466 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 731. 



Observations on the IVeather, in a Voyage to Hudson s Bay in North America, 

 in the Year 1730. By Mr. Christopher Middleton. N° 418, p. 76. 



This is merely a sea journal, of the winds, weather, and variations; with 

 the height of the barometer and thermometer. 



An exlraordinnry Instance of the almost instantaneous freezing of JVater. By 

 Mr. Trietva/d, Director of Mechanics to the King of Sweden, and F. R. S, S. 

 of England and Siveden. N° 418, p. 79. 



December 15, 1730, Mr. Triewald coming into the hall where his apparatus 

 is placed, the weather being very cold, he feared that the glass for showing 

 the experiment with the Cartesian devils, or those glass figures in water, which 

 by the pressure of the air on the surface of the water, are made to change 

 their places, and sink to the bottom of the glass, would be in danger, if the 

 water should freeze in them ; he took it down from the shelf, and found the 

 water in a fluid state; but before he could empty the glass, as some friends that 

 were present had not seen that experiment, he placed his hand on the bladder 

 tied on the top of this cylindrical glass, which was of a pretty large size, 16 

 inches high, and 3-1- inches diameter, containing 3 glass figures: in that very 

 instant, and in the space of a second of time, he found all the water changed 

 into ice; when in that time 2 of the figures had reached very near the bottom, 

 but the third, as well as they, fixed in the middle of the glass, surrounded 

 with ice, as transparent as the water itself before it congealed. This is the 

 matter of fact; but the reason why the whole body of water, in such a short 

 space of time, should turn into ice, is, in his opinion, not easily to be ac- 

 counted for. 



An Account of Tulips, and other Bulbous Plants, flowering much sooner, when 

 their Bulbs are placed on Bottles filled with Water, than when planted in the 

 Ground. By the same. N" 4 1 8, p. 80. 



In September 1730, Mr. Triewald placed some bulbs of tulips, and other 

 flowers, in water in glasses, at the same time putting into each glass two 

 grains of saltpetre. These glasses he kept in his study, sometimes on a 

 shelf, at other times before the window. In a fortnight's time they began 

 to strike new roots; the latter end of November they put forth leaves; and 

 in January they all flowered ; as well as if they had been on a garden- 

 bed; whereas in gardens we seldom see, in this country, tulips before the 



