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  2. The physical treatises of Pascal: the equilibrium of liquids and the weight of the mass of the air

The physical treatises of Pascal: the equilibrium of liquids and the weight of the mass of the air

Blaise Pascal, Frederick Barry, I. H. B. Spiers, Alexander Guy Holborn Spiers, Simon Stevin, Galileo Galilei and Evangelista Torricelli 1937 © Columbia University Press
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Series
  • Records of Civilization
Subject
  • Science & Technology
Citable Link

  • Table of Contents

  • Reviews

  • Stats

  • Frontmatter
  • Foreword, by Frederick Barry (page v)
  • Preface, containing the reasons which have called for the publication of these two Treatises after the death of Monsieur Pascal, and an account of the various Experiments which are explained therein, [by F. Perier] (page ix)
  • Notice: Critical Remarks by F. Perier (page xxi)
  • Extract from the King's Privilege (page xxiii)
  • A TREATISE ON THE EQUILIBRIUM OF LIQUIDS
    • CHAP. I. How the Weight of Liquids is in proportion to their height (page 3)
    • CHAP. II. Why Liquids weigh in proportion to their height (page 6)
    • CHAP. III. Illustrations of Equilibrium of Liquids (page 11)
    • CHAP. IV. On the Equilibrium between a Liquid and a solid (page 14)
    • CHAP. V. On bodies wholly immersed in water (page 16)
    • CHAP. VI. On immersed compressible bodies (page 19)
    • CHAP. VII. On animals in water (page 23)
  • TREATISE ON THE WEIGHT OF THE MASS OF THE AIR
    • CHAP. I. The mass of the Air has weight, and with this weight presses upon all the bodies it surrounds (page 27)
    • CHAP. II. The weight of the mass of the Air produces all the effects hitherto ascribed to the abhorrence of a vacuum (page 32)
    • CHAP. III. The weight of the mass of the Air being limited, so also are the effects it produces (page 48)
    • CHAP. IV. As the weight of the mass of the Air increases when it is more highly charged with vapors, and diminishes when it is less so charged, so the effects produced by its weight increase and diminish proportionately (page 51)
    • CHAP. V. The weight of the mass of Air being greater in low places than in high, the effects produced in low places are proportionally greater (page 53)
    • CHAP. VI. As the effects of the weight of the mass of the Air increase or diminish with the increase or diminution of that weight, they would cease altogether if one were above the Air or in a place where there is no Air (page 55)
    • CHAP. VII. How far water rises in pumps at each place in the world (page 58)
    • CHAP. VIII. How much each place in the world is pressed by the weight of the mass of the Air (page 63)
    • CHAP. IX. How much the entire mass of all the Air in the world weighs (page 63)
    • Conclusion of the two preceding Treatises (page 67)
  • FRAGMENT Of another longer Work by Monsieur Pascal on the same subject, divided into Parts, Books, Chapters, Sections, and Articles, of which only the following were found among his papers (page 79)
  • Part I, Book III, Chapter I, Sections II [and III]
    • SECOND SECTION. The effects vary according to the variations of weather, and are more or less marked in proportion as the air is more or less charged. (page 79)
    • THIRD SECTION. On the rule for the variations in these effects, due to variations in the weather (page 84)
  • ANOTHER FRAGMENT On the same subject, consisting of Tables, of which only seven were found, which bear the following captions: (page 87)
    • SECOND TABLE. To determine the weight of a leaden cylinder, which shall be equal to the resistance offered by two polished surfaces in contact, when the attempt is made to separate them (page 88)
    • THIRD TABLE. To determine the force necessary to separate two bodies in contact on a surface with a diameter of one foot (page 89)
    • FOURTH TABLE. To determine the force necessary to separate two bodies in contact on a surface with a diameter of six inches (page 90)
    • FIFTH TABLE. To determine the force necessary to separate two bodies in contact on a surface with a diameter of one inch (page 91)
    • SIXTH TABLE. To determine the force necessary to separate two bodies in contact on a surface with a diameter of six lines (page 92)
    • SEVENTH TABLE. To determine the height to which mercury or quicksilver rises, and remains suspended, in the common experiment (page 93)
    • EIGHTH TABLE. To determine the height to which water rises, and remains suspended, in the common experiment (page 94)
  • Story of the great Experiment on the Equilibrium of Fluids devised by Monsieur B. Pascal in pursuance of the completion of the Treatise promised in his shorter work on the Vacuum; and carried out by Monsieur F. P. on one of the highest mountains in Auvergne, commonly known as Le Puy de Dôme (page 97)
  • Copy of the letter of Monsieur Pascal the Younger to Monsieur Perier (page 98)
  • Copy of the letter sent by Monsieur Perier to Monsieur Pascal the Younger (page 102)
  • Copy of the account of the Experiment submitted by Monsieur Perier (page 103)
  • Consequences (page 109)
  • Record of the Observations taken by Monsieur Perier continuously day by day, during the years 1649, 1650, and 1651 in the City of Clermont in Auvergne, on the variations in the rise and fall of quicksilver in tubes; and also of those made simultaneously of the same variations in Paris by one of his friends, and at Stockholm in Sweden, by Messieurs Chanut and Descartes (page 113)
  • Copy of a letter written by Monsieur Chanut to Monsieur Perier (page 117)
  • Copy of another letter from the same Monsieur Chanut to the same Monsieur Perier (page 119)
  • New Experiments, made in England, explained by the principles set forth in the two foregoing Treatises on the Equilibrium of Liquids and the Weight of the Mass of the Air (page 121)
  • APPENDICES
    • I. Stevin: Fourth Book of Statics (in part) (page 135)
    • II. Galileo's Remarks on Nature's Abhorrence of a Vacuum (page 159)
    • III. Torricelli's Letters on the Pressure of the Atmosphere (page 163)
  • BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE (page 171)
  • INDEX (page 175)
Reviews
Journal AbbreviationLabelURL
ISIS 29.1 (Jul. 1938): 116-118 http://www.jstor.org/stable/225937
AHR 44.1 (Oct. 1938): 100-101 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1840876
AMM 46.3 (Mar. 1939): 165 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2302469
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