Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/341

326 Again, in denser media than air, as in water for instance, there was every reason to expect that the heavier powders, as sand and filings, would perform the part of light powders in air, and be carried from the quiescent to the vibrating parts.

34. The experiments in the air-pump receiver were made in two ways. A round plate of glass was supported on four narrow cork legs upon a table, and then a thin glass rod with a rounded end held perpendicularly upon the middle of the glass. By passing the moistened lingers longitudinally along this rod the plate was thrown into a vibratory state; the cork legs were then adjusted in the circular nodal line occurring with this mode of vibration; and when their places were thus found they were permanently fixed. The plate was then transferred into the receiver of an air-pump, and the glass rod by which it was to be thrown into vibration passed through collars in the upper part of the receiver, the entrance of air there being prevented by abundance of pomatum. When fine silica was sprinkled upon the plate, and the plate vibrated by the wet lingers applied to the rod, the receiver not being exhausted, the line powder travelled from the nodal line, part collecting at the centre, and another part in a circle, between the nodal line and the edge. Both these situations were places of vibration, and exhibited themselves as such by the agitation of the powder. Upon again sprinkling line silica uniformly over the plate, exhausting the receiver to twenty-eight inches, and vibrating the plate, the silica went from the middle towards the nodal line or place of rest, performing exactly the part of sand in air. It did not move at the edges of the plate, and as the apparatus was inconvenient and broke during the experiment, the following arrangement was adopted in its place.

35. The mouth of a funnel was covered (22) with a well stretched piece of fine parchment, and then fixed on a stand with the membrane horizontal; the horse-hair was passed loosely through a hole in a cork, fixed in a metallic tube on the top of the air-pump receiver; the tube above the cork was filled to the depth of half an inch with pomatum, and another perforated cork put over that; a cup was formed on the top of the second cork, which was filled with water. In this way the horse-hair passed first through pomatum and then water, and by giving a little pressure and rotary motion to the upper