Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/85

Rh properly considered, this as well as in the former case. It will appear that these experiments by no means exhibit; an immediate measure of the mutual attraction of the solid and fluids as some authors have supposed.

Sir asserts, in his Queries, that water ascends between two plates of glass at the distance of one hundredth of an inch, to the height of about one inch; the product of the distance and the height being about .01; but this appears to be much too little. In the best experiment of, with a tube, half of the product was .0196; in several of , apparently very accurate, .0214. In experiments on plates, the product was 2.6 or 2.7 lines, about .0210. Mr. says that for tubes, the product is .0580 half of which is .0265. Until more accurate experiments shall have been made, we may be contented to assume .02 for the rectangle appropriate to water, and .04 for the product of the height in a tube by its bore. Hence, when the curve becomes infinite, is greatest ordinate is .2, and the height of the vertical portion, or the height of ascent against a single vertical plane .14, or nearly one-seventh of an inch.

Now when a horizontal surface is raised from a vessel of water, the surface of the water is formed into a lintearia to which the solid is a tangent at its highest point, and if the solid be still further raised, the water will separate: the surface of the water, being horizontal at the point of contact, cannot add to the weight tending to depress the solid, which is therefore simply the hydrostatic pressure of a column of water equal in height to the elevation, in this case one-fifth of an inch, and standing on the given surface. The weight of such a column will be 50$1⁄2$ grains for each square inch; and