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Art. X. On the Divisibility of Matter. 



To the Editor of the Journal of Science and the Arts. 



Sir, 



The following calculations, on the extent to which the 

 divisibility of matter may be carried in the particular instance 

 which I have endeavoured to illustrate, have never, to my 

 knowledge, been yet ofFered to the public ; and as they may be 

 the means of inducing others, more adequate thereto, to take 

 up the subject, 1 have ventured to request their insertion m 

 your Journal, should you deem them admissible : entreating 

 the candour of your readers in the perusal of the present crude 

 statement, 



T remain. Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



S . 



June 14, 1821. 



It has been calculated by Mr. Boyle, I believe, that fifty 

 square inches of leaf gold weigh only one grain ; and that an 

 inch in length may be divided into two hundred parts, each 

 visible to the naked eye. Consequently, each square inch will 

 contain forty thousand such parts : for 200 X 200 = 40.000, 

 and this multiplied by the fifty square inches, will make two 

 million visible pieces, into which a single grain of gold may be 

 divided ; this, however, does not come near the ideas of an 

 eminent professor, who has recently asserted, that gold, in the 

 gilding of silver wire, may be reduced to the thinness of a 

 twenty-millionth part of an inch ; and, as he illustrates it, will 

 bear only the same relation to an inch, as the thickness of a 

 sheet of paper would to a mile in length. If this be the fact, 

 and we allow only 200 visible parts in the inch, it follows that 

 each 200th part, as above, may be further divided into 100,000 

 other parts, so that a single grain of gold may be capable of 

 being divided into one hundred thousand times two millions, or 



