284 Dr. Charles Hutton on 
number 5.48, as deduced from Mr. Cavendish’s experiment. 
Hence it appears, that our result cannot be made to agree 
with that of Mr. Cavendish, unless our 11.6 seconds be 
diminished to about 10.5 or 10.4, on the supposition of an 
error of more than a whole second in excess, in the number 
11.6 seconds ; which cannot be admitted, without doing great 
violence to the observations. 
Having thus failed in our endeavour to discover any error, 
or even suspicion of error, in the conduct or result of the 
Schehallien experiment, let us now turn our attention to the 
other experiment, as performed by Mr. Cavendish. And 
here I must at once disclaim all expectation of meeting any 
failing with regard to the operator himself, whom I w'ell 
knew to be a most excellent philosopher and mathematician, 
as well as a patient, accurate, and acute experimenter. The 
failure then, if any, must be expected from the nature of the 
machine, and of the calculations. 
From the perusal of Mr. Cavendish’s account of the ma- 
chine he employed (in the Philosophical Transactions of 1778, 
or vol. xviii. of my edition), and the nature of the arith- 
metical calculations, they at once appear to be formidable and 
discouraging in the highest degree. The machine is small, 
comparatively with those in the former, or mountain experi- 
ment. It is not easily to be understood, without actually 
seeing it, though assisted with the view of the drawing of 
the whole, on account of the intricacy and perplexity of the 
construction. In the first place, at each end of a light 
wooden rod, of near two yards in length, is attached a small 
leaden ball of two inches diameter ; the middle of the rod 
being fixed to and suspended by a long and very slender 
