Glass balls
Date
26 November 1662
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p44
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 358mm
width (page): 226mm
width (page): 226mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Drawing of a double glass ball used by Robert Hooke to prove compression of air in the internal glass ball. This was reported among other experiments using glass balls to the meeting of the Royal Society on 26 November 1662.
ABC shows a glass ball made of white glass melted in the flame of a lamp and sealed up while the ball was very hot. DFEIK indicates a bolt head cut off at IK to fit in the ball and sealed up with cement afterwards. Water was then poured in between the bolt head and the glass ball until it reached H. When the top of the glass ball, A, was broken, the height of the water rose to G (1/8 of an inch), which indicates the measure of the air that was compressed in the glass ball ABC.
The original drawing by Hooke is at Cl.P/20/3/003. Copies of this image are found in RBO/2i/040, RBC/1/261, Cl.P/24/51/003 and MS/776/239.
ABC shows a glass ball made of white glass melted in the flame of a lamp and sealed up while the ball was very hot. DFEIK indicates a bolt head cut off at IK to fit in the ball and sealed up with cement afterwards. Water was then poured in between the bolt head and the glass ball until it reached H. When the top of the glass ball, A, was broken, the height of the water rose to G (1/8 of an inch), which indicates the measure of the air that was compressed in the glass ball ABC.
The original drawing by Hooke is at Cl.P/20/3/003. Copies of this image are found in RBO/2i/040, RBC/1/261, Cl.P/24/51/003 and MS/776/239.
Object history
26 November 1662, ‘Mr. Hooke brought in his account of the experiments tried with glass-balls’ (Birch 1:127).
Related fellows
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Associated place