Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/369

354 that vibrating motion in directions perpendicular to the force applied (105), by which the water can most readily accommodate itself to rapid, regular, and alternating changes in bulk in the immediate neighbourhood of the oscillating parts.

119. From this view of the effect it was evident that similar phenomena would be produced if a substance were made to vibrate in contact with and normally to the surface of a iluid, or indeed in any other direction. A lath was therefore fixed horizontally in a vice by one end, so that the other could vibrate vertically; a cork was cemented to the under surface of the free end, and a basin of water placed beneath with its surface just touching the cork;

on vibrating the lath by means of the glass rod and fingers(67), a beautiful and regular star of ridges two, three, or even four inches in length, was formed round the cork, fig. 29. These ridges were more or less numerous according to the number of vibrations, &c. As the water was raised, and more of the cylinder immersed, the ridges diminished in strength, and at last disappeared: when the cylinder of cork just touched the surface, they were most powerfully developed. This is a necessary consequence of the dependence of the ridges upon the portion of water which is vertically displaced and restored at each vibration. When that, being partial in relation to the whole surface, is at or near the surface, the ridges are freely formed in the immediate vicinity; when at a greater depth (being always at the bottom of the cork), the displacement is diffused over a larger mass and surface, each particle moves through less space and with less velocity, and consequently the vibrations must be stronger or the ridges be weaker or disappear altogether. The refraction of a light through this star produces a very beautiful figure on a screen.

120. A heavy tuning-fork vibrating, but not too strongly, if placed with the end of one limb either vertical, inclined, or in any other position, just touching the surface of water, ink, milk, &c. (75), hows the effect very well for a moment. It also shows the ridges on mercury, but the motion and resistance of so dense a body quickly bring the fork to rest. It formed