Micrographia - Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon by Robert Hooke
page 91 of 465 (19%)
page 91 of 465 (19%)
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every side of it that was dry, and therefore the greatest pressure of the
Air, being near those sides, caused it either to chase away, or else to fly off from any other floating body, whereas that side only, against which the water ascended, was thereby able to attract. It remains only, that I should determine how high the Water or other Liquor may by this means be raised in a smaller Pipe above the Superficies of that without it, and at what height it may be sustained: But to determine this, will be exceeding difficult, unless I could certainly know how much of the Airs pressure is taken off by the smalness of such and such a Pipe, and whether it may be wholly taken off, that is, whether there can be a hole or pore so small, into which Air could not at all enter, though water might with its whole force, for were there such, 'tis manifest, that the water might rise in it to some five or six and thirty English Foot high. I know not whether the capillary Pipes in the bodies of small Trees, which we call their _Microscopical pores_, may not be such; and whether the congruity of the sides of the Pore may not yet draw the juyce even higher then the Air was able by its bare pressure to raise it: For, Congruity is a principle that not only unites and holds a body joyned to it, but, which is more, attracts and draws a body that is very near it, and holds it above its usual height. And this is obvious even in a drop of water suspended under any Similar or Congruous body: For, besides the ambient pressure that helps to keep it sustein'd, there is the Congruity of the bodies that are contiguous. This is yet more evident in Tenacious and Glutinous bodies; such as Gummous Liquors, Syrups, Pitch, and Rosin melted, &c. Tar, Turpentine, Balsom, Bird-lime, &c. for there it is evident, that the Parts of the tenacious body, as I may so call it, do stick and adhere so closely together, that though drawn out into long and very slender Cylinders, yet they will not |
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