulations e, a, of the first or upper rib with the spine and sternum are so broad and firm, that this rib can have little or no motion round the line a e; this rib therefore is as a fixture for the ends of all the contracting fibres: therefore, whenever the fibres which connect the second rib with the first rib contract, the second must rise a little, and also go outward, and will carry the lower ribs.

Effects of Air's pressure.

Ribs along with it; the third rib will rise still farther by the contraction of the muscles which connect it with the second, and so on: and thus the whole ribs are raised and thrown outward (and a little forward, because the articulation of each with the spine is considerably higher than that with the sternum), and the capacity of the thorax is enlarged by the contraction of its muscular covering. The direction of the muscular fibres is very oblique to the direction of the circular motion which it produces; from which circumstance it follows, that a very minute contraction of the muscles produces all the motion which is necessary. This indeed is not great; the whole motion of the lowest ribs is less than an inch in the most violent inspiration, and the whole contraction of the muscles of the twelve ribs does not exceed the eighth part of an inch, even supposing the intercostal muscles at right angles to the ribs; and being oblique, the contraction is still less (see Borelli, Sabatier, Monro, &c.). It would seem, that the intensity of the contractive power of a muscular fibre is easily obtained, but that the space through which it can be exerted is very limited; for in most cases nature places the muscles in situations of great mechanical disadvantage in this respect, in order to procure other conveniences.

But this is not the whole effect of the contraction of the intercostal muscles: since the compound action of the two sets of muscles, which cross each other from rib to rib like the letter X, is nearly at right angles to the ribs, but is oblique to its plane, it tends to push the ribs closer on their articulations, and thus to press out the two pillars on which they are articulated. Thus, supposing af (fig. 77.) to represent the section of one of the vertebrae of the spine, and cd a section of the sternum, and ab, ef, cd, two opposite ribs, with a lax thread be connecting them. If this thread be pulled upwards by the middle g till it is tight, it will tend to pull the points b and e nearer to each other, and to press the vertebra af and the sternum cd outwards. The spine being the chief pillar of the body, may be considered as immovable in the present instance. The sternum is sufficiently susceptible of motion for the present purpose. It remains almost fixed atop at its articulation with the first rib, but it gradually yields below; and thus the capacity of the thorax is enlarged in this direction also. The whole enlargement of the diameters of the thorax during inspiration is very small, not exceeding the fiftieth part of an inch in ordinary cases. This is easily calculated. Its quiescent capacity is about two cubic feet, and we never draw in more than 15 inches. Two spheres, one of which holds 2 cubic feet and the other 2 feet and 15 inches, will not differ in diameter above the fiftieth part of an inch.

The other method of enlarging the capacity of the thorax is very different. It is separated from the abdomen by a strong muscular partition called the diaphragm, which is attached to firm parts all around. In its quiescent or relaxed state it is considerably convex upwards, that is, towards the thorax, rising up into its cavity like the bottom of an ordinary quart bottle, only not so regular in its shape. Many of its fibres tend from its middle to the circumference, where they are inserted into firm parts of the body. Now suppose these fibres to contract. This must draw down its middle, or make it flatter than before, and thus enlarge the capacity of the thorax.

Physiologists are not well agreed as to the share which each of these actions has in the operation of enlarging the thorax. Many refuse all share of it to the intercostal muscles, and say that it is performed by the diaphragm alone. But the fact is, that the ribs are really observed to rise even while the person is asleep; and this cannot possibly be produced by the diaphragm, as these anatomists assert. Such an opinion shows either ignorance or neglect of the laws of pneumatics. If the capacity of the thorax were enlarged only by drawing down the diaphragm, the pressure of the air would compress the ribs, and make them descend. And the simple laws of mechanics make it as evident as any proposition in geometry, that the contraction of the intercostal muscles might produce an elevation of the ribs and enlargement of the thorax; and it is one of the most beautiful contrivances of nature. It depends much on the will of the animal what share each of these actions shall have. In general, the greatest part is done by the diaphragm; and any person can breathe in such a manner that his rib shall remain motionless; and, on the contrary, he can breathe almost entirely by raising his chest. In the first method of breathing, the belly rises during inspiration, because the contraction of the diaphragm compresses the upper part of the bowels, and therefore squeezes them outwards; so that an ignorant person would be apt to think that the breathing was performed by the belly, and that the belly is inflated with the air. The strait lacing of the women impedes the motion of the ribs, and changes the natural habit of breathing, or brings on an unnatural habit. When the mind is depressed, it is observed that the breathing is more performed by the muscles of the thorax; and a deep sigh is always made in this way.

These observations on the manner in which the capacity of the chest can be enlarged were necessary, before we can acquire a just notion of the way in which the mechanical properties of air operate in applying it to the mass of blood during its passage through the lungs. Suppose the thorax quite empty, and communicating with the external air by means of the trachea or windpipe, it would then resemble a pair of bellows. Raising the boards corresponds to the raising of the ribs; and we might imitate the action of the diaphragm by forcibly pulling outwards the folded leather which unites them. Thus their capacity is enlarged, and the air rushes in at the nozzle by its weight in the same manner as water would do. The thorax differs from bellows only in this respect, that it is filled by the lungs, which is a vast collection of little bladders, like the holes in a piece of fermented bread, all communicating with the trachea, and many of them with each other. When the chest is enlarged, the air rushes into them all in the same manner as into the single cavity of an empty thorax. It cannot be said with propriety that they are inflated: all that is done is the allowing the air to come in. At the same time, as their membranous covering must have some thickness, however small, and some elasticity, it is not unlikely that, when compressed by expiration, they tend a little to recover their former shape, and thus aid the voluntary action of the muscles. It is in this manner that a small bladder of caoutchouc swells.

Effects of swells again after compression, and fills itself with air or water. But this cannot happen except in the most minute vehicles; those of fleshy bulk have not elasticity enough for this purpose. The lungs of birds, however, have some very large bladders, which have a very considerable elasticity, and recover their shape and size with great force after compression, and thus fill themselves with air. The respiration of these animals is considerably different from that of land animals, and their muscles act chiefly in expiration. This will be explained by and by as a curious variety in the pneumatic instrument.

This account of the manner in which the lungs are filled with air does not seem agreeable to the notions we entertain of it. We seem to suck in the air; but although it be true that we act, and exert force, in order to get air into our lungs, it is not by our action, but by external pressure, that it does come in. If we apply our mouth to the top of a bottle filled with water, we find that no draught, as we call it, of our chest will suck in any of the water; but if we suck in the very same manner at the end of a pipe immersed in water, it follows immediately. Our interest in the thing makes us connect in imagination our own action with the effect, without thinking on the many steps which may intervene in the train of natural operations; and we consider the action as the immediate cause of the air's reception into the lungs. It is as if we opened the door, and took in by the hand a person who was really pushed in by the crowd without. If an incision be made into the side of the thorax, so that the air can get in by that way, when the animal acts in the usual manner, the air will really come in by this hole, and fill the space between the lungs and the thorax; but no air is sucked into the lungs by this process, and the animal is as completely suffocated as if the windpipe were shut up. And, on the other hand, if a hole be made into the lungs without communicating with the thorax, the animal will breathe through this hole, though the windpipe be stopped. This is successfully performed in cases of patients whose trachea is shut up by accident or by inflammation; only it is necessary that this perforation be made into a part of the lungs where it may meet with some of the great pulmonary passages: for if made into some remote part of a lobe, the air cannot find its way into the rest of the lungs through such narrow passages, obstructed too by blood, &c.

We have now explained, on pneumatic principles, the process of inspiration. The expiration is chiefly performed by the natural tone of the parts. In the act of inspiration the ribs were raised and drawn outwards in opposition to the elasticity of the solids themselves; for although the ribs are articulated at their extremities, the articulations are by no means such as to give a free and easy motion like the joints of the limbs. This is particularly the case in the articulations with the sternum, which are by no means fitted for motion. It would seem that the motion really produced here is chiefly by the yielding of the cartilaginous parts and the bending of the rib; when therefore the muscles which produce this effect are allowed to relax, the ribs again collapse. Perhaps this is assisted a little by the action of the long muscles which come down across the ribs without being inserted into them. These may draw them together a little, as we compress a loose bundle by a string.

In like manner, when the diaphragm was drawn down, it compressed the abdomen in opposition to the elasticity of all the viscera contained in it, and to the elasticity and tone of the teguments and muscles which surround it. When therefore the diaphragm is relaxed, these parts push it up again into its natural situation, and in doing this expel the air from the lungs.

If this be a just account of the matter, expiration should be performed without any effort. This accordingly is the case. We feel that, after having made an ordinary easy inspiration, it requires the continuance of the effort to keep the thorax in this enlarged state, and that all that is necessary for expiration is to cease to act. No person feels any difficulty in emptying the lungs; but weak people often feel a difficulty of inspiration, and compare it to the feeling of a weight on their breast; and expiration is the last motion of the thorax in a dying person.

But nature has also given us a mechanism by which we can expire, namely, the abdominal muscles; and when we have finished an ordinary and easy expiration, we can still expel a considerable bulk of air (nearly half of the contents of the lungs) by contracting the abdominal muscles. These, by compressing the body, force up its moveable contents against the diaphragm, and cause it to rise further into the thorax, acting in the same manner as when we expel the faeces per anus. When a person breathes out as much air as he can in this manner, he may observe that his ribs do not collapse during the whole operation.

There seems then to be a certain natural unconstrained state of the vesicles of the lungs, and a certain quantity of air necessary for keeping them of this size. It is probable that this state of the lungs gives the greatest facility to keep the blood vessels in the thorax full of air. Were they more compressed, the vessels would be compressed by the adjoining size; were they more lax, the vessels would be more crooked, and by this means obstructed. The frequent inspirations gradually change this air by mixing fresh air with it, and, at every expiration, carrying off some of it. In catarrhs and inflammations, especially when attended with suppuration, the small passages into the remote vessels are obstructed, and thus the renewal of air in them will be prevented. The painful feeling which this occasions causes us to expel the air with violence, shutting the windpipe, till we have exerted strongly with the abdominal muscles, and made a strong compression on the lower part of the thorax. We then open the passage suddenly, and expel the air and obstructing matter by violent coughing.

We have said, that birds exhibit a curious variety in the process of breathing. The muscles of their breathing wings being so very great, required a very extensive in birds' infection, and this is one use of the great breast-bone. Another use of it is, to form a firm partition to hinder the action of these muscles from compressing the thorax in the act of flying; therefore the form of their chest does not admit of alternate enlargement and contraction, to that degree as in land animals. Moreover, the muscles of their abdomen are also very small; and it would seem that they are not sufficient for producing the compression on the bowels which is necessary for

Effects of carrying on the process of concoction and digestion. Instead of aiding the lungs, they receive help from them.

In an ostrich, the lungs consist of a fleshy part A, A (fig. 78.), composed of vessels like those of land animals, and, like theirs, serving to expel the blood to the action of the air. Besides these, they have on each side four large bags B, C, D, E, each of which has an orifice G communicating with the trachea; but the second, C, has also an orifice H, by which it communicates with another bag F situated below the rest in the abdomen. Now, when the lungs are compressed by the action of the diaphragm, the air in C is partly expelled by the trachea through the orifice G, and partly driven through the orifice H into the bag F, which is then allowed to receive it; because the same action which compresses the lungs enlarges the abdomen. When the thorax is enlarged, the bag C is partly supplied with fresh air through the trachea, and partly from the bag F. As the lungs of other animals resemble a common bellows, the lungs of birds resemble the smith's bellows with a partition; and anatomists have discovered passages from this part of the lungs into their hollow bones and quills. We do not know all the uses of this contrivance; and only can observe, that this alternate action must assist the muscles of the abdomen in promoting the motion of the food along the alimentary canal, &c. We can distinctly observe in birds that their belly dilates when the chest collapses, and vice versa, contrary to what we see in the land animals. Another use of this double passage may be to produce a circulation of air in the lungs, by which a compensation is made for the smaller surface of action on the blood: for the number of small vessels, of equal capacity with these large bags, gives a much more extensive surface.

If we try to raise mercury in a pipe by the action of the chest alone, we cannot raise it above two or three inches; and the attempt is both painful and hazardous. It is painful chiefly in the breast, and it provokes coughing. Probably the fluids ooze through the pores of the vessels by the pressure of the surrounding parts.

On the other hand, we can by expiration support mercury about five or six inches high: but this also is very painful, and apt to produce extravasation of blood. This seems to be done entirely by the abdominal muscles.

The operation properly termed sucking is totally different from breathing, and resembles exceedingly the action of a common pump. Suppose a pipe held in the mouth, and its lower end immersed in water. We fill the mouth with the tongue, bringing it forward, and applying it closely to the teeth and to the palate; we then draw it back, or bend it downwards (behind) from the palate, thus leaving a void. The pressure of the air on the cheeks immediately depresses them, and applies them close to the gums and teeth; and its pressure on the water in the vessel causes it to rise through the pipe into the empty part of the mouth, which it quickly fills. We then push forward the tip of the tongue, below the water, to the teeth, and apply it to them all round, the water being above the tongue, which is kept much depressed. We then apply the tongue to the palate, beginning at the tip, and gradually going backwards in this application. By this means the water is gradually forced backward by an operation similar to that of the gullet in swallowing. This is done by contracting the gullet above and relaxing it below, just as we would empty a gut of its contents by drawing our closed hand along it. By this operation the mouth is again completely occupied by the tongue, and we are ready for repeating the operation. Thus the mouth and tongue resemble the barrel and piston of a pump; and the application of the tip of the tongue to the teeth performs the office of the valve at the bottom of the barrel, preventing the return of the water into the pipe. Although usual, it is not absolutely necessary, to withdraw the tip of the tongue, making a void before the tongue. Sucking may be performed by merely separating the tongue gradually from the palate, beginning at the root. If we withdraw the tip of the tongue a very minute quantity, the water gets in and flows back above the tongue.

The action of the tongue in this operation is very powerful; some persons can raise mercury 25 inches: but this strong exertion is very fatiguing, and the soft parts are prodigiously swelled by it. It causes the blood to ooze plentifully through the pores of the tongue, fauces, and palate, in the same manner as if a cupping-glass and syringe were applied to them; and, when the inside of the mouth is excoriated or tender, as is frequent with infants, even a very moderate exertion of this kind is accompanied with extravasation of blood. When children suck the nurse's breast, the milk follows their exertion by the pressure of the air on the breast; and a weak child, or one that withholds its exertions on account of pain from the above-mentioned cause, may be afflicted by a gentle pressure of the hand on the breast: the infant pupil of nature, without any knowledge of pneumatics, frequently helps itself by pressing its face to the yielding breast.

In the whole of this operation the breathing is performed through the nostrils; and it is a prodigious distress to an infant when this passage is obstructed by mucus. We beg to be forgiven for obliterating, by the way, that this obstruction may be almost certainly removed for a little while, by rubbing the child's nose with any liquid of quick evaporation, or even with water.

The operation in drinking is not very different from and of that in sucking: we have indeed little occasion here to drink, but we must do it a little. Dogs and some other animals cannot drink, but only lap the water into their far mouths with their tongue, and then swallow it. The gallinaceous birds seem to drink very imperfectly; they seem merely to dip their head into the water up to the eyes till their mouth is filled with water, and then holding up the head, it gets into the gullet by its weight, and is then swallowed. The elephant drinks in a very complicated manner: he dips his trunk into the water, and fills it by making a void in his mouth: this he does in the contrary way to man. After having depressed his tongue, he begins the application of it to the palate at the root, and by extending the application forward, he expels the air by the mouth which came into it from the trunk. The process here is not very unlike that of the condensing syringe without a piston valve, described in No. 58, in which the external air (corresponding here to the air in the trunk) enters by the hole F in the side, and is expelled through the hole in the end of the barrel; by this operation the trunk is filled with water; then he lifts his trunk out of the water, and bringing it to his mouth, pours the contents into it, and swallows it. On considering this operation, it appears that, by

Effects of Air's pressure.

the same process by which the air of the trunk is taken into the mouth, the water could also be taken in, to be afterwards swallowed; but we do not find, upon inquiry, that this is done by the elephant; we have always observed him to drink in the manner now described. In either way it is a double operation, and cannot be carried on any way but by alternately sucking and swallowing, and while one operation is going on the other is interrupted; whereas man can do both at the same time. Nature seems to delight in exhibiting to rational observers her inexhaustible variety of resource; for many insects, which drink with a trunk, drink without interruption: yet we do not call in question the truth of the aphorism, *Natura maxime simplex et semper fibi consona*, nor doubt but that, if the whole of her purpose were seen, we should find that her process is the simplest possible: for Nature, or Nature's God, is wise above our wisest thoughts, and simplicity is certainly the choice of wisdom: but alas! it is generally but a small and the most obvious part of her purpose that we can observe or appreciate. We seldom see this simplicity of nature fitted to us, except by some system-maker, who has found a principle which somehow tallies with a considerable variety of phenomena, and then cries out, *Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora*.

There is an operation similar to that of the elephant, which many find a great difficulty in acquiring, viz. keeping up a continued blast with a blow-pipe. We would define our chemical reader to attend minutely to the gradual action of his tongue in sucking, and he will find it such as we have described. Let him attend particularly to the way in which the tip of the tongue performs the office of a valve, preventing the return of the water into the pipe: the same portion of the tongue would hinder air from coming into the mouth. Next let him observe, that in swallowing what water he has now got lodged above his tongue, he continues the tip of the tongue applied to the teeth; now let him shut his mouth, keeping his lips firm together, the tip of the tongue at the teeth, and the whole tongue forcibly kept at a distance from the palate; bring up the tongue to the palate, and allow the tip to separate a little from the teeth, this will expel the air into the space between the fauces and cheeks, and will blow up the cheeks a little: then, acting with the tip of the tongue as a valve, hinder this air from getting back, and depressing the tongue again, more air (from the nostrils) will get into the mouth, which may be expelled into the space without the teeth as before, and the cheeks will be more inflated: continue this operation, and the lips will no longer be able to retain it, and it will ooze through as long as the operation is continued. When this has become familiar and easy, take the blow-pipe, and there will be no difficulty in maintaining a blast as uniform as a smith's bellows, breathing all the while through the nostrils. The only difficulty is the holding the pipe: this fatigues the lips; but it may be removed by giving the pipe a convenient shape, a pretty flat oval, and wrapping it round with leather or thread.

Another phenomenon depending on the principles already established, is the land and sea-breeze in the warm countries.

We have seen that air expands exceedingly by heat; therefore heated air, being lighter than an equal bulk of cold air, must rise in it. If we lay a hot stone in the sunshine in a room, we shall observe the shadow of the stone surrounded with a fluttering shadow of different degrees of brightness, and that this flutter rises rapidly in a column above the stone. If we hold an extinguished candle near the stone, we shall see the smoke move towards the stone, and then ascend from it. Now, suppose an island receiving the first rays of the sun in a perfectly calm morning; the ground will soon be warmed, and will warm the contiguous air. If the island be mountainous, this effect will be more remarkable; because the inclined sides of the hills will receive the light more directly: the midland air will therefore be most warmed: the heated air will rise, and that in the middle will rise fastest; and thus a current of air upwards will begin, which must be supplied by air coming in from all sides, to be heated and to rise in its turn; and thus the morning sea-breeze is produced, and continues all day. This current will frequently be reversed during the night, by the air cooling and gliding down the sides of the hills, and we shall have the land-breeze.

It is owing to the same cause that we have a circulation of air in mines which have the mouths of their air in shafts of unequal heights. The temperature under ground mines is pretty constant through the whole year, while that of the atmosphere is extremely variable. Now, suppose a mine having a long horizontal drift, communicating between two pits or shafts, and that one of these shafts terminates in a valley, while the other opens on the brow of a hill perhaps 100 feet higher. Let us further suppose it summer, and the air heated to 65°, while the temperature of the earth is but 45°; this last will be also the temperature of the air in the shafts and the drift. Now, since air expands nearly 24 parts in 10,000 by one degree of heat, we shall have an odds of pressure at the bottom of the two shafts equal to nearly the 20th part of the weight of a column of air 100 feet high (100 feet being supposed the difference of the heights of the shafts). This will be about six ounces on every square foot of the section of the shaft. If this pressure could be continued, it would produce a prodigious current of air down the long shafts, along the drift, and up the short shaft. The weight of the air acting through 100 feet would communicate to it the velocity of 80 feet per second: divide this by √20, that is, by 4.5, and we shall have 18 feet per second for the velocity: this is the velocity of what is called a brisk gale. This pressure would be continued, if the warm air which enters the long shaft were cooled and condensed as fast as it comes in; but this is not the case. It is however cooled and condensed, and a current is produced sufficient to make an abundant circulation of air along the whole passage; and care is taken to dispose the shafts and conduct the passages in such a manner that no part of the mine is out of the circle. When any new lateral drift is made, the renewal of air at its extremity becomes more imperfect as it advances: and when it is carried a certain length, the air stagnates and becomes suffocating, till either a communication can be made with the rest of the mine, or a shaft be made at the end of this drift.

As this current depends entirely on the difference of temperature between the air below and that above, it must cease when this difference ceases. Accordingly, in the spring and autumn, the miners complain much of stagnation; but in summer they never want a current from the deep pits to the shallow, nor in the winter. Effects of Air's pre- ference.

A current from the shallow pits to the deep ones. It frequently happens also, that in mineral countries the chemical changes which are going on in different parts of the earth make differences of temperature sufficient to produce a sensible current.

It is easy to see that the same causes must produce a current down our chimneys in summer. The chimney is colder than the summer air, and must therefore condense it, and it will come down and run out at the doors and windows.

And this naturally leads us to consider a very important effect of the expansion and consequent ascent of air by heat, namely the drawing (as it is called) of chimneys. The air which has contributed to the burning of fuel must be intensely heated, and will rise in the atmosphere. This will also be the case with much of the surrounding air which has come very near the fire, although not in contact with it. If this heated air be made to rise in a pipe, it will be kept together, and therefore will not soon cool and collapse: thus we shall obtain a long column of light air, which will rise with a force so much the greater as the column is longer or more heated. Therefore the taller we make the chimney, or the hotter we make the fire, the more rapid will be the current, or the draught or suction, as it is injudiciously called, will be so much the greater. The ascensional force is the difference between the weight of the column of heated air in the funnel and a column of the surrounding atmosphere of equal height. We increase the draught, therefore, by increasing the perpendicular height of the chimney. Its length in a horizontal direction gives no increase, but, on the contrary, diminishes the draught by cooling the air before it gets into the effective part of the funnel. We increase the draught also by obliging all the air which enters the chimney to come very near the fuel; therefore a low mantle-piece will produce this effect; also filling up all the spaces on each side of the grate. When much air gets in above the fire, by having a lofty mantle-piece, the general mass of air in the chimney cannot be much heated. Hence it must happen that the greatest draught will be produced by bringing down the mantle-piece to the very fuel; but this converts a fire-place into a furnace, and by thus feeding the whole air through the fuel, causes it to burn with great rapidity, producing a prodigious heat; and this producing an increase of ascensional force, the current becomes furiously rapid, and the heat and consumption of fuel immense. If the fire-place be a cube of a foot and a half, and the front closed by a door, so that all the air must enter through the bottom of the grate, a chimney of 15 or 20 feet high, and sufficiently wide to give passage to all the expanded air which can pass through the fire, will produce a current which will roar like thunder, and a heat sufficient to turn the whole inside into a lump of glass.

All that is necessary, however, in a chamber fire-place, is a current sufficiently great for carrying up the smoke and vitiated air of the fuel. And as we want also the enlivening flutter and light of the fire, we give the chimney-piece both a much greater height and width than what is merely necessary for carrying up the smoke, only wishing to have the current sufficiently determinate and steady for counteracting any occasional tendency which it may sometimes have to come into the room. By allowing a greater quantity of air to get into the chimney, heated only to a moderate degree, we produce a more rapid renewal of the air of the room: did we oblige it to come so much nearer the fire as to produce the same renewal of the air in consequence of a more rapid current, we should produce an inconvenient heat. But in this country, where pit-coal is in general so very cheap, we carry this indulgence to an extreme; or rather we have not studied how to get all the desired advantages with economy. A much smaller renewal of air than we commonly produce is abundantly wholesome and pleasant, and we may have all the pleasure of the light and flame of the fuel at much less expense, by contracting greatly the passage into the vent. The best way of doing this is by contracting the brick-work on each side behind the mantle-piece, and reducing it to a narrow parallelogram, having the back of the vent for one of its long sides. Make an iron plate to fit this hole, of the same length, but broader, so that it may lie flopping, its lower edge being in contact with the foreside of the hole, and its upper edge leaning on the back of the vent. In this position it shuts the hole entirely. Now let the plate have a hinge along the front or lower edge, and fold up like the lid of a chest. We shall thus be able to enlarge the passage at pleasure. In a fire-place fit for a room of 24 feet by 18, if this plate may be about 18 inches long from side to side, and folded back within an inch or an inch and a half of the wall, this will allow passage for as much air as will keep up a very cheerful fire: and by raising or lowering this Register, the fire may be made to burn more or less rapidly. A free passage of half an inch will be sufficient in weather that is not immoderately cold. The principle on which this construction produces its effect is, that the air which is in the front of the fire, and much warmed by it, is not allowed to get into the chimney, where it would be immediately hurried up the vent, but rises up to the ceiling and is diffused over the whole room. This double motion of the air may be distinctly observed by opening a little of the door and holding a candle in the way. If the candle be held near the floor, the flame will be blown into the room; but if held near the top of the door, the flame will be blown outward.

But the most perfect method of warming an apartment in the temperate climates, where we can indulge of a stove in the cheerfulness and sweet air produced by an open grate or fire, is what we call a stove-grate, and our neighbours on the continent call a chapelle, from its resemblance to the chapels or oratories in the great churches.

In the great chimney-piece, which, in this case, may be made even larger than ordinary, is set a smaller one fitted up in the same style of ornament, but of a size no greater than is sufficient for holding the fuel. The sides and back of it are made of iron (cast iron is preferable to hammered iron, because it does not so readily calcine), and are kept at a small distance from the sides and back of the main chimney-piece, and are continued down to the hearth, so that the air-pit is also separated. The pipe or chimney of the stove grate is carried up behind the ornaments of the mantle-piece till it rises above the mantle-piece of the main chimney-piece, and is fitted with a register or damper-plate turning round a transverse axis. The best form of this register is that which we have recommended for an ordinary fire-place, having its axis or joint close at the front; so that when it is open or turned up, the burnt air The effect of this construction is very obvious. The fuel, being in immediate contact with the back and sides of the grate, heats them to a great degree, and they heat the air contiguous to them. This heated air cannot get up the vent, because the passageways above these spaces are shut up. It therefore comes out into the room; some of it goes into the real fire-place and is carried up the vent, and the rest rises to the ceiling and is diffused over the room.

It is surprising to a person who does not consider it with skill how powerfully this grate warms a room. Less than one-fourth of the fuel consumed in an ordinary fire-place is sufficient; and this with the same cheerful blazing hearth and salutary renewal of air. It even requires attention to keep the room cool enough. The heat communicated to those parts in contact with the fuel is needlessly great; and it will be a considerable improvement to line this part with very thick plates of cast iron, or with tiles made of fire-clay which will not crack with the heat. These, being very bad conductors, will make the heat, ultimately communicated to the air, very moderate. If, with all these precautions, the heat should be found too great, it may be brought under perfect management by opening passageways into the vent from the lateral spaces. These may be valves or trap-doors moved by rods concealed behind the ornaments.

Thus we have a fire-place under the most complete regulation, where we can always have a cheerful fire without being for a quarter of an hour incommodeed by the heat; and we can as quickly raise our fire, when too low, by hanging on a plate of iron on the front, which shall reach as low as the grate. This in five minutes will blow up the fire into a glow; and the plate may be sent out of the room, or let behind the stove-grate out of sight.

The propriety of inclosing the ash-pit is not so obvious; but if this be not done, the light ashes, not finding a ready passage up the chimney, will come out into the room along with the heated air.

We do not consider in this place the various extraneous circumstances which impede the current of air in our chimneys and produce smoky houses: these will be treated of, and the methods of removing or remedying them, under the article SMOKE. We consider at present only the theory of this motion in general, and the modifications of its operation arising from the various purposes to which it may be applied.

Under this head we shall next give a general account and description of the method of warming apartments by stoves. A STOVE in general is a fire-place shut up on all sides, having only a passage for admitting the air to support the fire, and a tube for carrying off the vitiated air and smoke; and the air of the room is warmed by coming into contact with the outside of the stove and flue. The general principle of construction, therefore, is very simple. The air must be made to come into as close contact as possible with the fire, or even to pass through it, and this in such quantities as just to consume a quantity of fuel sufficient for producing the heat required; and the stove must be so constructed, that both the burning fuel and the air which has been heated by it shall be applied to as extensive a surface as possible of furnace, all in contact with the air of the room; and the heated air within the stove must not be allowed to get into the funnel which is to carry it off till it is too much cooled to produce any considerable heat on the outside of the stove.

In this temperate climate no great ingenuity is necessary for warming an ordinary apartment; and stoves are made rather to please the eye as furniture than as economical substitutes for an open fire of equal calorific power. But our neighbours on the continent, and especially towards the north, where the cold of winter is intense and fuel very dear, have bestowed much attention on their construction, and have combined ingenious economy with every elegance of form. Nothing can be handsomer than the stoves of Faverencier that are to be seen in French Flanders, or the Russian stoves at St Peterburgh, finished in stucco. Our readers will not, therefore, be displeased with a description of them. In this place, however, we shall only consider a stove in general as a subject of pneumatical discussion, and we refer our readers to the article STOVE for an account of them as articles of domestic accommodation.

The general form, therefore, of a stove, and of which all others are only modifications adapted to circumstances of utility or taste, is as follows:

MILK (fig. 79.) is a quadrangular box of any size Fig. 79., in the directions MILK. The inside width from front to back is pretty constant, never less than ten inches, and rarely extending to 20; the included space is divided by a great many partitions. The lowest chamber A.B is the receptacle for the fuel, which lies on the bottom of the stove without any grate; this fire-place has a door A.O turning on hinges, and in this door is a very small wicket P; the roof of the fire-place extends to within a very few inches of the farther end, leaving a narrow passage B for the flame. The next partition C.C is about eight inches higher, and reaches almost to the other end, leaving a narrow passage for the flame at C. The partitions are repeated above, at the distance of eight inches, leaving passages at the ends, alternately disposed as in the figure; the last of them H communicates with the room vent. This communication may be regulated by a plate of iron, which can be slid across it by means of a rod or handle which comes through the side. The more usual way of shutting up this passage is by a sort of pan or bowl of earthenware, which is wedged over it with its brim resting in sand contained in a groove formed all round the hole. This damper is introduced by a door in the front, which is then shut. The whole is set on low pillars, so that its bottom may be a few inches from the floor of the room; it is usually placed in a corner, and the apartments are so disposed that their chimneys can be joined in stacks as with us.

Some straw or wood-shavings are first burnt on the hearth at its farther end. This warms the air in the stove, and creates a determined current. The fuel is then laid on the hearth close by the door, and pretty much piled-up. It is now kindled; and the current being already directed to the vent, there is no danger of any smoke coming out into the room. Effectually to prevent this, the door is shut, and the wicket P opened. The air supplied by this, being directed to the middle or bottom of the fuel, quickly kindles it, and the operation goes on.

The aim of this construction is very obvious. The flame and heated air are retained as long as possible within the body of the stove by means of the long passageways; and the narrowness of these passageways obliges the flame to come in contact with every particle of foot, so as to consume it completely, and thus convert the whole combustible matter of the fuel into heat. For want of this a very considerable portion of our fuel is wasted by our open fires, even under the very best management: the foot which sticks to our vents is very inflammable, and a pound weight of it will give as much if not more heat than a pound of coal. And what sticks to our vents is very inconsiderable in comparison with what escapes unconfined at the chimney top. In fires of green wood, peat, and some kinds of pit-coal, nearly one-fifth of the fuel is lost in this way; but in these stoves there is hardly ever any mark of foot to be seen; and even this small quantity is produced only after lighting the fires. The volatile inflammable matters are expelled from parts much heated indeed, but not so hot as to burn; and some of it charred or half burnt cannot be any further consumed, being enveloped in flame and air already vitiated and unfit for combustion. But when the stove is well heated, and the current brisk, no part of the foot escapes the action of the air.

The hot air retained in this manner in the body of the stove is applied to its sides in a very extended surface. To increase this still more, the stove is made narrower from front to back in its upper part; a certain breadth is necessary below, that there may be room for fuel. If this breadth were preserved all the way up, much heat would be lost, because the heat communicated to the partitions of the stove does no good. By diminishing their breadth, the proportion of useful surface is increased. The whole body of the stove may be considered as a long pipe folded up, and its effect would be the greatest possible if it really were so; that is, if each partition C, D, &c., were split into two, and a free passage allowed between them for the air of the room. Something like this will be observed afterwards in some German stoves.

It is with the same view of making an extensive application of a hot surface to the air, that the stove is not built in the wall, nor even in contact with it, nor with the floor: for by its detached situation, the air in contact with the back, and with the bottom (where it is hottest), is warmed, and contributes at least one half of the whole effect; for the great heat of the bottom makes its effect on the air of the room at least equal to that of the two ends. Sometimes a stove makes part of the wall between two small rooms, and is found sufficient.

It must be remarked, on the whole, that the effect of a stove depends much on keeping in the room the air already heated by it. This is so remarkably the case, that a small open fire in the same room will be so far from increasing its heat, that it will greatly diminish it: it will even draw the warm air from a suite of adjoining apartments. This is distinctly observed in the houses of the English merchants in St Peterburgh: their habits of life in Britain make them uneasy without an open fire in their sitting rooms; and this obliges them to heat all their stoves twice a day, and their houses are cooler than those of the Russians who heat them only once. In many German houses, especially of the lower classes, the fire-place of the stove does not open into the room, but into the yard or a lobby, where all the fires are lighted and tended; by this means is avoided the expense of warm air which must have been carried off by the stove: but it is evident that this must be very unpleasant, and cannot be wholesome. We must breathe the same quantity of stagnant air loaded with all the vapors and exhalations which must be produced in every inhabited place. Going into one of these houses from the open air, is like putting one's head into a stew-pan or under a pie-crust, and quickly nauseates us who are accustomed to fresh air and cleanliness. In these countries it is a matter almost of necessity to fumigate the rooms with frankincense and other gums burnt. The censer in ancient worship was in all probability an utensil introduced by necessity for sweetening or rendering tolerable the air of a crowded place; and it is a constant practice in the Russian houses for a servant to go round the room after dinner, waving a censer with some gums burning on bits of charcoal.

The account now given of stoves for heating rooms, and of the circumstances which must be attended to in their construction, will equally apply to hot walls in gardening, whether within or without doors. The only new circumstance which this employment of a flue introduces, is the attention which must be paid to the equability of the heat, and the gradation which must be observed in different parts of the building. The heat in the flue gradually diminishes as it recedes from the fire-place, because it is continually giving out heat to the flue. It must therefore be so conducted through the building by frequent returns, that in every part there may be a mixture of warmer and cooler branches of the flue, and the final chimney should be close by the fire-place. It would, however, be improper to run the flue from the end of the floor up to the ceiling, where the second horizontal pipe would be placed, and then return it downward again and make the third horizontal flue adjoining to the first, &c. This would make the middle of the wall the coldest. If it is the flue of a greenhouse, this would be highly improper, because the upper part of the wall can be very little employed; and in this case it is better to allow the flue to proceed gradually up the wall in its different returns, by which the lowest part would be the warmest, and the heated air will ascend among the pots and plants; but in a hot wall, where the trees are to receive heat by contact, some approximation to the above method may be useful.

In the hypocausta and fudaria of the Greeks and Romans, the flue was conducted chiefly under the floors.

Malt-kilns are a species of stove which merit our attention. Many attempts have been made to improve a species of them on the principle of flue stoves: but they have been unsuccessful, because heat is not what is chiefly wanted in malting: it is a copious current of very dry air to carry off the moisture. We must refer the examination of this subject also to the article STOVE, and proceed to consider the current of heated air in the chief varieties of furnaces.

All that is to be attended to in the different kinds of melting furnaces is, that the current of air be sufficiently rapid, and that it be applied in as extensive a surface as possible. possible to the substance to be melted. The more rapid the current it is the hotter, because it is consuming more fuel; and therefore its effect increases in a higher proportion than its rapidity. It is doubly effectual if twice as hot; and if it then be twice as rapid, there is twice the quantity of doubly hot air applied to the subject; it would therefore be four times more powerful. This is procured by raising the chimney of the furnace to a greater height. The close application of it to the subject can hardly be laid down in general terms, because it depends on the precise circumstances of each case.

In reverberatory furnaces, such as refining furnaces for gold, silver, and copper, the flame is made to play over the surface of the melted metal. This is produced entirely by the form of the furnace, by making the arch of the furnace as low as the circumstances of the manipulation will allow. See Furnace. Experience has pointed out in general the chief circumstances of their construction, viz., that the fuel should be at one end on a grate, through which the air enters to maintain the fire; and that the metal should be placed on a level floor between the fuel and the tall chimney which produces the current. But there is no kind of furnace more variable in its effect, and almost every place has a small peculiarity of construction, on which its pre-eminence is rested. This has occasioned many whimsical varieties in their form. This uncertainty seems to depend much on a circumstance rather foreign to our present purpose; but as we do not observe it taken notice of by mineralogical writers, we beg leave to mention it here. It is not heat alone that is wanted in the refining of silver by lead, for instance. We must make a continual application to its surface of air, which has not contributed to the combustion of the fuel. Any quantity of the hottest air, already saturated with the fuel, may play on the surface of the metal for ever, and keep it in the state of most perfect fusion, but without refining it in the least. Now, in the ordinary construction of a furnace, this is much the case. If the whole air has come in by the grate, and passed through the middle of the fuel, it can hardly be otherwise than nearly saturated with it; and if air be also admitted by the door (which is generally done or something equivalent), the pure air lies above the vitiated air, and during the passage along the horizontal part of the furnace, and along the surface of the metal, it still keeps above it, at least there is nothing to promote their mixture. Thus the metal does not come into contact with air fit to act on the base metal and calcine it, and the operation of refining goes on slowly. Trifling circumstances in the form of the arch or canal may tend to promote the jumbling of the airs together, and thus render the operation more expeditious; and as these are, but ill understood, or perhaps this circumstance not attended to, no wonder that we see these considered as so many novelties of great importance. It were therefore worth while to try the effect of changes in the form of the roof directed to this very circumstance. Perhaps some little prominence down from the arch of the reverberatory would have this effect, by suddenly throwing the current into confusion. If the additional length of passage do not cool the air too much, we should think that if there were interposed between the fuel and the refining floor a passage twisted like a cork-screw, making just half a turn, it would be most effectual: for we imagine, that the two airs, keeping each to their respective sides of the passage, would by this means be turned upside down, and that the pure stratum would now be in contact with the metal, and the vitiated air would be above it.

The glashoue furnace exhibits the chief variety in and in the management of the current of heated air. In this glashoue it is necessary that the hole at which the workman dips his pipe into the pot shall be as hot as any part of the furnace. This could never be the case, if the furnace had a chimney situated in a part above the dipping-hole; for in this case cold air would immediately rush in at the hole, play over the surface of the pot, and go up the chimney. To prevent this the hole itself is made the chimney; but as this would be too short, and would produce very little current and very little heat, the whole furnace is set under a tall dome. Thus the heated air from the real furnace is confined in this dome, and constitutes a high column of very light air, which will therefore rise with great force up the dome, and escape at the top. The dome is therefore the chimney, and will produce a draught or current proportioned to its height. Some are raised above a hundred feet. When all the doors of this house are shut, and thus no supply given except through the fire, the current and heat become prodigious. This, however, cannot be done, because the workmen are in this chimney, and must have respirable air. But notwithstanding this supply by the house-doors, the draught of the real furnace is vastly increased by the dome, and a heat produced sufficient for the work, and which could not have been produced without the dome.

This has been applied with great ingenuity and effect to a furnace for melting iron from the ore, and an iron Mr Cotterel, an ingenious founder, tried the effect of a tall dome placed over the mouth of the furnace; and though it was not half the height of many glashoue domes it had the desired effect. Considerable difficulties, however, occurred; and he had not furnished them all when he left the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, nor have we since heard that he has brought the invention to perfection. It is extremely difficult to place the holes below, at which the air is to enter, at such a precise height as neither to be choked by the melted matter, nor to leave ore and stones below them unmelted; but the invention is very ingenious, and will be of immense service if it can be perfected; for in many places iron ore is to be found where water cannot be had for working a blast furnace.

The last application which we shall make of the currents Effects of rents produced by heating the air is to the freeing mines, Air's pressure.

371 Currents of air applied to free mines, ships, prisons, &c. from the damp and noxious vapours which frequently infest them.

As a drift or work is carried on in the mine, let a trunk of deal boards, about 6 or 8 inches square, be laid along the bottom of the drift, communicating with a trunk carried up in the corner of one of the shafts. Let the top of this last trunk open into the ash-pit of a small furnace, having a tall chimney. Let fire be kindled in the furnace; and when it is well heated, shut the fire-place and ash-pit doors. There being no other supply for the current produced in the chimney of this furnace, the air will flow into it from the trunk, and will bring along with it all the offensive vapours. This is the most effectual method yet found out. In the same manner may trunks be conducted into the ash-pit of a furnace from the cells of a prison or the wards of an hospital.

In the account which we have been giving of the management of air in furnaces and common fires, we have frequently mentioned the immediate application of air to the burning fuel as necessary for its combustion. This is a general fact. In order that any inflammable body may be really inflamed, and its combustible matter consumed and ashes produced, it is not enough that the body be made hot. A piece of charcoal inclosed in a box of iron may be kept red hot for ever, without wasting its substance in the smallest degree. It is farther necessary that it be in contact with a particular species of air, which constitutes about three-fourths of the air of the atmosphere, viz. the vital air or oxygen of Lavoisier. It was called empyreal air by Scheele, who first observed its indispensible use in maintaining fire: and it appears, that, in contributing to the combustion of an inflammable body, this air combines with some of its ingredients, and becomes fixed air, suffering the same change as by the breathing of animals. Combustion may therefore be considered as a solution of the inflammable body in air. This doctrine was first promulgated by the celebrated Dr Hooke in his Micrographia, published in 1665, and afterwards improved in his treatise on Lamps. It is now completely established, and considered as a new discovery. It is for this reason, that in fire-places of all kinds we have directed the construction, so as to produce a close application of the air to the fuel. It is quite needless at this day to enter into the discussions which formerly occupied philosophers about the manner in which the pressure and elasticity of the air promoted combustion. Many experiments were made in the 17th century by the first members of the Royal Society, to discover the office of air in combustion. It was thought that the flame was extinguished in rare air for want of a pressure to keep it together; but this did not explain its extinction when the air was not renewed. These experiments are still retained in courses of experimental philosophy, as they are judiciously styled; but they give little or no information, nor tend to the illustration of any pneumatical doctrine; they are therefore omitted in this place. In short, it is now fully established, that it is not a mechanical but a chemical phenomenon. We can only inform the chemist, that a candle will consume faster in the low countries than in the elevated regions of Quito and Gondar, because the air is nearly one half denser below, and will act proportionally faster in decomposing the candle.

We shall conclude this part of our subject with the explanation of a curious phenomenon observed in many places. Certain springs or fountains are observed to have periods of repletion and scantiness, or seem to ebb and flow at regular intervals; and some of these periods consist of a complicated nature. Thus a well will have several returns of high and low water, the difference of which gradually increases to a maximum, and then diminishes, just as we observe in the ocean. A very ingenious and probable explanation of this has been given in No. 424. of the Philosophical Transactions, by Mr Atwell, as follows.

Let ABCD (fig. 8o.) represent a cavern, into which Fig. 8a. water is brought by the subterraneous passage OT. Let it have an outlet MNP, of a crooked form, with its highest part N considerably raised above the bottom of the cavern, and thence sloping downwards into lower ground, and terminating in an open well at P. Let the dimensions of this canal be such that it will discharge much more water than is supplied by TO. All this is very natural, and may be very common. The effect of this arrangement will be a remitting spring at P: for when the cavern is filled higher than the point N, the canal MNP will act as a syphon; and, by the conditions assumed, it will discharge the water faster than TO supplies it; it will therefore run it dry, and then the spring at P will cease to furnish water. After some time the cavern will again be filled up to the height N, and the flow at P will recommence.

If, besides this supply, the well P also receive water from a constant source, we shall have a reciprocating spring.

The situation and dimensions of this syphon canal, and the supply of the feeder, may be such, that the efflux at P will be constant. If the supply increase in a certain degree, a reciprocation will be produced at P with very short intervals; if the supply diminishes considerably, we shall have another kind of reciprocation with great intervals and great differences of water.

If the cavern have another simple outlet R, new varieties will be produced in the spring P, and R will afford a copious spring. Let the mouth of R, by which the water enters into it from the cavern, be lower than N, and let the supply of the feeding spring be no greater than R can discharge, we shall have a constant spring from R, and P will give no water. But suppose that the main feeder increases in winter or rainy seasons, but not so much as will supply both P and R, the cavern will fill till the water gets over N, and R will be running all the while; but soon after P has begun to flow, and the water in the cavern sinks below R, the stream from R will stop. The cavern will be emptied by the syphon canal MNP, and then P will stop. The cavern will then begin to fill, and when near full R will give a little water, and soon after P will run and R stop as before, &c.

Desaguliers shows, vol. ii. p. 177, &c., in what manner a prodigious variety of periodical ebbs and flows may be produced by underground canals, which are extremely simple and probable.

We shall conclude this article with the descriptions of some pneumatical machines or engines which have not been particularly noticed under their names in the former volumes of this work.

Bellows Bellows are of most extensive and important use; and it will be of service to describe such as are of uncommon construction and great power, fit for the great operations in metallurgy.

It is not the impulsive force of the blast that is wanted in most cases, but merely the copious supply of air, to produce the rapid combustion of inflammable matter; and the service would be better performed in general if this could be done with moderate velocities, and an extended surface. What are called air-furnaces, where a considerable surface of inflammable matter is acted on at once by the current which the mere heat of the expended air has produced, are found more operative in proportion to the air expended than blast furnaces animated by bellows; and we doubt not but that the method proposed by Mr Cotterel (which we have already mentioned) of increasing this current in a melting furnace by means of a dome, will in time supersede the blast furnaces. There is indeed a great impulsive force required in some cases; as for blowing off the scoriae from the surface of silver or copper in refining furnaces, or for keeping a clear passage for the air in the great iron furnace.

In general, however, we cannot procure this abundant supply of air any other way than by giving it a great velocity by means of a great pressure, so that the general construction of bellows is pretty much the same in all kinds. The air is admitted into a very large cavity, and then expelled from it through a small hole.

The furnaces at the mines having been greatly enlarged, it was necessary to enlarge the bellows also; and the leathern bellows becoming exceedingly expensive, wooden ones were substituted in Germany about the beginning of the 17th century, and from them became general throughout Europe. They consist of a wooden box ABCPFE (fig. 92.), which has its top and two sides flat or straight, and the end BAE formed into an arched or cylindrical surface, of which the line FP at the other end is the axis. This box is open below, and receives within it the shallow box KHGNML (fig. 93.), which exactly fills it. The line FP of the one coincides with FP of the other, and along this line is a set of hinges on which the upper box turns as it rises and sinks. The lower box is made fast to a frame fixed in the ground. A pipe OQ proceeds from the end of it, and terminates at the furnace, where it ends in a small pipe called the teuer or tuyere. This lower box is open above, and has in its bottom two large valves V, V, fig. 94., opening inwards. The conducting pipe is sometimes furnished with a valve opening outwards, to prevent burning coals from being sucked into the bellows when the upper box is drawn up. The joint along PF is made tight by thin leather nailed along it. The sides and ends of the fixed box are made to fit the sides and curved end of the upper box, so that this last can be raised and lowered round the joint FP without sensible friction, and yet without suffering much air to escape: but as this would not be sufficiently air-tight by reason of the shrinking and warping of the wood, a farther contrivance is adopted. A flender lath of wood, divided into several joints, and covered on the outer edge with very soft leather, is laid along the upper edges of the sides and ends of the lower box. This lath is so broad, that when its inner edge is even with the inside of the box, its outer edge projects about an inch. It is kept in this position by a number of steel wires, which are driven into the bottom of the box, and stand up touching the sides, as represented in fig. 95., where a b c are the wires, and d the lath, projecting over the outside of the box. By this contrivance the laths are pressed close to the sides and curved end of the moveable box, and the spring wires yield to all their inequalities. A bar of wood RS (fig. 92.) is fixed to the upper board, by Fig. 95., which it is either raised by machinery, to sink again by its own weight, having an additional load laid on it, or it is forced downward by a crank or wiper of the machinery, and afterwards raised.

The operation here is precisely similar to that of blowing with a chamber-bellows. When the board is lifted up, the air enters by the valves V, V, fig. 94., and is expelled at the pipe OQ, by depressing the boards. There is therefore no occasion to insist on this point.

These bellows are made of a very great size, AD being 16 feet, AB five feet, and the circular end AE also five feet. The rise, however, is but about 3 or 3½ feet. They expel at each stroke about 90 cubic feet of air, and they make about 8 strokes per minute.

Such are the bellows in general use on the continent. We have adopted a different form in this kingdom, which seems much preferable. We use an iron or wooden cylinder, with a piston sliding along it. This may be made with much greater accuracy than the wooden boxes, at less expense, if of wood, because it may be of coopers' work, held together by hoops; but the great advantage of this form is its being more easily made air-tight. The piston is surrounded with a broad strap of thick and soft leather, and it has around its edge a deep groove, in which is lodged a quantity of wool. This is called the packing or stuffing, and keeps the leather very closely applied to the inner surface of the cylinder. Iron cylinders may be very neatly bored and smoothed, so that the piston, even when very tight, will slide along it very smoothly. To promote this, a quantity of black lead is ground very fine with water, and a little of this is smeared on the inside of the cylinder from time to time.

The cylinder has a large valve, or sometimes two, in the bottom, by which the atmospheric air enters when the piston is drawn up. When the piston is thrust down, this air is expelled along a pipe of great diameter, which terminates in the furnace with a small orifice.

This is the simplest form of bellows which can be conceived. It differs in nothing but size from the bellows used by the rudest nations. The Chinese smiths have a bellows very similar, being a square pipe of wood ABCDE (fig. 96.), with a square board G which exactly fits it, moved by the handle FG. At the farther end is the blast pipe HK, and on each side of it a valve in the end of the square pipe, opening inwards. The piston is sufficiently tight for their purpose without any leathering.

The piston of this cylinder bellows is moved by machinery. In some blast engines the piston is simply raised by the machine, and then let go, and it descends by its own weight, and compresses the air below it to such a degree, that the velocity of efflux becomes constant, and the piston descends uniformly: for this purpose it must be loaded with a proper weight. This produces a very uniform blast, except at the very beginning, while the piston falls suddenly and compresses the air; but in most engines the piston rod is forced down Pneumatic the cylinder with a determined motion, by means of a beam, crank, or other contrivance. This gives a more unequal blast, because the motion of the piston is necessarily slow in the beginning and end of the stroke, and quicker in the middle.

But in all it is plain that the blast must be deftory. It ceases while the piston is rising; for this reason it is usual to have two cylinders, as it was formerly usual to have two bellows, which worked alternately. Sometimes three or four are used, as at the Carron iron works. This makes a blast abundantly uniform.

But an uniform blast may be made with a single cylinder, by making it deliver its air into another cylinder, which has a piston exactly fitted to its bore, and loaded with a sufficient weight. The blowing cylinder ABCD (fig. 97.) has its piston P worked by a rod NP, connected by double chains with the arched head of the working beam NO, moving round a gudgeon at R. The other end O of this beam is connected by the rod OP, with the crank PQ of a wheel machine; or it may be connected with the piston of a steam engine, &c. &c. The blowing cylinder has a valve or valves E in its bottom, opening inwards. There proceeds from it a large pipe CF, which enters the regulating cylinder GHKI, and has a valve at top to prevent the air from getting back into the blowing cylinder. It is evident that the air forced into this cylinder must raise its piston L, and that it must afterwards descend, while the other piston is rising. It must descend uniformly, and make a perfectly equable blast.

Observe, that if the piston L be at the bottom when the machine begins to work, it will be at the bottom at the end of every stroke, if the tuyere T emits as much air as the cylinder ABCD furnishes; nay, it will lie a while at the bottom, for, while it was rising, air was issuing through T. This would make an interrupted blast. To prevent this, the orifice T must be lessened; but then there will be a surplus of air at the end of each stroke, and the piston L will rise continually, and at last get to the top, and allow air to escape. It is just possible to adjust circumstances, so that neither shall happen. This is done easier by putting a stop in the way of the piston, and putting a valve on the piston, or on the conducting pipe KST, loaded with a weight a little superior to the intended elasticity of the air in the cylinder. Therefore, when the piston is prevented by the stop from rising, the snifting valve, as it is called, is forced open, the superfluous air escapes, and the blast preserves its uniformity.

It may be of use to give the dimensions of a machine of this kind, which has worked for some years at a very great furnace, and given satisfaction.

The diameter of the blowing cylinder is 5 feet, and the length of the stroke is 6. Its piston is loaded with 3½ tons. It is worked by a steam-engine whose cylinder is 3 feet 4 inches wide, with a six-feet stroke. The regulating cylinder is 8 feet wide, and its piston is loaded with 8½ tons, making about 2.63 pounds on the square inch; and it is very nearly in equilibrium with the load on the piston of the blowing cylinder. The conducting pipe KST is 12 inches in diameter, and the orifice of the tuyere was ¾ of an inch when the engine was erected, but it has gradually enlarged by reason of the intense heat to which it is exposed. The snifting valve is loaded with 3 pounds on the square inch.

When the engine worked briskly, it made 18 strokes per minute, and there was always much air discharged by the snifting valve. When the engine made 15 strokes per minute, the snifting valve opened but seldom, so that things were nearly adjusted to this supply. Each stroke of the blowing cylinder sent in 118 cubic feet of common air. The ordinary pressure of the air being supposed 14½ pounds on an inch, the density of the air in the regulating cylinder must be

\[ \frac{14.75 + 2.63}{14.75} = 1.1783, \]

the natural density being 1.

This machine gives an opportunity of comparing the expense of air with the theory. It must (at the rate of 15 strokes) expel 30 cubic feet of air in a second through a hole of 1½ inches in diameter. This gives a velocity of near 2000 feet per second, and of more than 1600 feet for the condensed air. This is vastly greater than the theory can give, or is indeed possible; for air does not rush into a void with so great velocity. It shows with great evidence, that a vast quantity of air must escape round the two pistons. Their united circumferences amount to above 40 feet, and they move in a dry cylinder. It is impossible to prevent a very great loss. Accordingly, a candle held near the edge of the piston L has its flame very much disturbed. This case therefore gives no hold for a calculation; and it suggests the propriety of attempting to diminish this great waste.

This has been very ingeniously done (in part at least) at some other furnaces. At Omoah foundry, near Glasgow, the blowing cylinder (also worked by a steam engine) delivers its air into a chest without a bottom, which is immersed in a large cistern of water, and supported at a small height from the bottom of the cistern, and has a pipe from its top leading to the tuyere. The water stands about five feet above the lower brim of the regulating air-chest, and by its pressure gives the most perfect uniformity of blast, without allowing a particle of air to get off by any other passage besides the tuyere. This is a very effectual regulator, and must produce a great saving of power, because a smaller blowing cylinder will thus supply the blast. We must observe, that the loss round the piston of the blowing cylinder remains undiminished.

A blowing machine was erected many years ago at Châtillon in France on a principle considerably different, and which must be perfectly air-tight throughout. Two cylinders AB (fig. 98.), loaded with great weights, were suspended at the top of the levers CD, moving round the gudgeon E. From the top F, G of each there was a large flexible pipe which united in H, from whence a pipe KT led to the tuyere T. There were valves at P and G opening outwards, or into the flexible pipes; and other valves L, M, adjoining to them in the top of each cylinder, opening inwards, but kept shut by a slight spring. Motion was given to the lever by a machine. The operation of this blowing machine is evident. When the cylinder A was pulled down, or allowed to descend, the water, entering at its bottom, compressed the air, and forced it along the passage FHKT. In the mean time, the cylinder B was rising, and the air entered by the valve M. We see that the blast will be very unequal, increasing as the cylinder is immersed deeper. It is needless to describe this machine more particularly, because we shall give

give an account of one which we think perfect in its kind, and which leaves hardly any thing to be desired in a machine of this sort. It was invented by Mr John Laurie, land-surveyor in Edinburgh, about 15 years ago, and improved in some respects since his death by an ingenious person of that city.

ABCD (fig. 99.) is an iron cylinder, truly bored within, and evacuated at top like a cup. EFGH is another, truly turned both without and within, and a small matter less than the inner diameter of the first cylinder. This cylinder is close above, and hangs from the end of a lever moved by a machine. It is also loaded with weights at N. KILM is a third cylinder, whose outside diameter is somewhat less than the inside diameter of the second. This inner cylinder is fixed to the same bottom with the outer cylinder. The middle cylinder is loose, and can move up and down between the outer and inner cylinders without rubbing on either of them. The inner cylinder is perforated from top to bottom by three pipes OQ, SV, PR. The pipes OQ, PR have valves at their upper ends O, P, and communicate with the external air below. The pipe SV has a horizontal part VW, which again turns upwards, and has a valve at top X. This upright part WX is in the middle of a cistern of water f h k g. Into this cistern is fixed an air-chest a YZ b, open below, and having at top a pipe c d e terminating in the tuyere at the furnace.

When the machine is at rest, the valves X, O, P, are shut by their own weights, and the air-chest is full of water. When things are in this state, the middle cylinder EFGH is drawn up by the machinery till its lower brims F and G are equal with the top RM of the inner cylinder. Now pour in water or oil between the outer and middle cylinders; it will run down and fill the space between the outer and inner cylinders. Let it come to the top of the inner cylinder.

Now let the loaded middle cylinder descend. It cannot do this without compressing the air which is between its top and the top of the inner cylinder. This air being compressed will cause the water to descend between the inner and middle cylinders, and rise between the middle and outer cylinders, spreading into the cup; and as the middle cylinder advances downwards, the water will descend farther within it, and rise farther without it. When it has got so far down, and the air has been so much compressed, that the difference between the surface of the water on the inside and outside of this cylinder is greater than the depth of water between X and the surface of the water f g, air will go out by the pipe SVW, and will lodge in the air-chest, and will remain there if c be shut, which we shall suppose for the present. Pushing down the middle cylinder till the partition touch the top of the inner cylinder, all the air which was formerly between them will be forced into the air-chest, and will drive out water from it. Draw up the middle cylinder, and the external air will open the valves O, P, and again fill the space between the middle and inner cylinders; for the valve X will shut, and prevent the regurgitation of the condensed air. By pushing down the middle cylinder a second time, more air will be forced into the air-chest, and it will at last escape by getting out between its brims Y, Z and the bottom of the cistern; or if we open the paf-

The operation of this machine is similar to Mr Hafkins's quicksilver pump described by Desaguliers at the end of the second volume of his Experimental Philosophy. The force which condenses the air is the load on the middle cylinder. The use of the water between the inner and outer cylinders is to prevent this air from escaping; and the inner cylinder thus performs the office of a piston, having no friction. It is necessary that the length of the outer and middle cylinders be greater than the depth of the regulator-cistern, that there may be a sufficient height for the water to rise between the middle and outer cylinders, to balance the compressed air, and oblige it to go into the air-chest. A large blast-furnace will require the regulator-cistern five feet deep, and the cylinders about six or seven feet long.

It is in fact a pump without friction, and is perfectly air-tight. The quickness of its operation depends on the small space between the middle cylinder and the two others; and this is the only use of these two. Without these it would be similar to the engine at Châtillon, and operate more unequally and slowly. Its only imperfection is, that if the cylinder begins its motion of ascent or descent rapidly, as it will do when worked by a steam-engine, there will be some danger of water dashing over the top of the inner cylinder and getting into the pipe SV; but should this happen, an issue can easily be contrived for it at V, covered with a loaded valve v. This will never happen if the cylinder is moved by a crank.

One blowing cylinder only is represented here, but two may be used.

We do not hesitate in recommending this form of bellows as the most perfect of any, and fit for all uses where standing bellows are required. They will be cheaper than any other form for common purposes. For a common smith's forge they may be made with square wooden boxes instead of cylinders. They are also easily repaired. They are perfectly tight; and they may be made with a blast almost perfectly uniform, by making the cistern in which the air-chest stands of considerable dimensions. When this is the case, the height of water, which regulates the blast, will vary very little.

This may suffice for an account of blast machines. The leading parts of their construction have been described as far only as was necessary for understanding their operation, and enabling an engineer to erect them in the most commodious manner. Views of complete machines might have amused, but they would not have added to our reader's information.

But the account is imperfect unless we show how their parts may be so proportioned that they shall perform what is expected from them. The engineer should know what size of bellows, and what load on the board or piston, and what size of tuyere, will give the blast which the service requires, and what force must be employed to give them the necessary degree of motion. We shall accomplish these purposes by considering the efflux of the compressed air through the tuyere. The proportions formerly delivered will enable us to ascertain this.

That we may proportion everything to the power employed, Pneumatic employed, we must recollect, that if the piston of a cylinder employed for expelling air be pressed down with any force \( p \), it must be considered as superadded to the atmospheric pressure \( P \) on the same piston, in order that we may compare the velocity \( v \) of efflux with the known velocity \( V \) with which air rushes into a void. By what has been formerly delivered, it appears that this velocity

\[ v = V \times \sqrt{\frac{p}{P + p}}, \]

where \( P \) is the pressure of the atmosphere on the piston, and \( p \) the additional load laid on it.

This velocity is expressed in feet per second; and, when multiplied by the area of the orifice (also expressed in square feet), it will give us the cubical feet of condensed air expelled in a second: but the bellows are always to be filled again with common air, and therefore we want to know the quantity of common air which will be expelled; for it is this which determines the number of strokes which must be made in a minute, in order that the proper supply may be obtained. Therefore recollect that the quantity expelled from a given orifice with a given velocity, is in the proportion of the density; and that when \( D \) is the density of common air produced by the pressure \( P \), the density \( d \) produced by the pressure \( P + p \), is \( D \times \frac{P + p}{P} \); or if \( D \) be made 1, we have \( d = \frac{P + p}{P} \).

Therefore, calling the area of the orifice expressed in square feet \( O \), and the quantity of common air, or the cubic feet expelled in a second \( Q \), we have

\[ Q = V \times O \times \sqrt{\frac{p}{P + p}} \times \frac{P + p}{P}. \]

It will be sufficiently exact for all practical purposes to suppose \( P \) to be 15 pounds on every square inch of the piston; and \( p \) is then conveniently expressed by the pounds of additional load on every square inch: we may also take \( V = 1332 \) feet.

As the orifice through which the air is expelled is generally very small, never exceeding three inches in diameter, it will be more convenient to express it in square inches; which being the \( \frac{1}{4} \) of a square foot, we shall have the cubic feet of common air expelled in a second, or

\[ Q = \frac{1332}{144} O \times \sqrt{\frac{p}{P + p}} \times \frac{P + p}{P}, = O \times 9.25 \times \sqrt{\frac{p}{P + p}} \times \frac{P + p}{P}; \]

and this seems to be as simple an expression as we can obtain.

This will perhaps be illustrated by taking an example in numbers. Let the area of the piston be four square feet, and the area of the round hole through which the air is expelled be two inches, its diameter being 1.6, and let the load on the piston be 1728 pounds: this is three pounds on every square inch. We have \( P = 15 \), \( p = 3 \), \( P + p = 18 \), and \( O = 2 \); therefore we will have

\[ Q = 2 \times 9.25 \times \sqrt{\frac{3}{18}} \times \frac{18}{15} = 9.053 \text{ cubic feet of common air expelled in a second.} \]

This will however be diminished at least one-third by the contraction of the jet; and therefore the supply will not exceed six cubic feet per second. Supposing therefore that this blowing machine is a cylinder or prism of this dimension in its section, the piston so loaded would (after having compressed the air) descend about 15 inches in a second: It would first sink one-fifth of the whole length of the cylinder pretty suddenly, till it had reduced the air to the density \( \frac{1}{3} \), and would then descend uniformly at the above rate, expelling six cubic feet of common air in a second.

The computation is made much in the same way for bellows of the common form, with this additional circumstance, that as the loaded board moves round a hinge at one end, the pressure of the load must be calculated accordingly. The computation, however, becomes a little intricate, when the form of the loaded board is not rectangular: it is almost useless when the bellows have flexible sides, either like smiths bellows or like organ bellows, because the change of figure during their motion makes continual variation on the compressing powers. It is therefore chiefly with respect to the great wooden bellows, of which the upper board slides down between the sides, that the above calculation is of service.

The propriety, however, of this piece of information is evident: we do not know precisely the quantity of air necessary for animating a furnace; but this calculation tells us what force must be employed for expelling the air that may be thought necessary. If we have fixed on the strength of the blast, and the diameter of the cylinder, we learn the weight with which the piston must be loaded; the length of the cylinder determines its capacity; the above calculation tells the expense per second; hence we have the time of the piston's coming to the bottom. This gives us the number of strokes per minute: the load must be lifted up by the machine this number of times, making the time of ascent precisely equal to that of descent; otherwise the machine will either catch and stop the descent of the piston, or allow it to lie inactive for a while of each stroke. These circumstances determine the labour to be performed by the machine, and it must be constructed accordingly. Thus the engineer will not be confronted by its failure, nor will he expend needless power and cost.

In machines which force the piston or bellows-board with a certain determined motion, different from what arises from their own weight, the computation is extremely intricate. When a piston moves by a crank, its motion at the beginning and end of each stroke is slow, and the compression and efflux is continually changing: we can however approximate to a statement of the force required.

Every time the piston is drawn up, a certain space of the cylinder is filled again with air of the common density; and this is expelled during the descent of the piston. A certain number of cubic feet of common air is therefore expelled with a velocity which perhaps continually varies; but there is a medium velocity with which it might have been uniformly expelled, and a pressure corresponding to this velocity. To find this, divide the area of the piston by the area of the blast-hole (or rather by this area multiplied by 0.613, in order to take in the effect of the contracted jet), and multiply the length of the stroke performed in a second by the quotient arising from this division; the product is the medium velocity of the air (of the natural density). Then find by calculation the height through which a heavy body must fall in order to acquire this velocity; this is the height of a column of homogeneous air which would expel This table extends far beyond the limits of ordinary Pneumatic use, very few blast-furnaces having a force exceeding 60 inches of water.

We shall conclude this account of blowing machines with a description of a small one for a blowpipe. ABCD, fig. 100, is a vessel containing water, about two feet deep. EFGH is the air-box of the blower open below, and having a pipe ILK rising up from it to a convenient height; an arm ON which grasps this pipe carries the lamp N; the blowpipe LM comes from the top of the upright pipe. PKQ is the feeding pipe reaching near to the bottom of the vessel.

Water being poured into the vessel below, and its cover being put on, which fits the upright pipe, and touches two fluids a, a, projecting from it, blow in a quantity of air by the feeding pipe PQ; this expels the water from the air-box, and occasions a pressure which produces the blast through the blowpipe M.

In No. 54. of this article, we mentioned an application which has been made of Hero's fountain, at Chemnitz in Hungary, for raising water from the bottom of a mine. We shall now give an account of this very ingenious contrivance.

In fig. 101. B represents the source of water elevated Fig. 101 above the mouth of the pit 136 feet. From this there is led a pipe BB CD four inches diameter. This pipe enters the top of a copper cylinder b c d e, 8½ feet high, five feet diameter, and two inches thick, and it reaches to within four inches of the bottom; it has a cock at C. This cylinder has a cock at F, and a very large one at E. From the top b c proceeds a pipe GHH', two inches in diameter, which goes down the pit 96 feet, and is inserted into the top of another brass cylinder f g h i, which is 6½ feet high, four feet diameter, and two inches thick, containing 83 cubic feet, which is very nearly one half of the capacity of the other, viz., of 170 cubic feet. There is another pipe NI of four inches diameter, which rises from within four inches of the bottom of this lower cylinder, is soldered into its top, and rises to the trough NO, which carries off the water from the mouth of the pit. This lower cylinder communicates at the bottom with the water L which collects in the drains of the mine. A large cock K serves to admit or exclude this water; another cock M, at the top of this cylinder, communicates with the external air.

Now suppose the cock C shut, and all the rest open; the upper cylinder will contain air, and the lower cylinder will be filled with water, because it is sunk so deep that its top is below the usual surface of the mine-waters. Now shut the cocks F, E, M, K, and open the cock C. The water of the source B must run in by the orifice D, and rise in the upper cylinder, compressing the air above it and along the pipe GHH', and thus acting on the surface of the water in the lower cylinder. It will therefore cause it to rise gradually in the pipe IN, where it will always be of such a height that its weight balances the elasticity of the compressed air. Suppose no issue given to the air from the upper cylinder, it would be compressed into one-fifth of its bulk by the column of 136 feet high; for a column of 34 feet nearly balances the ordinary elasticity of the air. Therefore, when there is an issue given to it through the pipe GHH', it will drive the compressed air along this pipe, and it will expel water from the lower cylinder. When the upper cylinder is full of water, there will be 34 cubic feet of water expelled from the lower cylinder. If the pipe IN had been more than 136 feet long, the water would have risen 136 feet, being then in equilibrium with the water in the feeding pipe B C D (as was shown in No. 52.), by the intervention of the elastic air; but no more water would have been expelled from the lower cylinder than what fills this pipe. But the pipe being only 96 feet high, the water will be thrown out at N with a very great velocity. If it were not for the great obstructions which water and air must meet with in their passage along pipes, it would issue at N with a velocity of more than 50 feet per second. It issues much more slowly, and at last the upper cylinder is full of water, and the water would enter the pipe GH and enter the lower cylinder, and without displacing the air in it, would rise through the discharging pipe IN, and run off to waste. To prevent this there hangs in the pipe HG a cork ball or double cone, by a brass wire which is guided by holes in two cross pieces in the pipe HG. When the upper cylinder is filled with water, this cork plugs up the orifice G, and no water is wasted; the influx at D now stops. But the lower cylinder contains compressed air, which would balance water in a discharging pipe 136 feet high, whereas IN is only 96. Therefore the water will continue to flow at N till the air has so far expanded as to balance only 96 feet of water, that is, till it occupies one-fourth of its ordinary bulk, that is, one-fourth of the capacity of the upper cylinder, or 42½ cubic feet. Therefore 42½ cubic feet will be expelled, and the efflux at N will cease; and the lower cylinder is about one half full of water. When the attending workman observes this, he shuts the cock C. He might have done this before, had he known when the orifice G was stopped; but no loss ensues from the delay. At the same time the attendant opens the cock E, the water issues with great violence, being pressed by the condensed air from the lower cylinder. It therefore issues with the sum of its own weight and of this compression. These gradually decrease together, by the efflux of the water and the expansion of the air; but this efflux stops before all the water has flowed out: for there is 42½ feet of the lower cylinder occupied by air. This quantity of water remains, therefore, in the upper cylinder nearly: the workman knows this, because the discharged water is received first of all into a vessel containing three-fourths of the capacity of the upper cylinder. Whenever this is filled, the attendant opens the cock K by a long rod which goes down the shaft; this allows the water of the mine to fill the lower cylinder, allows the air to get into the upper cylinder, and this allows the remaining water to run out of it.

And thus every thing is brought into its first condition; and when the attendant feels no more water come out at E, he shuts the cocks E and M, and opens the cock C, and the operation is repeated.

There is a very surprising appearance in the working of this engine. When the efflux at N has stopped, if the cock F be opened, the water and air rush out together with prodigious violence, and the drops of water are changed into hail or lumps of ice. It is a sight usually shown to strangers, who are desired to hold their hats to receive the blast of air: the ice comes out with such violence as frequently to pierce the hat like a pistol bullet. This rapid congelation is a remarkable instance of the general fact, that air by suddenly expanding, generates cold, its capacity for heat being increased. Thus the peafowl cools his broth by blowing over the spoon, even from warm lungs: a stream of air from a pipe is always cooling.

The above account of the procedure in working this engine shows that the efflux both at N and E becomes very slow near the end. It is found convenient therefore not to wait for the complete discharges, but to turn the cocks when about 30 cubic feet of water have been discharged at N: more work is done in this way. A gentleman of great accuracy and knowledge of these subjects took the trouble, at our desire, of noticing particularly the performance of the machine. He observed that each stroke, as it may be called, took up about three minutes and one-eighth; and that 32 cubic feet of water were discharged at N, and 66 were expended at E. The expense therefore is 66 feet of water falling 136 feet, and the performance is 32 raised 96, and they are in the proportion of $66 \times 136 = 32 \times 96$, or of 1 to 0.3422, or nearly as 3 to 1. This is superior to the performance of the most perfect undershot mill, even when all friction and irregular obstructions are neglected; and is not much inferior to any overshot pump-mill that has yet been erected. When we reflect on the great obstructions which water meets with in its passage through long pipes, we may be assured that, by doubling the size of the feeder and discharger, the performance of the machine will be greatly improved; we do not hesitate to say, that it would be increased one-third: it is true that it will expend more water; but this will not be nearly in the same proportion; for most of the deficiency of the machine arises from the needleless velocity of the first efflux at N. The discharging pipe ought to be 110 feet high, and not give sensibly less water.

Then it must be considered how inferior in original expense this simple machine must be to a mill of any kind which would raise 10 cubic feet 96 feet high in a minute, and how small the repairs on it need be, when compared with a mill.

And, lastly, let it be noticed, that such a machine can be used where no mill whatever can be put in motion. A small stream of water, which would not move any kind of wheel, will here raise one-third of its own quantity to the same height; working as fast as it is supplied.

For all these reasons, we think that the Hungarian machine eminently deserves the attention of mathematicians and engineers, to bring it to its utmost perfection, and into general use. There are situations where this kind of machine may be very useful. Thus, where the tide rises 17 feet, it may be used for compressing air to seven-eighths of its bulk; and a pipe leading from a very large vessel inverted in it, may be used for raising the water from a vessel of one eighth of its capacity 17 feet high; or if this vessel has only $\frac{1}{8}$ of the capacity of the large one set in the tide way, two pipes may be led from it, one into the small vessel and the other into an equal vessel 16 feet higher, which receives the water from the first. Thus one sixteenth of the water may be raised 34 feet, and a smaller quantity to a still greater height; and this with a kind of power that can hardly be applied in any other way. Machines of this kind are described by Schottus, Sturmius, Leupold, and other old writers; and they should not be forgotten, because opportunities may

A gentleman's house in the country may thus be supplied with water by a machine that will cost little, and hardly go out of repair.

The last pneumatic engine which we shall speak of at present is the common fanners, used for winnowing grain, and for drawing air out of a room; and we have but few observations to make on them.

The wings of the fanners are inclosed in a cylinder or drum, whose circular sides have a large opening BDE (fig. 102.) round the centre, to admit the air. By turning the wings rapidly round, the air is hurried round along with them, and thus acquires a centrifugal tendency, by which it presses strongly on the outer rim of the drum; this is gradually detached from the circle as at KI, and terminated in a trunk IHGF, which goes off in a tangential direction; the air therefore is driven along this passage.

If the wings were disposed in planes passing through the axis C, the compression of the air by the anterior surface would give it some tendency to escape in every direction, and would obstruct in some degree the arrival of more air through the side-holes. They are therefore reclined a little back ward, as represented in the figure.

It may be shown that their best form would be that of a hyperbolic spiral \(a b c\); but the straight form approaches sufficiently near to the most perfect shape.

Much labour is lost, however, in carrying the air round those parts of the drum where it cannot escape. The fanners would either draw or discharge almost twice as much air if an opening were made all round one side. This could be gradually contracted (where required for winnowing) by a surrounding cone, and thus directed against the falling grain: this has been verified by actual trial. When used for drawing air out of a room for ventilation, it would be much better to remove the outer side of the drum entirely, and let the air fly freely off on all sides; but the flat sides are necessary, in order to prevent the air from arriving at the fanners any other way but through the central holes, to which trunks should be fitted leading to the apartment which is to be ventilated.

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