^pprattts far ^kerliiiig Splasljfs. 
By a. M. WORTHINGTON. 
T he author exhibited and explained the apparatus by means 
of which he has followed the very rapid changes of form 
which constitute a splash, whether of a liquid drop falling on a 
solid plate or of a liquid or solid sphere impinging on a liquid 
surface. The principle of the method consists in allowing the 
drop to fall in comparative darkness and then illuminating it by 
an electric flash at any stage of the splash which it is desired to 
observe. The same splash can always be reproduced by letting 
fall equal drops from the same height ; and, by observing 
each at a stage slightly later — a few thousands of a second later 
— than the last, the gradual changes can be followed. 
The apparatus by which the illumination was produced and 
timed is figured on plate 1. It may be premised that the flash 
used for illumination is that produced by breaking at the surface 
of mercury a current which has passed through a primary 
induction coil, and that the action of the apparatus consists in 
letting fall simultaneously with the drop (or solid sphere) whose 
splash is to be observed, a small ivory sphere which by striking 
a lever sets going the mechanical action which results in the 
flash, the timing of the flash being effected by the adjustment of 
the height of this lever. 
A block which can be fixed at any height on the upright F 
carries two light wooden horizontal levers AA', BB' of about the 
