V. Experiments o«/A^ expansive forceo/'freez- 

 ING WATER, made by Major Edward WILLIAMS of 

 the Royal Artillery, at Quebec in Canada, in the years 17S4 

 and ly^S' Cojnmu/ricated in a Letter from ChaRLES 

 Button, LL. D. F. R. SS. Lond. & Edin. and Profejhr 

 of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich, 

 to Profejfor JohnRobisoN, General Secretary of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh. 



[Readby Mr ROBISON, Nov. 6. 1786.] 



S I R, 



TH E following is an extradt of a letter to me from Major 

 Edward Williams, of the Royal Artillery, a learned 

 man, and of great profeflional merit. Being at Quebec in fome 

 very cold winters, among various other ingenious experiments, 

 it occurred to him to try the force of congelation in fome of 

 the iron bomb-fhells, which are ufually fired out of mortars in 

 the pradlice of artillery ; by filling the cavity of the fhell with 

 water, and then, having plugged up the fuze hole, expofing it 

 to the cold to freeze the water, in order to find whether the ex- 

 panfion of the ice would be capable of burfting the fhell. 

 The dimenfions of the 13 inch fhell are as follow: 



Inches. 



Outer diameter of the fhell, - 12.8 



Inner, or diameter of the cavity, - 9.1 



Thicknefs of metal at the fuze-hole, 1.5 



Ditto at the bottom or oppofite part, 2.2 



Diameter of the fuze-hole, - 1.7 



And the dimenfions are fimilar in the other fhells. The fuze- 

 hole is conical, the oppofite fides of which, when produced, 



meet 



