Instrument to make turpentine penetrate plaster and wood using the airpump
Date
23 April 1684
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p134
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 375mm
width (page): 239mm
width (page): 239mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Denis Papin's design of an instrument to make turpentine penetrate into plaster to make it transparent. When Papin first tried out this instrument on 16 April 1684, it appears not to have worked well. It was repeated with better results the next week with some alteration, and was deemed effective for penetrating pitch into wood also.
This was copied from RBO/6/176.
This was copied from RBO/6/176.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 16 April 1684, ‘Dr. Papin shewed the way of making plaister of Paris transparent, by sinking turpentine through it: but the experiment, by some accident in the making had not all its perfection. His account of the method of doing this was as follows: "To the pneumatic engine I do apply a pipe, open at both ends, and having shut the upper part of it with a piece of plaister, I lay turpentine all over the same: then I overwhelm a broader pipe about the first, and pouring very hot oil into this last pipe, the turpentine laid over the plaister is melted, and penetrating into the same, makes it transparent; but no harder than before. Methinks, that by the help of the pressure of the air, pitch, or rosin, might be thus driven into all the pores of wood, to keep it from rotting, or worm eating: [...] but how far the thing may be improved, I refer to the judgement of the Royal Society"' (Birch 4:288).
On 23 April 1684, ‘Dr. Papin, by a small alteration in his apparatus, made turpentine to pass through plaister of Paris, so as to make the plaister transparent; the same method being applicable to wood, and other things’ (Birch 4:490).
On 23 April 1684, ‘Dr. Papin, by a small alteration in his apparatus, made turpentine to pass through plaister of Paris, so as to make the plaister transparent; the same method being applicable to wood, and other things’ (Birch 4:490).
Related fellows
Denis Papin (1647, French) , Natural philosopher
Associated place