TSfZ Sir Benjamin Thompson’s Experiments on 
N. B. The weight made ufe of in thefe experiments was that 
of Cologne, the parts or leaf}; divifions being = part of 
a mark, confequently 1000 of thefe parts make about 52 1 
grains Troy. 
I did not add the filver wire to the bodies above mentioned 
from any idea that that fubftance could poffibly imbibe moiftu re 
from the atmofphere ; but I was willing to fee whether a 
metal, placed in air faturated with water, is not capable of 
receiving a fmall addition of weight from the moifture attracted 
by it, and attached to its furface ; from the refult of the 
experiment, however, it ffiould feem that no fuch attraction 
fubfifts between the metal I made ufe of, and the watery vapour 
diffolved in air. 
I was totally miftaken in my conjectures relative totherefults 
of the experiments with the other fubftances. As linen is 
known to attract water with fo much avidity ; and as, on the 
contrary, woo], hair, feathers, and other like animal fubftances, 
are made wet with fo much difficulty, I had little doubt but that 
linen would be found to attract moifture from the atmofphere 
with much greater force than any of thofe fubftances ; and 
that, under fimilar circumftances, it would be found to contain 
much more water : and I was much confirmed in this opinion 
upon recollecting the great difference in the apparent dampnefs 
of linen and of woollen clothes, when they are both expofed to 
the fame atmofphere. But thefe experiments have convinced 
me, that all my fpeculations were founded upon erroneous 
principles. 
It ffiould feem, that thofe bodies which are the molt eafily 
wet, or which receive water, in its unelaftic form, with the 
greateft eafe, are not thofe which in all cafes attract the watery 
vapour difiolved in the air with the greateft force. 
Perhaps 
