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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60281	The hydrostaticks, or, The weight, force, and pressure of fluid bodies, made evident by physical, and sensible experiments together vvith some miscellany observations, the last whereof is a short history of coal, and of all the common, and proper accidents thereof, a subject never treated of before / by G.S.	Sinclair, George, d. 1696.	1672 (1672)	Wing S3854; ESTC R38925	208,492	331

of the Opticks is so perfected that nothing can be required for the perfection of the sight which is not demonstrat albeit mens hands cannot reach it And these being the objects of the foresaid Sciences you should Sir have said the whole objects of the foresaid Sciences else you still play the Sophister your authority shall not perswade him or us that it is altogether improper to call them perfect But mark Reader how the force of reason maketh these Authors to succumb● for whereas they should have said that it is not improper to call them perfect they qualify it thus it is not altogether improper And again your authority shall not perswade us that it is altogether improper But my Masters I do not crave that my authority may perswade you but reason Wherefore to return the Scientifical part of the Opticks say they is so perfected that nothing can be required for the perfection of the sight which is not demonstrat albeit mens hands cannot reach it But where Sir and by what person is this done Shew me the man if you can that hath done it But though all this were true were therefore either the Opticks Dioptricks or Catoptricks perfected Sciences Who hath yet sufficiently explained the manner how we see far less how Birds and Fishes Beasts and Insects see How the Eagle mounting aloft spyeth her prey from a far Who hath spoken sufficiently to the nature of colours For these also belong to the Opticks or of light and of the infraction and refraction thereof The learned Lord Verulam was not of your mind Sir when he wrot thus De forma lucis quod non debita 〈◊〉 facta fuerit inquisitio praeserti●● cum in Perspectivâ strenuè elabor●nt homines stupenda quaedam negligentia censeri possit Etenim nec in perspectivâ nec aliàs aliquid de luce quod valeat inquisitum est If Mr. Newton has been of this Authors mind he should not have attempted the late invention of his Span-long Dioptrical-catoptrical Prospect whereby Iupiter his Satellites and Venus horned are to be seen And if Mr. Hook had been of his mind he should not have made his late Proposal of Telescopes Microscopes Scotoscopes by figures as easily made as those that are plain and spherical whereby the light and Magnitude of Objects may be prodigio●sly increased and whatsoever else hath hitherto been attempted or almost desired in Dioptricks may be accomplished Where observe Reader how that ingenuous person is so far from the windy language of this Author that he doth not say whatsoever can be required for the perfection of sight is demonstrat or any thing like it but whatsoever hath been hitherto attempted or almost desired For who can tell what shall be found out hereafter even in these things To them we may borrow the words of the Poet Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosâ nocte premit Deus So Sir I still put you to that question Ubi est sapientia ad quam put at is vos pervenisse In the next place he falleth upon the Hydrostaticks which formerly he looked upon as a Science perfected long ago But because in his answer he in effect yeelds the cause I pursue him no further Habemus confitentem reum while he expresly grants there are many things yet saith he relating to the proportion and acceleration of the motion of Fluids which are yet unknown As for his reflections upon what I have written in my Ars Nova concerning a perpetual motion which I never intended to demonstrat I leave them as indicia agri impotent is animi I proceed to answer him i● what he addeth thus Only we cannot but admire your simplicity in this Astronomy seeketh alwayes to have the greatest intervalls betwix observations and ye take that ye will give an excelle●t way for observing the Sun or Moons motion for a second of time that is to say as if it wer a great matter that there is but a second of 〈◊〉 betwix your observations I wonder yow say the eye shuld be added for the invention had been much greater had that been away But what is this Sir but still to play the Sophister Is not this the S●phism ab ignor atione Elenchi for it doth not contradict my conclusion which is that Astronomical Observations by this mean and the Oscillatory Clock may be made to a second of time which is of so great importance in Astronomy But mark the Non-sense Reader the invention saith he had been much greater if the eye had been away that is the invention of this Observation had been much greater if the eye that is the Observation had been away In this they have outshot themselves also and what they spoke unadvisedly before they will now speak deliberatly and defend it rather by Sophistry and Non-sense then yeeld to the truth Has toties optata exegit gloria P●ena● The Author addeth None will denay but tha● an g●id history of nature is absolutelie the most necessary requisite thing for learning yet it is not like that yow are fit for that purpose who so fermelie beleeves the myrakles of the Vest as to put them in Pre●t and recordeth the semple Meridian Altitudes of Comets and that only to halfs of degrees or little maire as worthy noticing If it were needful I could produce the passages of some of the most Learned Writers of these last times that have recorded the like Were they therefore unfit to write History A person of this Authors reading and learning will soon find them out If he do it not let him know that I keep them for a reserve To speak nothing of Aristotle who wrot a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extant to this day was he therefore unfit to write his Natural Histories Prodigious relations when the memory of them may be found credible and maintainable such as mine are ought not to be excluded from a Natural History or else the Learned Lord Verulam is much mistaken in the third Aphorism of his preparatory to Natural and Experimental History Nor had he reason to carp at my Observations of the Comets as long as he made none himself But they will speak for themselves to any that read them Neither need they him for a Common Cryer either to commend them or discommend them who when I was at these Observations he possibly hath not been so well exercised He sub●oyneth However if yow do this last part concerning Col●inks weill and all the rest be but an Ars Magna Nova ye may come to gaine the repute of being more fit to be as Collie● than a Skollar I must tell this Pedant that a Coal-hewer is a more useful person in his own station to the Countrey than he is and that the Science of Coal and other Minerals is far beyond any knowledge this man hath or can teach But my Lords and Gentlemen who are Coal-Masters mark this if ye stand to the judgement of this Pedant though ye had never

motion of the aliment in Trees p. 254. Observ. 24. Touching a History of Coal p. 258. In Auctorem Opus ENCOMIASTICON AETheris expansi vitrei Maris Antitalanton Peroledos Elasin Fluidarum ritè videntes Ingenio patefacta tuo Magnalia rerum Laudarûnt alacres Galli Belgaeque sagaces Aggrederi● nunc Arte Novâ trutinare profundi Corpora submersas quondam producere Gazas Tollere demersis ingentia pondera Cupis Gas fracidum in Cryptis ortum Fossorib●s atrox Submisso in Fundos Aurae renovante Flabello Propulsare doces Lithanthracumque Cavernae Quêis foveantur Aquis quo tendant unde oriantur Ordine quò circum Saxorum strata recumbant Quòdbenè coepisti Naturae cuncta foventis Munera solerti perge Illustrare Mathesi GEORGIUS HEPBURNUS M. D. à Monachagro To the Reader Reader THat thou mayest know by one word more how useful this part of Philosophy is and how far from being a Science long ago perfected take but this following proposal lately since my Book came to a close communicated to me by a Friend which by his allowance I have published reserving the Answer to himself the Author thereof Brother BY what you have published in your Ars Nova Magna and this Book I have been led to this Invention to beget within the Bowels of the Sea a Power or Force which with great safety and ease sh●ll bring up the greatest weight that can be sunk therein ad data quaecunque pondera demersa in Ma●isv● scer●bus Potentiam producere quae mo●● securo i●cili è tun lo cujusv●s altitudinis ad summum ipsa 〈◊〉 I drew a Letter one night sh●wing the way how this might be done which I communicated to you that it might have been Printed with your Books but after second thoughts I judged it more meet to keep it up for a time and that it should be set forth by way of Proposal only at the first by O miston May 20. 1672. Your Brother Mr. Iohn Sinclar This New Invention though Hydrostatical is truly Mechanical there being here a ●ondus and a Potentia whose ope●ations depends upon Mechanical Principles But in several respects it is far more admirable than the most part of the Mechan●cal Engines which are look'd upon as stupendious Many things almost incredible are reported of Archimedes which he admirably brought about by his Mechanical Powers but I am confident that by this Invention as great a weight may be lifted if not greater as the Power of any Mechanical Faculty can be able to move I know the greatest conceivable weight may be demonstrat to be moved by the least conceivable Power as the Earth by the force of a mans hand But how is it possible to contrive Artificially an Engine for that purpose which will do that by Art which the demonstration makes evident by reason It was thought a great enterprize when Pope Sixtus the fifth transported an Obelisk which had been long since dedicated to the memory of Iulius Cesar from the left side of the Vatican to a more eminent place 100 foot distant but to raise a Ship of 1000 Tun intirely nay a weight 100 times greater is surely a far greater enterprize This Invention is so much the more admirable that not only by it any supposed weight may be lifted but from any deepness Though this perhaps cannot be done Mechanically because of some Physical or Moral impediment yet according to the Laws of the Hydrostaticks it can be demonstrat and made evident by reason And if this be then surely when the Weight is determinat as the burdens of all Ships are and the deepness known to be within so many fathoms this Invention cannot but be successful Though the strength of Mechanical Inventions may be multiplied beyond the bounds of our Imagination whereby the greatest Weight may be moved by the least Power yet the Wisdom of God hath thought it fit so to confine that knowledge that it cannot teach how both of them can move with the same quickness and speed For if that were the very works of Nature might be overturned Therefore it is observable that when a great Weight is moved by a small Power the motion of the one is as much slower than the motion of the other as the Weight of the one exceeds the Force of the other If it were possible Mechanically to move the Earth with the Force of a mans hand the motion thereof would be as much slower than the motion of the hand as the Weight of the one exceeds the Force of the other which is a great disadvantage And as the Weight and Power do thus differ as to swiftness and slowness in motion so also as to Space For by how much the Power is in it self less than the Weight by so much will the bounds or Space the Weight moves thorow be less than the Space the Power goes thorow If it were possible keeping the same instance to move the Earth with a mans hand the Space thorow which it passeth would differ as much from the Space the hand goes thorow as the one exceeds the other which is another disadvantage It may be thought that if this Invention depend upon Mechanical Principles it may be obnoxious to these abatements I answer though there be in it a Po●dus and a Potentia a Weight and a Power this moving the other yet it will evidently appear from Experience that the motion of the one is as swift as the motion of the other and that the one moves as much Space and bounds in the same time as the other which is a great advantage In this it excells all the Mechanical Powers and Faculties that have ever yet been invented and practised If any think that such a device cannot be effectuat without a considerable expence I answer the expence is so small that I am ashamed to mention it The method and manner of doing this is most easie likewise Neither ought this to be a ground why any man should contemn it since the most useful Inventions ordinarily are performed with the greatest facility As it commends this part of Philosophy to all ingenious Spirits as most pleasant and most profitable so it gives a check to the ignorant who look upon it as a Science long ago perfected In praise of the AUTHOR and his WORK 1. WHilst Infant-Art no further did pretend Then to flat notions and ● bare desire What by small toyl we now do comprehend Our Pred●cessors only did admire 2. Now fruitful Reason arm'd with powerful Art Uncovers Nature to each knowing eye Our Author to the World doth here impart What was before esteem'd a mystery 3. The various motions of that Element Whose liquid form gives birth to much debate By demonstration he doth represent Unfolding th'intrigues of that subtil state 4. The Wate●s Course and Sourse from whence they flow By him to th'sense so clearly are display'd Their current ●eight and Measure now we know 'T is no more secret but

whereof two things are in a special manner to be reguarded First that the Level be wrought without ascent or descent the best way for trying this being by the surface of the Water passing through it which ought to be as little moving as can be for the loss of one foot of Level which the ground gives is a loss of a considerab●e parcel of Coal to be digged especially if it be flate It there occur any Metals which are impregnable in the course of the Level so that it is impossible to follow so straight a line in regard the Mine must be wrought over the top of that stone which is unworkable in that case there is but one of two to serve the loss of Level either the Coal rises i● Streek towards which the Mine is carried and if that be then after that stone is past the Level must be carried as low as it was before it encountered the same and the course of the Water shall not be obstructed because the sourse viz. the Coal from whence the Water comes rising higher than the Stone the Water shall easily pass over that hight Hence it is that we see in some Coals that have been wrought at the lowest point of their Streek by a drawing-sink and the Streek rising from that point the Water that hath come off the Coal being in its Sourse higher than the mouth of that drawing-sink hath mad● it to over-run and serve to discharge all the Water that comes therefrom But if the Mine be run to a Coal that after it hath overtaken it rises no higher in Streek than the Mine it self the Water that comes from it will not pass over any hight in its way but will be unquestionably stopped Therefore in case such an impediment could not be removed as many times such Metals will fall in which are unworkable in a direct line the use of a Siph●n might be tried which would unquestionably supply the loss of about 32 foot of Level this being the hight in Perpendicular to which the Pressure of the Air is able to raise Water up thorow a Siphon The next thing to be observed in carrying on of Levels are the Air-holes for which there is a necessity indispensable In setting down whereof care must be had that they be not directly upon the Mine lest rubbish falling thorow from above ground should stop and obstruct the same and so obstruct the course of the Water and therefore it 's better they be set down at a side their only use being to communicate fresh Air to the Work-men which if it could be otherwise supplied as I think it not utterly impossible would render the charge of the Coal-works a great deal more easy Other things might be spoken to of Levels as that some run with the course of Metals they pass thorow and that some run against that course and of bringing Level from the Dip of an upper-Coal which hath a Level of its own to dry a Coal lying under it which cannot be otherwise done But these things being common and obvious to any who have but the smallest skill and experience I shall forbear This confused account your importunity hath drawen from me for which if your Book suffer censure which I grant it may do as to this part of it you are to blame your self and so I rest and am c. FINIS POSTSCRIPT Reader THat thou mayest know the rise and occasion of this Postscript which I have subjoyned I shall give thee this short account When this Book was first committed to the Press I sent an intimation thereof to several persons whom I judged would encourage it yet to none but to such in whose kindness I had confidence and whom I judged my real friends Among others I sent over to Saint Andrews one of my Edicts to one or two there in whom I trusted but in stead of a kindly return from them to whom I had written most affectionatly they wrot back a Letter wherein they superciliously condemn the purposes of this Book before ever they had seen them which is as follows Sir I Received yours on Saturday last and having occasion the same night to be in company with many of the Masters of the University I made known your resolution to them shewing them your Edict and desiring their Contributions some were not pleased that ye call the Doctrine concerning the weight and pressure of the Water in its own Element new seing Archimedes hath affirmed and demonstrated in his Books de infidentibus humido the same Geometrically 2000 years ago others affirmed that it was so far from being new that they would undertake to demonstrat the event of any of all your Experiments à priore from Archimedes his grounds yea in general of any Hydrostatical Experiment seing they look upon it as a Science long ago perfected Some said as to Diving that they imagined any method better then that of Melgims which is now v●lgar to be impossible As to the Observation of the Sun or Moons motion in a second of time yea or much less it can be done most exactly by a Telescope and a Pendulum but serves to no purpose seing that same motion can be had infinitly more exact by preportion from observations of a considerable interval for so the Astronomers collect all the mi●dle motions of the Planets As for the Observations of Coal-sinks latitude of Edinburgh and its variation of the Needle they may assuredly increase the Historical part of Learning yet many of the Masters here imagine themselves concerned in credit not to promote the publication of any thing which seemeth to declare our Nation ignorant by calling them new and unheard of of these things known over all the World these many years among really Learned Men albeit they be debated amongst ridiculous Monkish Philosophers I conceive ye would do best to undeceive this University by sending us some of your most abstruse Theorems and surprizing Experiments which if they be not evidently and clearly deduceable from Archimedes or Stevinus who did write long ago or rather if they be not the same with theirs ye may assure your self that this University will take away at least all the obligations ye have sent here otherwayes I am afraid I shall not be able to prevail with them I hope ye will pardon this my freedom I use with you and return an answer with the first occasion to St. Andrews Decemb 27 1671. Sir Your most humble Servant After the receit of this being unwilling to make it a ground of debate I returned a most discreet answer thinking to conquer their humour with civility and kindness but not long after hearing of their clamour against the Intimation and of their disswading others who would willingly I suppose have condescended I was necessitated to send this return for a joynt answer to them both for besides this another of the same kind came also of which hereafter Sir I Received yours of the Date of

December 27. 167● and though it was a little unpleasant yet I took it very kindly from 〈…〉 from a person I judged ingenuous as my return of January 9. 1672. 〈◊〉 witness wherein I did not in the least resent any thing you wrot neither would I ever have done if you and some others especially with you had not proclaimed publickly what you and they had written to me privatly the noise whereof I have heard here by several persons who came from the place Therefore Sir you must pardon me if now at last after so much silence I return you this answer for no other end but for my own vindication in what I have lately Printed and am about to Print I am very much then surprized with the answer that● you and they have returned such a rank smell of preju●i●e and envy I find in it I am rewarded evil for good for I minded nothing but good-will else you and they should never have been troubled with my proposal If they had affected the reputation of Learning there was another way to it then the course they have taken namely to condemn with such a deal of superciliousness as derogatory to the credit of the Nation forsooth the labours of one that hath done mor● for the credit thereof then they have done as yet They might have minded the saying of the grave Historian Nam famam atque gloriam Bonus atque ignavus aeque sibi exoptant ille verâ viâ n●titur huic quia Bonae ●tt●s desunt dolis atque fallaciis contendit And for undeceiving of the University as I am very far from counting such persons the University so have I more respect for it and all Learned Persons in it then to account their deed the deed of the University As for what they can do for promitting the work I have now at the Press I value it not at the rate of shewing them so much as one of my The●rems for if they have ●narled so much 〈◊〉 but at one word in the intimation of the work what would they do if they had more of it which yet must stand firm unless they for 't is a matter of fact and cannot be contradicted with Sophistry and Non-sense overthrow it which I little fear as Cicero did Verres Tab●l●s Testibus ad singula indicia prolatis Neither will their imagination do it for that cannot make factum infectum It seemeth to be a great weight that they lay upon the force of their imagination since they are so confident as to say they imagine any method of Diving better then that of Melgims to be impossible adeo familiare est hominibus supra vires humanas credere quicquid supra illorum captum sit As for these others that would demonstrat à priori the event of all my Experiments from the grounds of Archimedes as I doubt not but they would if they could so in this they bewray their want of skill for Archimedes wanted a necessary requisite which I go upon for my deductions And though it were true which they say that all my Theorems were demonstrable à priori from the grounds of Archimedes yet this doth not hinder them to be both new and un-heard-of as if new and un-heard-of conclusions might not be deduced from old principles In this they are so much the better and not the worse And whereas they say they look upon the Hydrostaticks as a Science long since perfected in this they do yet more discover their weakness for what one Science hath yet come to its perfection Nay hath not this Pedantick humour been the great bane of good Learning that Sciences were already perfected So that Se●eca said truly Puto multos pervenire potuisse ad sapientiam nisi putassent se pervenisse As for the representing of the Sun or Moons motion to the eye ●or that should surely hav● been taken in that you say serveth to no purpose to me is a little uncouth considering how much it conduceth to the accuracy of Astronomical Observations beyond what the former Ages could attain to And whereas you say it can be had infinitly more exactly by Observations of a considerable interval as Astronomers collect all the middle motions of the Planets but I say even those intervals should have been far better known if they had by this mean and the Oscillatory Clock been observed so whatever arguing by the rule of proportion may do for shewing the Suns motion in seconds and thirds it reacheth not these accuracies that are reached by this inv●ntion so long as the Sense cannot deprehend and six them As for the Observations of Coal-sinks c. which you say may assuredly increase the Historical part of Learning are they not for this the more useful since the Scientifical part of Learning dependeth so much on the Historical part and which conduceth more thereto then all the precario●s principles of Cartesius Epicurus and the like who in stead of giving us an account of the World that God made have given us imaginary ones of their own making so that such a History as Natural Philosophy requires is wisely accounted among the desiderata in Learning by all sound Philosophers to this day So much in answer to yours and I rest Edinburgh Feb. 22. 1672. Your Servant IN answer to this last there came to my hands from St. Andrews a Letter unsubscribed by any Master full of barbarous railings passing all bounds of civility against my self friends and works which if the Contrivers had not been more gall'd with reason then injuries I suppose they would have forborn And thinking this not sufficient they would needs aggravate the wrong by one circumstance more which they either did out of disdain or fear not daring to own what they had contrived in making the Bedale of the University subscribe it And to give a further proof of their insatiable malice they must needs distribute copies thereof as glorying in their shame one whereof was sent over to Edinburgh unsubscribed also Now let any indifferent person judge whether or not I have not reason to do what I have done They have been the first proclaimers though in a clandestine way and why not I next in this way But lest they think they have marred as much the tranquillity of my mind therewith as they have their own I shall answer in the words of the Moralist Eleganter Demetrius noster solet dicere eodem loco sibi esse voces imperitorum qu●ventre redditos crepitus Quid enim inquit mea refert sursu● isti five deorsum sonent And let this stand for the railing par● of the letter But first whereas he should have spoken to the contents of thi● Book he falleth foul upon my last Peice intituled Ars nova magna gravitatis levitatis snarling eight or nine times at th● bare title like a C●r at the horse heels when he cannot reach th● rider This lay not in his way doing herein like Vejento the blin● Courtier of