14
WATER AS A
SCIENTIFIC GENIE
Tlie Surprising I'riiioiplo of the
Hydrostatic Paradox, and the
(irrat Power That It Knablcs
Man to Concentrate,' Though It
[ , Creates No New Force.
A correspondent in Boston confides
his puzzlement over the fact that
water at rest presses upward as well
as sideways and downwards. Well,
the truth is that behind that fact
stands one of nature's greatest para
doxes, which has made many a
thoughtful person rub his eyes on
first getting a glimpse of it. I was
myself a small boy In a country
school, hut already a devoted sub
ject of Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid's
magic kingdom, when I made the
acquaintance of the great and won
derful genie named the Hydrostatic
Paradox.
It Is mingled in my memory with
Summer morning fragrance and the
songs of bobolinks coming in through
open windows from fields of new
cut hay. The genie made his first
appearnace to my eyes in the pic
tured pages of "Parker's Primer of
Natural Philosophy." That, I think,
was the name; at any rate, I can
still see the cover on the book, which
was a rich, deep yellow that looked
as good to eat as a pumpkin pie. j
And the book had a delicious smell |
of its own, too; all new school books 1
had in those days.
The Hydrostatic Paradox genie I
took me quite oft my feet. I not j
only thought him as wonderful as j
were the all-powerful friends that
Aladdin summoned out of nowhere,
but he even seqmejJ to me to make '
those Arabian Nights stories almost
probable. If science had found him,
and was ready to vouch for him.
then it did not appear so impossible '
that there might really be. some- j
where, mechanical horses, all ready j
capraisoned, which, upon the turn- j
lng of a peg in their necks, would
fly up into the sky nnd convey the ;
rider in a single night from China 1
to the centre of Africa. So, for me, j
philosophy seemed to back up rom- j
ance.
The first amazing thing that this '
genie of science had in store was
his ability to magnify power—so it :
seemed —without limit. I found out
that if I should take a tube an inch !
across, pour it full of water, and
connect it with a tank of water ten
feet wide, I would be able, by press
ing down upon the water in the tube, ,
with a force of only one pound, to
lift an elephant weighing more than
seven tons, if I could only manage.,
to make him stand on a platform
covering the. water of the tank. Of i
course, I did not actually try the ex- j
periment. not having either the tube,
the tank, or the elephant handy, but j
I believed the word of science that j
it could be done. I also ignored the j
letail. which seemed too uninterest- j
ing to pause upon in the presence
jf such a wonder that I should have
o push the water in my tube down
1,200 feet in order to lift the elephant j
one inch.
This unattractive detail, however,
•ontained the whole key to the won
der, as we shall see.
Among the marvels that the great
Paradox presented to my dazzled |
mind were pictures of one small boy j
gleefully pushing a piston and there- I
by lifting a mountain, anjl of the j
same phenomenal youngster mis- '
chlevously setting to work to split
the great earth asunder by running
nis magic tube down to a spherical
.ank of water in the center of the ;
globe. I did not, then, stop to con- j
.fider the various "ifs" and "buts" j
involved, the great fundamental J
principle, with its glorious possibili- |
ties of illimitable power, being too ;
good a thing to spoil by mortifying
tuallflcations. What boy would miss I
ihe fun of bursting the earth, after !
it had been promised, for a "take-j
back" like that?
But later my heated imagination I
sobered down as the real facts be- i.
gan to make themselves too evi- !
dent to be ignored. I percicved that
this hydraulic genie could no more
manufacture power out of nothing
than I could.
The water simply acted as an |
agent for the transference of force, j
to move among themselves, yield to
the slightest distorting force, and if
a certain pressure is put upon any
part of a body of water that same
p-ncisure is transmitted to all the
other parts, and is felt equally in all
directions, down, up and sideways.
That the pressure is felt in an up
ward direction may ho easily proved,
by pushing an empty dipper bottom j
downward into a pail full of water
The water rises around the outside I
of the dipper and overflows the sides j
of the pall.
Tt is the force with which you pusli 1
down the dipper that presses the i
water upward, the particles of water
under the dipper transmitting the !
pressure to all the other particles i
of water in the pail.
But even its own weight causes
water to press upward, if it were
not so there would be no such tiling
as floating bodies. When water is |.
at rest the pressure at every point j
within it is equal in all directions, |
and just sufficient to balance its own i
gravity. A body which is. bulk for 1
bulk, heavier than water, sinks be- |
cause its downward pressure exceeds j
the upward pressure of the water. '
If it has the same weight, bulk for}
bulk, it will be in equilibrium when i
immersed in water. The reason un
derlying the "hydrostatic paradox"
Is that, since the particles of water
transmit any pressure undiminish- !
ed in every direction among them
selves, if a certain pressure, say aI.
pound, is applied to a small part of |
a surface of water, say a square |
inch, that same pressure will be I
transmitted to every other square
inch of the water, so that the total
pressure transmitted to iOO square
inches will be 100 pounds.
But this is not, as seems at first
sight, a multiplication of force; it
is simply a concentration analogous
to that effected by a lever, for just
as if you are going to raise a weight
of 1,000 pounds by pressing down
with a force of 10 pounds on the
lever, you must have the outer arm
of your ievcf 106 times longer than
the Inner one, so to produce 1,000
pounds pressure In a hydraulic press
from an initial force of 10 pounds
vmi must move the small piston 100 '
.... - ~r- ,
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