Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/90

76 grains, taking .141 as the height: and for a French circular inch, 433 grains, or 528 French grains. Now, in the experiments of, the cohesion of a circular inch of gold to the surface of mercury appeared to be 446 grains, of silver 429, of tin 418, of lead 397, of bismuth 372, of zinc 204, of copper 142, of metallic antimony 126, of iron 115, of cobalt 8: and this order is the same with that in which the metals are most easily amalgamated with mercury. It is probable that such an amalgamation actually took place in some of the experiments, and affected their results, for the process of amalgamation may often be observed to begin almost at the instant of contact of silver with mercury; and the want of perfect horizontality appears in a slight degree to have affected them all. A deviation of one-fiftieth of an inch would be sufficient to have produced the difference between 446 grains and 528; and it is not impossible that all the differences, as far down as bismuth, may have been accidental. But if we suppose the gold only to have been perfectly wetted by the mercury, and all the other numbers to be in due proportions, we may find the appropriate angle for each substance by deducting from 180°, twice the angle of which the sine is to the radius as the apparent cohesion of each to 446 grains; that is, for gold .1, for silver about .97, for tin .95, for lead .90, for bismuth .85, for zinc .46, for copper .32, for antimony .29, for iron .26, and for cobalt .02, neglecting the surrounding elevation, which has less effect in proportion as the surface employed is larger. found the depression of melted lead in a tube of glass multiplied by the bore equal to about .0054.

It would perhaps be possible to pursue these principles so