332. Phillips on the Oil Question. 



perverting, and for this you have offered neither defence 001* 

 apology. 



. As to garbling evidence, your treatment of Wilkinson proves 

 this in the clearest manner ; he states, and you admit, that 

 the Associates employed a boiler 3 feet long 15 inches wide and 

 15 deep; and they detail an experiment made with this boiler, 

 in which owing to the formation of a volatile oil, in a fixed one 

 the oil spouted out with considerable force, to the height of seve- 

 ral feet. To invalidate this experiment, you have repeatedly 

 stated that the boiler was nearly full, and that the violent expul- 

 sion of the oil, which the Associates attributed to the formation of 

 vapour in a viscid fluid, was the eflfect of common expansion 

 occasioned by heat, on account of the vessel being nearly full 

 and this you assert to have been the case, knowing that Wil- 

 kinson had stated that only 24 gallons were put in, which would 

 occupy but little more than two thirds of the boiler, and knowing 

 that his evidence was corroborated by Dr. Bostock, Mr. Taylor, 

 Mr. Faraday and myself. In your Reply, how do you attempt 

 to escape from this charge of garbling Wilkinson's evidence ? 

 Why, by telling us that he was ignorant of some other matters, 

 and by again garbling his evidence, to convict him of having 

 stated an impossibility. With respect to Wilkinson's evidence 

 generally, I assert that all which he stated ■positively would 

 have been confirmed by Mr. Martineau, had confirmation been 

 required ; but to shew that he stated an impossibility, you say, 

 in p. 100 of the Reply, that he " had measured 33 gallons of 

 fresh oil into an iron vessel, Avhich, according to his own 

 showing would not hold more than 35 gallons, and had con- 

 trived to keep the oil within this vessel for five or six days, 

 though it was generally kept at a temperature' of 400° ; 

 and every one who has made experiments on the expansion of 

 oil, must know that 33 gallons of whale oil measured at the 

 usual temperature of the atmosphere in the month of February, 

 (say from 40° to 50°) would, when brought to the temperature 

 of 400° have measured thirty-nine gallons." 



Now in order to convict Wilkinson of the impossibility thus 

 described, you have purposely omitted ihe word " about" used 



