Workdiary WD32 (diplomatic transcript)
Workdiary 32 ('Relationes Physicae continued')
Content: Reports of phenomena from travellers
and vitruosi from the late 1670s; informants include Robert Morison and Thomas
Henshaw describing (in a letter originally addressed to Henry Oldenburg)
experiments concerning cold in Denmark
General Information
- Creation: late 1670s
- Hands: uncertain hand (all entries (probably Slare)) Robert Boyle (additions and amendments to entries)
- Source: Royal Society, Boyle Papers 9, fols. 166-70
- Languages: English (8 entries)
- Length: 8 entries, unnumbered
- Format: Folded foolscap sheets. The last
entry ends part-way down fol. 170r and the fol. 170v is blank.
[BP 9, fol. 166]
RELATIONES PHYSICA
continued[pencil]
An excellent
Artifier[altered from 'Artificers']
whom I often employ, complained to me that having lately cast a kind of bell
metall upon a very strong solid
[ 'piece' deleted] instrument of iron of a
considerable[altered from 'considerably']
superficial[altered from 'supercial']
area thô the metal were suffer'd in a warm
roome to coole from about 8 of clock on saturday night 'till 10 or 11 on munday
morning and were then considerably hot to touch, yet it coold so far that
shrinkeing from the iron that would not shrinke with it, the bell metal crack'd
in divers places with
[ 'a' deleted] noises
<loud as the report>[replacing 'like that'] of a
[ 'gun' deleted] pistol.
[ 'And the same perso' deleted] thô the metal he affirm'd to me
was an inch & half or 2 inches thick, & the same person shew'd
<me> a large
[ 'spindle' deleted] Cylinder of iron
<about>[replacing 'on'] which for a certain purpose a coat of bell metal had been cast
some dayes before,
<on> which (bell metal) there was a crack near one end made
by the coldness of the iron thô the thickness of the belmetal as near as
I could measure it exceeded an inch. & as the workman affirmed about an
inch and a quarter.
[Retrospective marginalia:]
Tb'd
{bar}
He tooke out the vessells, beginning at the small 'till he came to
some of the larger, and there
[ 'makeing' deleted] made ligaturs, and so proceeded to the larger branches
and the trunks themselves, to each of these portions cut off
had[altered from 'was'] a small string
tyed
<to it>[replacing 'so it'] and was marked by a letter [BP 9, fol. 166v] or
letters of the Alphabet, & were not written on with inke, least they should
be obliterated by the subsequent operations, but had their shapes cut out in a
strong parchement, that was made use of insteed of paper; the vessells being
all taken out were laid to soake in good wine vinegar, made in to a pretty
strong brine with sea salt, to free them from blood & juices, & to make
them white. Then being taken out they were for 3 days put into a strong
infusion
<made of Aloes myrr and olibanum (or Frankincese)>[replacing 'of'] in rich malago sack, or the like strong
<Menstruum>[in underline in Boyle hand] these preparatery
infusions being ended, the Heap of vessells was taken out for to draine, &
then were cast into a larger quantity of fresh infusion of the same kind with
the former, & there they were kept 30 dayes.
[ 'All these m' deleted] This infusion, as well as the foregoing, being
made all this while without Heat) at the end of which
the[altered from 'they'] now prepar'd
vessells were taken out, and put into a much wider vessell, where
<one>[replacing 'there'] might by gently tumbling them up and down, disintangle them by
degrees; and then being taken out, by the [direction][unclear] of the
<above mention'd> parchment letters tied to the several
vessells, they were
[ 'placed' deleted] transferr'd to a table made of 2 or 3 smooth boards,
either of Cypress or of firr, &
[ 'wh' deleted] if any of them chanc'd to be entangled they were made more
easy to be extricated by being plentifully moisten'd with spunges dipt in the
vinous infusion allready described. The vessells being plac'd in their due
situation, were pasted on one by one, the greater vessells by fish-glew
dissolved in an infusion
of[altered from 'wi'] Aloes and Myrr
[BP 9, fol. 167] and the smaller vessells with the like infusion,
that had instead of fish glew
Gum[altered from 'gum'] Tragacanth
dissolved in it. The infusion made with wine, did so plentifully flow from the
spunges over all the boards, as to soake deepe into the pores, & make the
worke looke as if it were varnished, &
[ 'did' deleted] thereby did so preserve the wood, as well as the other,
parts, that thô they have been made
these[altered from 'them'] 16 years, and
past the seas, I could not perceive any wormhole or sign of Corruption in any
one of them. This way was deliver'd me by word of Mouth by the excellent Author
himself, when I was alone with him
[ 'by himself' deleted] in his study, vewing those accurate pieces.
[Retrospective marginalia:]
Tbd
{bar}
Doctor M.
overseer of the Duke of Orleans's famous Physic garden at
Blois, assur'd me, that he had
divers times growing three Pumpions that weighed 20,30, or more pounds a piece;
and that once seeing a prodigiously vast fruit of that kind, in so much that a
man could scarse commodiously take it up and carry it away, he caus'd it to be
carryed to a shop that was not far off, where there was a very large balance
for weighing bulky and heavy
<wares>[replacing 'weighers', Boyle hand] where
<the weight of> this Pompion amounted to no les then 88
pound.
[Retrospective marginalia:]
Tbd
The same
Doctor told me, that haveing sowed the seeds of Pompions, and
<taken note of>[replacing 'observd'] what they produced, he found that the seeds of the self same
Pompion, yielded fruits that differ'd, even in their outward shape, allmost as
if they had been of distinct kinds
[ 'same' deleted] as smooth
<rough,>Salcate &c
[BP 9, fol. 167v][Retrospective marginalia:]
Tbd
{bar}
A man of Letters who came lately from
Barbadoes, answerd me, that he
had found that bituminous substance that is commonly call'd Barbadoes Tar in a
little Spring near the upper part of a hilly ground, about 5 or 6 miles distant
from the Sea; that he discerned it by the discocolartion and
<blackishness>[replacing 'darkeness'] of the ground at the places where it issued out, with or very
near some small veins of water, on which stagnating in little receptacles he
gatherd it.
[Retrospective marginalia:]
Tbd
q (margin, at beginning of entry)
An Ingenious Gentlewoman of my acquaintance being big with Child,
and whilst in that Condition very subject to longings & Passions, and by
the negligence of her maide, that had forgott to remove something that she had
laid in her Mistrisses way, hit her skin against a piece of wood, which,
thô it did not breake her skin, bruis'd the part & discolor'd it.
This gentlewoman, I say,
<a good while after she had been angry with her maid>, being
[ 'afterwards' deleted] brought
to[altered from 'a'] bed of a daughter,
observ'd, as herself assured me,
[ 'upon' deleted] that the child had on the leg of the same side, and the
correspondent part of the skinn a large discolor'd spott, with divers reddish
speks, like that which she had had upon her own Legg.
[ 'I he' deleted]
And[altered from 'and'] it seems this
impressive disposition was hereditary to her. For she told me that when her
mother was with Child
of[altered from 'with'] Her, as she
chanc'd to goe out of a dore, being put into a great fright, by being smartly
but casually hit by the latch of the doore upon the back the Gentlewoman was
born with
<something betwixt a tumor &>[replacing 'a kind of'] excrescence on the Correspondent part of her back, which yet
continues in the same place, & especially at certain seasons, is sore or
tender, when
<she do's>[replacing 'their Her', Boyle hand] (as she sometimes does for Curiosity) touch it.
An Ingenious & very cred
[BP 9, fol. 168][Retrospective marginalia:]
Tbd
{bar}
M. M. a very
experiencd & credible person, confirmd to me within this weeke, what I
remember he formerly answerd me, viz. That, tho he had been a Gilder these 30
years, yet he never found any great inconvenience, as to his health, by the
mercurial fumes; which yet I was apt to ascribe, (without much repugnancy on
his part) in good measure, to some peculiar disposition of his Body. And when I
askt him, whether those fumes had no very ill operation upon his teeth, he told
me they had not; & in effect I lookt upon them, & saw them sound &
well colour'd: only he confessd to me, that some times when he had been much
gilding, his Teeth would be loose for a while, but were easily fasten'd again
by being well washd with good Vinegar. I likewise found by inquiry of him, that
he is exceedingly dispos'd to sweat, & is besides a strong & lusty
man.
He likewise confess'd to me, that, when he had sometimes washd his
hands
[ 'so' deleted] after he had been gilding, so that nothing mercurial
appeard, yet unless he employd some peculiar diligence or Artifices, to cleanse
& free his skin from the latent mercurial particles, the rubbing of a peice
of Gold between his fingers would discolour, & somewhat whiten the
Metal.
[Retrospective marginalia:]
obs. about Weather (margin, at beginning of entry)
Obs about cold (margin, next to 'Dr Eras. Bartho. & I')
obs about Cold (margin, next to 'That his own Cooke', on fol. 169v)
Tbd to the End
q (margin, at beginning of entry)
We have had a very sharp frost here ever since the 14th of January,
which yet continues in the same vigor, thô the wind hath varyed since to
all points of the Compasse. The frost began with the wind 80 west & the
wind hath since hung on that point as much as on any other; thô we that
have no other Thermometer than our own sence of feeling, have found little
difference in the intensenesse of the weather, on the change of the wind.
Dr Eras. Bartho.
& I have not been
unmindfull to make some experiments about Cold,
but [BP 9, fol. 168v] being shutt up in a close town, where we have
no terrasses or Leads, we could not expose any thing, so that the Current of
the Atmosphere might freely roll over it, so the experiments we endeavored to
<make> shew'd us not any effects of Cold much above what you
have seen in England. But accidental experiences shew'd me, that the Cold here
was very much sharper than it is with us. My bottles of French wine, thô
not expos'd to the aire, froze allmost at the very
[ '[Q][unclear]' deleted]
beginning of the cold weather, but the Northdowne Ale & Canary not till a
good while after. but in all these liquors, for they were kept on purpose in a
reasonable warme roome, there was still some part unfrozen, which to the tast
was very considerably stronger than the liquor was before. Bottles of
Brandy['y' altered from 'ie'] have
some of
their[altered from 'ther'] flegmatic
part frozen,
<& Ice>[replacing '4 illegible characters', Boyle hand] & swimming in them. I exposd some small quantity of
Brandy['y' altered from 'ee'] in
several flat sylver dishes: but I perceiv'd the Spirit was all gone, before it
came to an ice, which was all spungy, & of an uneven Superficies, and lookd much like frozen yeast or Barme.
The tast of the Ice was small as water, & of a well pleasing Rellish. the
Ice of most strong liquors is spungy & porous, which may be causd by the
expiring by little and little of the subtile parts. I thinke I told you in my
last, that I have a small piece of yellow Amber, with a bubble in it, that
moves up & down as you turn the Amber whether the Cuticulæ of the
bubble be [BP 9, fol. 169] an oily consistence, containing some
electrical effluvia in it, or whether it be plain Aire & water, I know not;
but I exposd it to the Cold a wholl winters night, & found next day the
bubble so frozen it would not stirr: but laying it a while near the fire, it
thaw'd & moved as before. But neither Dr. Bartholine nor I could discover
by our Eye, that the bubble was at all lesse when frozen. we borrow'd that
famous piece of Amber, that hath a much bigger bubble in it, of the Burgemaster
of Christian Shaven, who putts a very great value on
it; so we durst not tell him what you would doe with it, but every thing
succeeded just as in mine. the Baltic Sea has been all frozen over above 6 weeks here about,
& people come hither out of schonen laden with
Hay wood & Corne. I passed over once in a sled my self. I went twice in a
sled to the Ile of wien on the 20th of February I passd on foot from Elsineur
to Helsinburg, which is about 4 English miles & back again, but I might
have done it in a Coach & six horses, for all the way we met people &
wagons, laden, as if it [BP 9, fol. 169v] had been a farie which
semd very strange to me, that had so often seene a strong Current set in or out
between those Castles as the wind drove it. For there is no manner of Tide in
all the sea, when I was on the top of Helsingburg Castle lookeing towards the
Cate-gate or
[ '[Or][unclear]' deleted] Sinus
Codanus I could see no sea, but all was Ice and Snow; but within a few
days a strong wind broke it all open, but it presently froze again when the
wind was laid. our envoy at
Stockholm said, that very many Country people were frozen to Death this
winter in Sweden, travelling in their Slides, that
young Count Duglesse
hunting with that king,
had his brain frozen & dyed. That the king himself had one cheeck
mortified, but was presently cured by the usuall application of snow. That his
own Cooke haveing boild a piece of beeffe over a great fire, for two howers
together, but takeing it out to cutt it to make a hotch pot of it, thô it
was boild enough on the outside, found it all raw within, & still frozen.
This King of Denmark
riding out in the frost, as he does allmost every day, had the skin of his face
so seared with the cold, that most of the skin came off. But thô I have
been very much on the Ice this winter, either sliding or playing at
[ 'Goffe' deleted] Gole yet I thanke God I never met
[BP 9, fol. 170] with any thing but what agreed very well with me.
I had allmost forgott to tell you that about the sound the Fishermen make
abundance of holes in the Ice, commonly round of 3 or 4 fout Diameter, wherein
they hang severall lines with fishcokes Cork & quills, their baite is
either worms flesh or
[ 'chef' deleted] chiefly the spleen of beeffe it may be for
cheapnesse, or else little pieces of fish, & pull up a pace small
whiteings, flounders, place. I met with about a dozen of soles among them,
which are very good in this Country, but rare at this time of
<the>[in Boyle hand] yeare. I relate this because I know in
our ponds in England the fish will not meddle with baite in winter.