OF HYDROSTATICS. 



117 



vessels be, if they are of equal heights, and if the areas 

 of their bottoms are equal, the pressures of equal heights 

 of water are equal upon the bottoms of these vessels ; 

 even though the one should hold a thousand, or ten 

 thousand times as much water as would fill the 

 other. To confirm this part of the hydrostatical pa- 

 radox by an experiment, let two vessels be prepared 

 of equal heights, but very unequal contents, such as 

 A B, A B. Let each vessel be open at both ends, and 



LECT. 

 V. 



their bottoms Dd,Dd, be of equal'widths. Let a brass 

 bottom C C be exactly fitted to each vessel ; not to go 

 into it, but for it to stand upon ; and let a piece of wet 

 leather be put between each vessel and its brass bottom, 

 for the sake of closeness. Join each bottom to its ves- 

 sel by a hinge D, so that it may open like the lid of a 

 box ; and let each bottom be kept up to its vessel by 

 equal weights E and E, hung to lines which go over 

 the pulleys Fand F, (whose blocks are fixed to the 

 sides of the vessels at f) and the lines tied to hooks at 

 d and d, fixed in the brass bottoms opposite to the hinges 

 D and D. Things being thus prepared and fitted, hold 

 the vessel A B (the second figure) upright in your 

 /lands over a bason on a table, and cause water to be 

 poured into the vessel slowly, till the pressure of the 

 water bears down its bottom at the side d, and raises 



