Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15460

    Theory of water pressure in a vessel

    Date
    24 November 1685
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p1
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 193mm
    width (page): 151mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    A figure accompanying an experiment at Oxford on water pressure by Joshua Walker of Brasenose College to confirm theories by Simon Stevin (1548-1630). Walker was a member of the Oxford Philosophical Society and often wrote to the Royal Society.
    Transcription
    If any Vessel of what shape soever be filled with water, the bottome whereof lies levell, then the Pressure of the water upon the bottome is equall to the pressure of a column of water of the same breadth with the bottome of the vessell, & of the same perpendicular height with the water in the vesselll. Stevini static. l. 4. prop. 10 & l. 5, prop. 2.
    For instance, If these 3 vessels A, B & C be all of an equall height, & have bottoms of equall breadth; then when they are filled with water, the bottome of A or C will be as much pressed with the water as the bottome of B.
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    At the meeting of the Royal Society on 2 December 1685, ‘A letter of Mr. Josua Walker, dated at Oxford November 26, was read, mentioning an experiment made there, that twelve ounces of water were sufficient to buoy up a vessel, that weighed above twenty pounds. It was made use of to confirm the tenth proposition of the fourth book of Stevinus’s statics’ (Birch 4:448).
    Associated place
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