Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/403

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388
Experimental Investigation of Table-Moving.
[1853.

interfere with any of the results expected by the table-turner for both the bundle of plates spoken of and single cards had been freely moved on the tables before; but now that the index was there, witnessing to the eye, and through it to the mind, of the table-turner, not the slightest tendency to motion either of the card or of the table occurred. Indeed, whether the card was left free or was attached to the table, all motion or tendency to motion was gone. In one particular case there was relative motion between the table and the hands: I believe that the hands moved in one direction; the table-turner was persuaded that the table moved from under the hand in the other direction:—a gauge, standing upon the floor, and pointing to the table, was therefore set up on that and some future occasions,—and then, neither motion of the hand nor of the table occurred.

A more perfect lever apparatus was then constructed in the following manner:—Two thin boards, 9½ inches by 7 inches, were provided; a board, 9 inches by 5 inches, was glued to the middle of the underside of one of these (to be called the table board), so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum for the indicating lever. Then four glass rods, 7 inches long and ¼ in diameter, were placed as rollers on different parts of this table-board, and the upper hoard placed on them; the rods permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards, entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this part of the lever was of cardboard; the indicating prolongation was a straight hay-stalk 15 inches long. In order to restrain the motion of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they tied the boards together, acted also as springs,—and whilst they allowed the first feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted, before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a