ascribes to the resolv'd ice may have proceeded from that which would not have been taken notice of by an ordinary Experimenter For as I not long since intimated I have sometimes purposely and sometimes by chance by thawing ice in clos'd vessels somewhat hastily produc'd a copious dew on the outside of the vessels which dew as being made by the condens'd vapours of the ambient Air ought to be wip'd off before the vessel be put into the scales to weigh the melted ice And 't is possible also that Helmont may have err'd in the manner of weighing his Lagena whatever he mean by it it being usual even for learned men that are not vers'd in Statick's to mistake in Experiments which require that things be skilfully and nicely weigh'd How far this excuse may be appli'd to a late Commentator upon Aristotles Meteors who says he tri'd that water frozen is heavier then unfrozen being a stranger to that Authors writings I shall not consider only whereas Helmont and He seem to agree very little in their Affirmations it will be perhaps more difficult to accord them then to determine by the help of our formerly register'd Experiments what may be thought of both their Relations Yet I shall add on this occasion That if I had not devis'd the above mention'd way of freezing water by Art in Hermetically seal'd glasses I should have found it difficult to reduce what is affirm'd by Manelphus which I then dreamt not of to an accurate Experiment for though I had imploy'd a seal'd glass which I have not heard that he or any other has yet made use of to that purpose yet if I had in that vessel expos'd the water to be frozen the common way 't is odds though it be not absolutely certain that the water beginning as 't is wont to congeal at the Top the Expansion of the subsequently freezing water would break the glass and so spoil the Experiment And for the same reason I have sometimes in vain attempted to examine the weight of water frozen by nature according to her wonted method in open vials And if insteed of glasses you make use of strong earthen vessels there is danger that something may be imbib'd or adhere to the porous vessel and increase the weight and by some such way or by some mistake in weighing 't is very probable Manelphus may have been deceiv'd which I am the more inclin'd to think if we suppose him a sincere writer not only because of some things I have taken notice of about congelations made in earthen vessels but because when I have instead of an earthen made use of a metalline pottinger both which sorts of vessels have in common this inconvenience that their ponderousness makes them less fit for accurate Scales there appear'd cause to suspect either that our Author did not use metalline vessels or which I rather suspect that he wanted skill or diligence in weighing For as I find no intimation of his having imploy'd any peculiar or artificial sort of vessels so if he us'd such as we have newly been speaking of and had weigh'd them carefully I cannot but think that instead of finding the ice heavier then the water 't was made of he would have rather found it lighter For I remember that having once expos'd all night a pottinger almost full of common water to an exceeding sharp Air and having caus'd it the next morning to be brought me when the liquor was throughly frozen I found it to have lost about 50. grains if I misremember not of its former weight and though this event were consonant enough to my conjectures yet for greater certainty I repeated the Experiments another 〈◊〉 night with this new caution that the pottinger and water together with the counterpoise were kept suspended in the Scales to be sure that no effusion of any part of the water in carrying it abroad to the open Air should be made without being taken notice of but the next morning somewhat late the vessel with the contain'd water now congeal'd appear'd to have lost about 60. grains and with the like success the Trial was reiterated once more and that in weather so sharp that I am not apt to think the water expos'd by Manelphus began to freez sooner then ours But the event was not unexpected for besides that I consider'd that in these kind of Experiments part of the water notwithstanding the exceeding coldness of the Air must in all likelihood fly away before the surface of it began to be congeal'd I judge it not improbable that not only the fluid part but even that which was already congeal'd might continually lose some of its Corpuscles and by their recess lose also somewhat of its weight And least these conjectures should seem too too unlikely 't will not be amiss to add in favour of the first of them that having purposely provided a large Pewter Box with a cover to screw on it and having fill'd it almost full of water I say almost because if the vessel had been quite full the congealing cold might have burst it and carefully weigh'd the Aggregate of both which amounted to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gr 11. whereof the vessel weigh'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gr 8. we expos'd the water after the Top of the pot was screw'd on to hinder the Avolation of it to the freezing Air all night and the next morning found it frozen from the top to the bottom though not uniformly and perfectly but found not one grain difference betwixt its present and its former weight And as for the second conjecture newly propos'd though it may seem somewhat strange yet it is confirmable by this Experiment that having plac'd divers lumps of solid ice in a Pottinger which together with them weigh'd a pound consisting of 16 〈◊〉 and having exposed these things in the same scales wherein they were weigh'd to the free Air on a very frosty night we found the ice to have lost the next morning 24. grains of its weight and the weather continuing so cold that it froze hard all day long in the shade I gave order to have it kept out of the Sun in the same scales during all that time and a good part of the following night and then weighing it the second time found that the whole decrement of weight did now amount to five grains above two drachms though the weight of the ice without the pottinger were but about seven ounces and when we had kept about 13. ounces of ice in a very frosty night expos'd to the cold Air it had lost as early as the next morning a good deal above two drachms of its former weight But these Statical observations have perhaps already but too much swell'd this Appendix Title XXI Promiscuous Experiments and Observations concerning Cold. 1. I Hope it will not be imagined that I have such narrow thoughts of the subject I treat of Cold as to believe that I have compriz'd under those few Titles prefix'd to the
It by reason of its being Hermetically seal'd did regularly enough descend in cold weather and ascend in 〈◊〉 But the other which was not seal'd but had a little hole left open at the Top of the Pipe though when the Atmosphaere continued of the same weight it would like the other rise with Heat and fall with Cold yet when the Atmosphaeres gravity was alter'd they would not uniformly move together but when as we gather'd from other observations the Atmosphaere grew heavier the Liquor in the Pipe did not ascend as high as it would have done if the Atmosphaere had continued in its former degree of gravitation And on the contrary when the incumbent Air came to be lighter the Liquor would rise in the open Weather-glass in a proportion greater then the single increase of heat would have exacted so that by comparing the two Weather-glasses together I did usually foretel whether the Mercury in the Torricellian Tube which I keep purposely by me in a frame were risen or fallen and consequently whether the external Air were heavier or lighter then before As on the other side by looking on the height of the Mercurial Cylinder I could easily tell before hand whether the Liquor in the open Weather-glass were higher or lower then that in the Hermetical the rising or falling of the Mercurial Cylinder one quarter of an Inch the Temperature of the Air continuing as to heat and cold usually signifying a great disparity betwixt the Ascension or the falling of the Liquors in the two Instruments Among the several notes I find among my loose papers and in a Diary I kept for a while of these observations I shall content my self to transcribe the following two because though divers others were made by my Amanuensis whose care is not to be distrusted yet by reason of my absence I could not take notice of them my self The first of these Memorandums runs thus Last night I took notice that there was but one or two Divisions difference betwixt the two Thermometers but upon such a change of Weather that happened this day as made me imagine that the Atmosphaere would be lighter then 〈◊〉 consulting the Barometer if to avoid Circumlocutions I may so call the whole Instrument wherein a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. or 30. Inches is kept suspended after the manner of the Torricellian Experiment I found the Quicksilver lower then it had been a great while and thereupon concluding there would be a notable disparity between the seal'd and open Weather-glass I hastned to them and found that the latter being much alleviated from the weight of the Incumbent Air was no less then 17. Divisions higher then the others and comparing the height the two Instruments were this day at with an observation I my self made about a week ago when the Quicksilver was much higher then now it is I found that although this afternoon the seal'd Glass being at 41 the other was at 58 yet Then when the seal'd Weather-glass was five divisions higher namely at 46 the unseal'd Weather-glass was but at 27. So that betwixt that time and this the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass has descended five Divisions but that in the open Weather-glass has ascended 31. Thus far the first of the above mentioned Notes the second is as follows The Mercurial Cylinder being higher then it has been a good while and yet the Weather warm and Sun-shiny when the Liquor in the seal'd Glass stood very near the 50th division that in the unseal'd was fallen down as low as the 32. So that it is very possible that the unheeded change in the weight of the external Air may have a greater power to compress the included Air in an unseal'd Weather-glass then a not inconsiderable degree of warmth may have to dilate it and consequently in an ordinary Weather-glass where the Air is included at the Top it may often fall out that contrary to what men suppose must needs happen the pendulous Water may rise in warmer weather and fall in colder And ev'n since the writing of the immediately foregoing part of this page within a few days that interven'd I have my self made observations that do yet more clearly manifest this truth as may appear by the following notes The first of which speaks 〈◊〉 Memorandum that Yesterday night the Quicksilver being at 29 Inches the Liquors in the seal'd and unseal'd Weather-glasses were near about the same Division the former being at 40 and the other being but half a Division short of that Number But this night the Quicksilver being risen about ¼ of an Inch the Liquor in the seal'd is ascended to 45 and the other descended beneath 35 about half a Division so that there is now 10 Divisions between them This is the first Note to which the following night enabled me to add this other The Quicksilver being risen almost ¾ of an Inch above the station it rested at the night before last night the Hermetical Weather-glass being as it was then above the 40 Division the Liquor in the other which was open in two days and nights is fallen to the 17 and consequently is subsided about 23 Divisions whilest the other is about the same height at which it was at the beginning of that time Two or three days after being returned to the place wherein I had made this last observation and from which some urgent Occasions had for that time exacted my absence I found the Disparity betwixt the two Thermometers that is express'd in the following Memorial This day the Quicksilver being risen to 30 Inches when the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass was at about 41 Divisions that in the other was depress'd a pretty deal below the Ninth Division so that the difference between the two Thermometers was increas'd since the last Observation from 23 to near 33 Divisions all which the Liquor in the open Weather-glass had sunk down whilest that in the seal'd continued almost at a stand And the day after this Memorial I had occasion to register another which being the last I shall here think requisite to take notice of in this 〈◊〉 I shall subjoyn it with that which immediately preceded in order of Time This day the Quicksilver continuing at the same height at which I observ'd it yesterday but the Weather being grown much colder the Liquor appears in both the Glasses to have uniformly enough subsided that in the seal'd Weather-glass being about the 33 and the other being sunk quite below the lowest mark of all which was more then I apprehended it would have done when there was no frost especially since by my Diary it appears that one of the last times I observ'd the Hermetical Weather-glass to stand at near about the same height namely the 34 the Liquor in the other Glass was no lower then the 41 nor probably would there be now so great a difference if the Atmosphaere had not been this day very heavy whereas when this freshly recited observation was made I find
forth I think if Ingenious Men knew how much Trouble and Exercise of my patience it has cost me they would peradventure vouchsafe me some of their thanks if not for what I have done yet for what I have suffer'd for their sakes and would scarce have undergone upon any Inferior account whatsoever it being though a less Noble yet no less Troublesome an Imployment to Dig in Mines of Copper then in those of Gold and Men being oftentimes obliged to Suffer as much Wet and Cold and Dive as deep to fetch up Sponges as to fetch up Pearls Errata PAge 5. line 17. read that in not nice for that even in nice p. 46. l. 8. r. effected p. 48. l. 16. dele and together with p. 82. l. 28. r. 28. chapter p. 178. l. 7. dele which p. 266. l. 22. r. it did rise four inches p. 292. l. 6. r. that stood on the ice p. 302. l. 9. r. three for thee p. 380. l. 10. r. cemented by intercepted and then frozen water instead of congealed by cold water p. 488. l. 11. r. 52. degr 52. min. In the Appendix of Dr. Merret pag. 35. lin 36. read upon these mixtures not in The Contents of the Experimental History of Cold. Title I. EXperiments touching Bodies capable of Freezing others pag. 108. Title II. Experiments and Observations touching Bodies disposed to be Frozen p. 133. Title III. Experiments touching Bodies Indisposed to be Frozen p. 140. Title IV. Experiments and Observations touching the degrees of Cold in several Bodies p. 149. Title V. Experiments touching the Tendency of Cold upwards or downwards p. 173. Title VI. Experiments and Observations 〈◊〉 the Preservation and Destruction of Eggs Aples and other Bodies by Cold. p. 184. Title VII Experiments touching the Expansion of Water and Aqueous Liquors by Freezing p. 222. Title VIII Experiments touching the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. p. 237. Title IX Experiments in Consort touching the Bubbles from which the Levity of Ice is supposed to proceed p. 245. Title X. Experiments about the measure of the Expansion and the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. p. 279. Title XI Experiments touching the Expansive force of Freezing Water p. 296. Title XII Experiments touching a new way of estimating the Expansive force of Congelation and of highly compressing Air without Engines p. 382. Title XIII Experiments and Observations touching the Sphere of Activity of Cold. p. 328. Title XIV Experiments touching differing Medium's through which Cold may be diffused p. 345. Title XV. Experiments and Observations touching Ice p. 364. Title XVI Experiments and Observations touching the duration of Ice and Snow and the destroying of them by the Air and several Liquors p. 396. Title XVII Considerations and Experiments touching the Primum Frigidum p. 412. Title XVIII Experiments and Observations touching the Coldness and Temperature of the Air. p. 464. Title XIX Of the strange Effects of Cold. p. 520. Title XX. Experiments touching the weight of Bodies Frozen and unfrozen p. 550. Title XXI Promiscuous Experimeuts and Observations concerning Cold. p. 575. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READERS OF The following Experiments by the Author of the foregoing History AT the same time that the Royal Society required of me an Account of what I had observed or tried concerning Cold they recommended the making of Trials about that subject to the Learned Dr. C. Merret who having dispatched what he intended much earlier then I could bring in my far more Voluminous Papers he long ago presented His to that Illustrious Company and since That has thought fit to let them indear my Treatise by their being Annexed to it and composing a part of It and that such a part as much might be said of it if after I have inform'd the Reader of its having obtained the Thanks of a Society that is too much accustomed to receive and produce Excellent things to be suspected of valuing Trifles I could think it needful and proper to give those Papers any other Elogium And it falling out fortunately enough That the Doctor and I being at some miles distance did not communicate our Designs to one another as I knew Nothing of what he had been doing till I heard it publickly read at Gresham Colledge when far the greatest part of my Experiments were as is known to more Persons then one already recorded So I afterwards scrupulously abstained from borrowing the Trials mentioned in his Papers to inrich mine which forbearance was the more easie to me because after the first time I heard those Papers read I never Desired a Copy nor Had a Sight of them By this means it happened That besides those many Titles which being handled at large in the History are left untouched in the following Tract even on those Occasions where the Learned Doctor and I happen to treat of the same subjects our Trials are but Very few of them coincident upon which score the Reader will meet with more Variety betwixt us then probably he would have expected to find on such an Occasion Having drawn up this Advertisement about the Doctors Papers as supposing them the very same he presented to the Royal Society upon a sight of the following Sheets as they were some hours since brought me from the Press the Additions I there find make it appear necessary to say something further to the Reader I must inform him then that about the middle of this Winter and about the end of December 1664. I presented to the Royal Society several Books containing each of them Eighteen or Nineteen of the Twenty One Titles whereof my History consists that the Virtuosi might have the Opportunity of the Cold which then began to be so strong as to keep the Press from dispatching the rest of the Book to examine my Experiments and add to them and one of these being delivered to the Doctor as the likeliest Person to make use of it together with an Order tò the Stationer to let him have the remaining Sheets of the Book as fast as they should from time to time be Printed he had the Curiosity as to Enlarge some of the things he had already tried and brought in himself as is intimated in the Forty Sixth Page so to make Trial of some particulars that I had proposed and performed which either their Importance as the way of freezing from the Bottom upwards by me suggested and the weight of Bodies frozen and unfrozen or his Opportunity invited him to make choice of and has been pleased to afford them place among his own Experiments by whichmeans though the coincidence of what we deliver will appear to happen more frequently then the Advertisement will make one expect yet to such Readers as do not prefer Variety before Certainty these coincident Passages will not in likelihood be unacceptable For in those Cases where the Events of our Trials are the same 't is like the Truth will be the more confirmed and in Cases where the successes are very differing the
Glass-egg with a long stem which stem was purposely so bent that it represented a glass-Syphon in whose shorter leg the glass was drawn very small that it might be the more easily first seal'd and then broken This done we got in a convenient Quantity of water which ascended to a pretty height in both the legs of the bent glass after which the shorter leg being nimbly seal'd after the manner hereafter to be mention'd there remained a pretty Quantity of air above the water in that shorter leg which was purposely left there that it might by its spring impel up the water in the longer leg upon the refrigeration of the Air included in that longer leg All this being done the whole glass was so plac'd in a convenient frame that the oval part of it was supported by the frame beneath which the bended shank of the Weather-glass did hang so that a mixture of Ice and Salt might be conveniently laid upon this frame to surround and refrigerate the air included in the Egg without much cooling the air in the Cylindrical part of the Glass The account that I find of this Trial in one of my notes is this In the greater bent Egg that was seal'd up with water in both legs upon the application of Ice and Salt to the Ellipsis at a convenient time the water in the longer leg ascended a little but not by our guess above a barley Corns length if near so much and about four Inches of air as I remember that were left in the shorter leg expanded it self to sense as much but as soon as I broke off the slender wire wherein the shorter leg ended the external air rushing in made the water rise about two inches and a quarter in the longer leg and then there not being water enough broke through it in many bubbles Thus far the note to which I shall only add that in this case the ascension of the water in the longer leg cannot be attributed to the weight of the air in the shorter leg that being I know not how much too small to lift up so much water but to the spring of that air And also that we need not marvel the Expansion of that 〈◊〉 should be so small since some of the Experiments 〈◊〉 to be related will shew us that the refrigeration of the air in such Trials as that newly 〈◊〉 does not weaken the spring of it any thing near so considerably as one would expect So that the air in the longer leg could yield but a very little to that in the shorter leg especially since the smallness of this last nam'd portion of air made its spring to be more easily and considerably weakned by a small Expansion Thus far our Paradoxical Discourse which contains divers particulars that being added to the considerations whereunto we have by way of Appendix subjoyned It might afford us several Reflections But having dwelt too long on one subject already we shall now conclude with This upon the whole matter That there is somewhat or other in the Business of Weather-glasses which I fear we do not yet sufficiently understand and which yet I hope that by other Trials and more heedful Observations we shall discover The Paper that was prefixt by way of a short Prefatory Address to the ensuing History of Cold when being to be brought in and presented to the Royal Society it was put into the hands of its most worthy President the Lord Viscount Brounker was as followeth Little-Chelsey Feb. 14. 1662. S. A. My Lord THe time Your Lordship and the Society appoint me for the bringing in of my Papers concerning Cold is so very short that to give You the fruits of my Obedience as early as You are pleased to require them I must present them You very immature and I should say very unsit for your Perusal if you were not aswel qualified to supply Deficiencies and Imperfections as to discern them For of all the Old Observations I made divers years ago in order to the History of Cold I have not yet found enough to fill up one Sheet of Paper And as for those I made the last Frosty season besides that I was several times diverted by Avocations distracting enough the same sharpness of the weather which gave me the Opportunity of making some Experiments brought me an Indisposition which by forbidding me to be 〈◊〉 and stay long in the cold Air hindred me from making divers others and which is worst of all whilest I was confin'd to a place where I wanted divers Glasses and other Instruments I would have employ'd the ways both by land and water were so obstructed by the snow and ice that I could not seasonably procure them from London and was thereby reduc'd to leave several trials I should have made 〈◊〉 ther unattempted or unprosecuted But lest You should think that what I intend only to excuse my unaccurateness is meant to excuse my Pains I shall without further Apology apply my self to do what the shortness of the time will allow me which is little more then to transcribe into this Historical Collection most of the Particulars which Your Lordships Commands exact though haste will make me do it in the very words for the most part that I find them in a kind of Note-book wherein I had thrown them for my own private use which I the less scruple now to do not only because the haste that exacts from me this way of writing may serve to excuse it in me but that it may the better appear how little I had design'd to 〈◊〉 or byass them to any preconceiv'd Hypothesis THE EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLD Begun Title I. Experiments touching Bodies capable of Freezing others TO go Methodically to work we should perhaps begin with considering what subjects are capable or not capable of harbouring the Quality we are to treat of And to invite us to this it seems probable enough that among the Bodies we are conversant with here below there is scarce any except Fire that is not at some time or other susceptible of actual Cold at least as to sense And ev'n concerning Fire 〈◊〉 till that difficulty be clearly determin'd which we have elsewhere started namely whether Fire be not as Wind at least like such as is made by Air blown out of a pair of Bellows rather a state of Matter or Matter consider'd whilest it is in such a kind of Motion then a distinct and particular species of natural Bodies there may remain some Doubt since we see that Bodies which may be either in a Moment as Gunpowder or as far as sense can judge totally as high rectifi'd spirit of Wine turn'd into fire may yet immediately before their Accension be actually Cold And as to Gunpowder presently after Accension its scatter'd Parts caught in clos'd Vessels will also appear cold to the Touch. But such things nevertheless we must not now insist on partly because it requires the resolving of a somewhat difficult Question