Glass vial to determine the relative weight of salt and fresh water
Date
18 March 1663
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p212
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 350mm
width (page): 230mm
width (page): 230mm
Subject
Content object
Description
A white glass vial used in an experiment to determine the relative weight of salt and fresh water. This was one of a series of experiments conducted by William Brouncker, Robert Moray and Alexander Bruce on the river in Chatham in March 1663, and reported to the Royal Society on 18 March 1663.
Transcription
A white glasse vial, much of the shape as described in the figure with a small short neck, weighed, when empty, 1425 grams; filled exactly full with salt-water, it weighed 5247 grams, whence, 1425 being deducted, we have 3822 grams the weight of the water. The same filled with fresh water taken out of the Thames at Greenwich, near Low-water, weighted 5164 graines; whence deducting 1425 gr: we have 3739, the weight of the fresh [water]. And weighing afterward the water, hwerewith the strong ale at Margat is brewed, we found it exactly the same with this Greenwich water. Whence we conclude the Proportion of these fresh waters to this salt, to be as 3739 to 3822; that is, neer as 45 to 46.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 18 March 1663, ‘The lord viscount Brouncker, Sir Robert Moray, and Mr. Bruce brought in an account of the observations and experiments, which they had lately made upon the river of Chatham; and his lordship promised to add to them some notes of this own. The paper was ordered to be registered’ (Birch 1:208). The figures and the text are printed in Birch 1:208-12.
The figure was also printed in R. Hooke, Philosophical experiments and observations (London: 1726), p. 100.
The figure was also printed in R. Hooke, Philosophical experiments and observations (London: 1726), p. 100.
Related fellows
William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker of Lyons (1620 - 1684, British) , Mathematician
Robert Moray (1608 - 1673, British) , Natural philosopher
Robert Alexander Bruce (1839, British) , Inventor
Robert Moray (1608 - 1673, British) , Natural philosopher
Robert Alexander Bruce (1839, British) , Inventor
Associated place