parts of the circumscribing wall; the aggregate pressure may,
therefore, be increased indefinitely by increasing the surface.
It is this principle, of course, which is utilized in the
familiar hydrostatic press. Theoretical explanations of the
pressure of liquids were supplied a generation or two later by
numerous investigators, including Newton, but the practical
refoundation of the science of hydrostatics in modern times dates
from the experiments of Stevinus.


GALILEO AND THE EQUILIBRIUM OF FLUIDS

Experiments of an allied character, having to do with the
equilibrium of fluids, exercised the ingenuity of Galileo. Some
of his most interesting experiments have to do with the subject
of floating bodies. It will be recalled that Archimedes, away
back in the Alexandrian epoch, had solved the most important
problems of hydrostatic equilibrium. Now, however, his
experiments were overlooked or forgotten, and Galileo was obliged
to make experiments anew, and to combat fallacious views that
ought long since to have been abandoned. Perhaps the most
illuminative view of the spirit of the times can be gained by
quoting at length a paper of Galileo's, in which he details his
own experiments with floating bodies and controverts the views of
his opponents. The paper has further value as illustrating
Galileo's methods both as experimenter and as speculative
reasoner.

The current view, which Galileo here undertakes to refute,
asserts that water offers resistance to penetration, and that