NEW METHOD OF COHESION OF WATER AND 
ADHESION OF MERCURY APPARATUS. 
BY EDWIN MORRISON, PENN COLLEGE. 
The difficulty of manipulating the ordinary apparatus in 
finding the cohesion of water and other liquids has thrown 
this beautiful and instructive laboratory experiment out 
of the reach of most students of Physics. Professor Nich- 
ols of Cornell University, says of this experiment: “ The 
difficulties. of controlling the conditions are so great, that 
the determination is one not to be recommended to the 
beginner.” The first difficulty has been to accurately 
adjust the glass plate used in the experiment so that it 
will be parallel to the surface of the liquid to be tested; 
next, on account of the tension applied in separating the 
portion of the liquid tested the cords stretch, so that it is 
no longer parallel to the surface of the liquid, and one 
edge of the disk will come off from the water too soon, 
thus splitting the particles of the water a little at a time, 
instead of separating the water area equal to the cross 
section of the disk all at once. 
The ordinary way of attaching the disk to one arm of a 
scale beam by means of pieces of cork glued to the glass, 
and guy cords is shown in fig. 1 . The difficulties men- 
tioned above can be entirely overcome, and the experi- 
ment rendered suitable for even elementary laboratory 
work by suspending the glass disk in the following way. 
Upon the lathe turn out a wooden cone which is about 
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