I have not as yet made any attempts of that kind, though I know two or three wayes, which, as far as I have yet considered, seem very probable, and may invite me to make a tryal as soon as I have an opportunity, of which I may hereafter perhaps acquaint the world. In the Interim, I shall describe the Instrument I even now mention’d, by which the refraction of all kinds of Liquors may be most exactly measur’d, thereby to give the curious an opportunity of making what further tryals of that kind they shall think requisite to any of their intended tryals; and to let them see that the laws of Refraction are not only notional.
The Instrument consisted of five Rulers, or long pieces placed together, after the manner exprest in the second Figure of the first Scheme, where AB denotes a straight piece of wood about six foot and two inches long, about three inches over, and an inch and half thick, on the back side of which was hung a small plummet by a line stretcht from top to bottom, by which this piece was set exactly upright, and so very firmly fixt; in the middle of this was made a hole or center, into which one end of a hollow cylindrical brass Box CC, fashion’d as I shall by and by describe, was plac’d, and could very easily and truly be mov’d to and fro; the other end of this Box being put into, and moving in, a hole made in a small arm DD; into this box was fastned the long Ruler EF, about three foot and three or four inches long, and at three foot from the above mention’d Centers PP was a hole E, cut through, and cross’d with two small threads, and at the end of it was fixt a small sight G, and on the back side of it was fixt a small Arm H, with a Screw to fix it in any place on the Ruler LM; this Ruler LM was mov’d on the Center B (which was exactly three foot distance from the middle Center P) and a line drawn through the middle of it LM, was divided by a Line of cords into some sixty degrees, and each degree was subdivided into minutes, so that putting the cross of the threads in E upon any part of this divided line, I presently knew what Angle the two Rules AB and EF made with each other, and by turning the Screw in H, I could fix them in any position. The other Ruler also RS was made much after the same manner, only it was not fixt to the hollow cylindrical Box, but, by means of two small brass Armes or Ears, it mov’d on the Centers of it; this also, by means of the cross threads in the hole S, and by a Screw in K, could be fastned on any division of another line of cords of the same radius drawn on NO. And so by that means, the Angle made by the two Rulers, AB and RS, was also known. The Brass box CC in the middle was shap’d very much like the Figure X, that is, it was a cylindrical Box stopp’d close at either end, off of which a part both of the sides and bottomes was cut out, so that the Box, when the Pipe and that was joyned to it, would contain the Water when fill’d half full, and would likewise, without