Glass instrument with a bolt head
Date
3 June 1663
Creator
Unknown, Artist
After
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p34
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 365mm
width (page): 233mm
width (page): 233mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Drawing of a glass instrument with a bolt head placed in a small glass vessel, used by Robert Hooke in an experiment using an air pump. The bubbles created by the compression were deemed to be 'rarefied water', as they disappeared two to three days after the experiment. The experiment tried at the meeting of the Royal Society on 3 June 1663 did not succeed because of leaks from the condensing machine. It was demonstrated more successfully on 10 June 1663.
This is a copy from the Register Book Original (RBO/2ii/149 or RBO/2i/227). The original drawing by Hooke is at: Cl.P/20/19/001. There is another copy at MS/215/098.
This is a copy from the Register Book Original (RBO/2ii/149 or RBO/2i/227). The original drawing by Hooke is at: Cl.P/20/19/001. There is another copy at MS/215/098.
Transcription
There was taken a Bolt-head, holding about four ounces of water; This was filled Top-full with water, and the mouth of the small long stem was inverted into a small glasse vessel containing water enough to cover about an inch of the stem; then both of them, in the posture here expressed in the Figure, were shut up in a small long Receiver, out of which, when the air had been well exhausted, there were observed to rise out of the water, in the Bolt-head, abundance of small Bubbles, which got up to the top, and remained there in the form of air; and as the air was further exhausted out of the Receiver, the substance of those Bubbles expanded itselfe so far, as to drive downe all the water; out of the Bolt-head. Then the air was readmitted into the Receiver, and thereby that expanded substance was, by the reascending of the water into the Bolt-head, comprest into a small buble somewhat bigger than a large Pea; which floated at the top of the bolt-head, and remained so, after these vessels were taken out of the Receiver. But being suffered to remain in that posture, in a convenient place after two or three days, the Bubbles quite vanished, and the substance returned into the form of water.
To know whether the substance of this Bubble was air, it will be convenient to make a further Tryall, by including two such bolt-heads into the same Receiver, and after the Air hath been exhausted and then taken out to put into the place of the bubble remaining in one of them as much air, and so to let them stand, till the bubble in the one or both be vanisht. For if that be really air which hath been drawn out of the pores of the water, and that it returnes thither again; the common air put in the place of the Extracted Bubble will doe the same thing; And if the air does not penetrate and descend into the water, it will be an argument, that those bubbles that rise out of the water, upon the emptying a Receiver, wherein it is included of air; are not reall Air, but rarified parts of Water.
This Experiment, according to these directions was tried June the tenth, and the successe was this, that the bubles in both the Boltheads vanished into the water within two or three dayes, but that which was drawne out of the water, returned first.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
To know whether the substance of this Bubble was air, it will be convenient to make a further Tryall, by including two such bolt-heads into the same Receiver, and after the Air hath been exhausted and then taken out to put into the place of the bubble remaining in one of them as much air, and so to let them stand, till the bubble in the one or both be vanisht. For if that be really air which hath been drawn out of the pores of the water, and that it returnes thither again; the common air put in the place of the Extracted Bubble will doe the same thing; And if the air does not penetrate and descend into the water, it will be an argument, that those bubbles that rise out of the water, upon the emptying a Receiver, wherein it is included of air; are not reall Air, but rarified parts of Water.
This Experiment, according to these directions was tried June the tenth, and the successe was this, that the bubles in both the Boltheads vanished into the water within two or three dayes, but that which was drawne out of the water, returned first.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 3 June 1663, ‘the experiment of raising water in a kind of small weather-glass, by the pressing in of air in the condensing engine, was tried; but by reason of the engine’s leaking, proved imperfect, and was therefore ordered to be repeated at the next meeting’ (Birch 1:250).
At the next meeting, on 10 June 1663, ‘the experiment was begun to be made, to know, whether the substance of those bubbles, that are observed to float at the top of the water in two bolt-heads, after the water hath been well exhausted out of the receiver, and been re-admitted into the same, be real air, or but rarefied parts of that water. And there was put into the place of the bubble remaining in one of the bolt-heads, included in the same receiver, as much air, to see at the next meeting, whether the one as well as the other return into the pores of the water or not’ (Birch 1:254). The text and figure of this experiment are printed in Birch 1:254-55.
At the next meeting, on 10 June 1663, ‘the experiment was begun to be made, to know, whether the substance of those bubbles, that are observed to float at the top of the water in two bolt-heads, after the water hath been well exhausted out of the receiver, and been re-admitted into the same, be real air, or but rarefied parts of that water. And there was put into the place of the bubble remaining in one of the bolt-heads, included in the same receiver, as much air, to see at the next meeting, whether the one as well as the other return into the pores of the water or not’ (Birch 1:254). The text and figure of this experiment are printed in Birch 1:254-55.
Related fellows
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Associated place