183
march. 28. 1678. Entred
S
r. Chri
st Wren
the Vice President tooke the chaire
vpon reading the minutes of the La
st Day a Di
scourse was occa
sioned
concerning the ways then spoken of /concerning the sounding/
of the Depth of the sea, by the
help of long pipe of Gla
sse the Lower end of w
ch. was perfectly sealed vp
hermetically and the vper end was soe orderd as ^ /vpon its descender/ to admitt the water
to enter in according as the pre
ssure of the water was Greater & stronger
vpon the Inclo
sed Air. and vpon the pulling vp againe of the same
Pipe ^ /& soe as/ the pre
ssure of the water Decrea
sing the air expanded it self and
found its way out w
th.out forcing out
the againe the water w
ch. had been
admitted in its De
scent. And S
r. Ch: Wren obiected again
st the same that
the compre
ssion of the air might be occa
sioned by the cold as well as
the pre
ssure of
the water, and soe
therefore /it/ could not be Di
stingui
shed
which part of the admitted water was to be a
scribed to the cold and
w
ch. to the pre
ssure.
to w
ch. m
r. Hooke answerd that It was nece
ssary that there should be other
In
struments Let down w
th. the afforesaid pipe in order to find the
Degrdegree of coldne
sse in the water at seuerall Depths below the surface
and that the said experiment was not Le
sse In
structiue than the
other. for the performing of w
ch. he alledged he had a contriuance
by w
ch. the same might be certainly examind and thence the degrees
both of the one and the other might be defined _
Some other obiections were made that the Depth might be examined
by the help of a Line as well as by the degree of pre
ssure . to w
ch. it
was an
swerd that as for the meer finding the Depth of the Sea
the Line and plumbet was not sufficient becau
se that in
great depths the line would be buoyant and soe not be streined
straight and be
sides where there was a motion of the water the line
would be often times much sloped & sometimes much Bended but
be
sides the examination of the Depth this tube serued al
so to In
quire into the Degree of Pre
ssure at certaine Depths which
was another v
sefull inquiry and al
so was helpfall for the finding
the
Coldnese qualitys of tho
se Lower regions as to heat & cold
which was a third inquiry worthy to be examined.
S
r. Chri
st: wren seconded D
r. Croons de
sire of hauing a vniuersall index made to
the Regi
ster book
Ref: CELL/RS/HF_185 © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters
