Instrument to measure the resistance of air
Date
9 February 1687
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p346
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 367mm
width (page): 232mm
width (page): 232mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Drawing of an instrument on a slip of paper (168 x 126 mm) inserted into the Register Book. The instrument was designed by Denis Papin to measure the resistance of air by exhausting air from a vessel with a flat plate suspended like a pendulum, and measuring the decrease of the arc of its swing. Papin reported the experiment to the meeting on 9 February 1687.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 9 February 1687, ‘A paper of Dr. Papin was read concerning an experiment for trying the opposition of the air to a body moving in it; wherein he proposed to find how much the air impeded the vibration of a flat plate suspended like a pendulum by comparing the number of vibrations, wherein the said pendulum would fall from swinging an arch of 36 degrees to an arch of ten degrees both in vacuo and in aere’ (Birch, 4:524).
Related fellows
Denis Papin (1647, French) , Natural philosopher
Associated place