Part 12 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.--B, surface of brine. W, surface of water. S, sand strata connecting them.]
”Now I will draw a figure in which one pocket is above the other, and ask you to imagine that in the lower pocket we have pure water, in the upper pocket brine (Figure 14); can you bring any theory of your law to bear upon these liquids so that by connecting them together the water will rise and run into the brine?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--B, brine. W, water. S, sand stratum. (The difference in alt.i.tude is somewhat exaggerated to make the phenomenon clear. A syphon may result under such circ.u.mstances.--L.)]
”No,” I replied; ”connect them, and then the brine will flow into the water.”
”Upon the contrary,” he said; ”connect them, as innumerable cavities in the earth are joined, and the water will flow into the brine.”
”The a.s.sertion is opposed to applied philosophy and common sense,” I said.
”Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, you know to be a maxim with mortals,” he replied; ”but I must pardon you; your dogmatic education narrows your judgment. I now will prove you in error.”
He took from his pocket two slender gla.s.s tubes, about an eighth of an inch in bore and four inches in length, each closed at one end, and stood them in a perforated cork that he placed upon the table.
Into one tube he poured water, and then dissolving some salt in a cup, poured brine into the other, filling both nearly to the top (Figure 15).
Next he produced a short curved gla.s.s tube, to each end of which was attached a strip of flexible rubber tubing. Then, from a piece of blotting paper such as is used to blot ink, he cut a narrow strip and pa.s.sed it through the arrangement, forming the apparatus represented by Figure 16.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15. A A, gla.s.s tubes. F, brine surface. E, water surface.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16. B, curved gla.s.s tube. C C, rubber tubes. D D D, bibulous paper.]
Then he inserted the two tubes (Figure 15) into the rubber, the extremities of the paper being submerged in the liquids, producing a combination that rested upright in the cork as shown by Figure 17.
The surfaces of both liquids were at once lowered by reason of the suction of the bibulous paper, the water decreasing most rapidly, and soon the creeping liquids met by absorption in the paper, the point of contact, as the liquids met, being plainly discernible. Now the old man gently slid the tubes upon each other, raising one a little, so as to bring the surfaces of the two liquids exactly on a plane; he then marked the gla.s.s at the surface of each with a pen.
”Observe the result,” he remarked as he replaced the tubes in the cork with their liquid surfaces on a line.
Together we sat and watched, and soon it became apparent that the surface of the water had decreased in height as compared with that of the brine. By fixing my gaze on the ink mark on the gla.s.s I also observed that the brine in the opposing tube was rising.
”I will call to-morrow evening,” he said, ”and we shall then discover which is true, man's theory or nature's practice.”
Within a short time enough of the water in the tube had been transferred to the brine to raise its surface considerably above its former level, the surface of the water being lowered to a greater degree. (Figure 18.) I was discomfited at the result, and upon his appearance next evening peevishly said to the experimenter:
”I do not know that this is fair.”
”Have I not demonstrated that, by properly connecting the liquids, the lighter flows into the heavier, and raises itself above the former surface?”
”Yes; but there is no porous paper in the earth.”
”True; I used this medium because it was convenient. There are, however, vast subterranean beds of porous materials, stone, sand, clay, various other earths, many of which will answer the same purpose. By perfectly natural laws, on a large scale, such molecular transfer of liquids is constantly taking place within the earth, and in these phenomena the law of gravitation seems ignored, and the rule which man believes from narrow experience, governs the flow of liquids, is reversed. The arched porous medium always transfers the lighter liquid into the heavier one until its surface is raised considerably above that of the light one. In the same way you can demonstrate that alcohol pa.s.ses into water, sulphuric ether into alcohol, and other miscible light liquids into those heavier.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17. A A, gla.s.s tubes. B, curved gla.s.s tube. C C, rubber tubes. D, bibulous paper. E, water surface. F, brine surface.]
”I have seen you exemplify the statement on a small scale, with water and brine, and can not question but that it is true on a large one,” I replied.
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