» 
170 | An Inquiry concerning the 
To remedy thefe evils, and alfo to tender the experiment 
tore ftriking and fatisfactory in other refpects, I proceeded 
in the following manner :— 
Having provided three bottles, A, B, and C, as nearly 
alike as poffible, and refembling in all refpects thofe already 
defcribed ; into the firft, A, I put 4214,28 grains of water, 
and a {mall thermometer, made on purpofe for the experi- 
ment, and fufpended in the bottle in fuch a manner that its 
bulb remained in the middle of the mafs of water; into the 
fecond bottle, B, I put a like weight of fpirit of wine, with a 
like thermometer; and, into the bottle C, I put an equal 
weight of mercury. 
Thefe bottles, being all hermetically fealed, were placed 
in a large room, in a corner far removed from the doors and 
windows, and where the air appeared to be perfeétly quiet; - 
and, being fuffered to remain in this fituation more than 
twenty-four hours, the heat of the room (61°) being kept up 
all that time with as little variation as poflible, and the con- 
tents of the bottles A and B appearing, by their inclofed 
thermometers, to be exactly at the fame temperature, the 
bottles were all wiped with a very clean, dry, cambric hand- 
kerchief; and, being afterwards fuffered to remain expofed 
to the free air of the room a couple of hours longer, in order 
that any inequalities in the quantities of heat, or of the moif- 
ture attached to their furfaces, which might have been occa- 
fioned by the wiping, might be corrected by the operation 
of the atmofphere by which they were furrounded, they were 
all weighed, and were brought into the moft exact equili- 
brium with each other by means of {mall pieces of very fine. 
filver wire attached to the necks of thofe of the bottles which 
were the lighteft. 
This being done, the bottles were all neve into a room 
in which the air was at 30°, where they were fuffered to re- 
main, perfectly at reft and undifturbed, forty-eight hours ; 
the bottles A and B being fufpended to the arms of the ba- 
lance, and the bottle C fufpended, at an equal height, to the 
arm of a ftand conftruéted for that purpofe, and placed as 
near the balance as poffible, and a very fenfible thermometer 
fufpended by the fide of it. 
At 
