Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-31
WATER AS A
SCIENTIFIC GENIE
The Surprising Principle or the
Hydrostatic Paradox, and the
Great Power That 1t Enables
Man to Concentrate. Though It
Creates No New Force.


as sideways and downwards. Well,
the truth is that behind that fact
stands one of natures greatest para
dcxes, which has made many
thoughtful person rub his eyes on
first getting glimpse of it. l was
myself small boy in country
school. but already a devoted sub
feet of Caliph Haroun-al Raschid's
magic kingdom, when 1 made the
acquaintance of the great and won
derful genie named the Hydrostatic
Paradox.
1t is mingled in my memory with
Summer morning fragrance and the
songs of bobolinks coming in through
open windows from fields of new
cut hay. The genie made his first
appearance to my eyes in the pic
tured pages of "Parker's Primer of
Natural Philosophy" That, 1 think,
was the name; at any rate, l can
still see the cover on the book, which
was a rich, deep yellow that looked
as good to eat as a pumpkin pie.
And the book had a delicious smell
of its own, too; all new school books
had in those days.
The Hydrostatic Paradox genie
took me quite off my feet. 1 not
only thought him as wonderful as
were the all-powerful friends that
Aladdin summoned out of nowhere,
but he even seemed to me to make
those Arabian Nights stories almost
probable. If science had found him,
and was ready to vouch for him,
then it did not appear so Impossible
that there might really be, some
where, mechanical horses, all ready
capraisoned, which, upon the turn
ing of a peg in their necks, would
fly up into the sky and convey the
rider in a single night from China
to the centre of Africa. So, for me,
philosophy seemed to back up rom
ance.
The first amazing thing that this
genie of science had in store was
his ability to magnify power--so it
SeemeQ-WlInOuJ llinll' lOuhu put
that If I should take tube an inch
across, pour it full of water, and
connect it with a tank of water ten
feet wide. 1 would be able, by press
ing down upon the water in the tube,
with a force of only one pound, to
lift an elephant Weighing more than .
seven tons. if 1 could only manage Z
to make him stand on a platform
covering the water of the tank. Of
course, [ did not actually try the ex-
pertinent. not having either the tube, !
the tank, or the elephant handy, but !
I believed the word of science that
it could be done. I also ignored the
detail, which seemed too uninterest-
ing to pause upon in the presence
Of such a wonder that I should have
o push the water in my tube down
1900 feet in order to lift the elephant
one inch.
This unattractive detail, however,
contained the whole key to the won
der. as we shall see.
D..
Paradox presented to my dazzled /
mind were pictures of one small boy |
sleefully pushing a piston and there |
by lifting a mountain, and of the
same phenomenal youngster mis-
chievously setting to work to split
the great earth asunder by running
mis- magic tube down to a spherical
IL Of tsy- In f1na aar Of ha
globe | did not, then, stop to con-
5ider the various ifs and butts"
involved, the great fundamental
principle, with it's glorious possibili-
lies of illimitable power, being too
good a thing to spoil by mortifying
qualifications. What boy would miss |
the fun of bursting the earth, after J
1t had been promised, for take
back" like that?
But later my heated imagination !
sobered down as the real facts be- |
gan to make themselves too evil |
lent to be ignored. 1 perceived that !
this hydraulic genie could no more
manufacture power out of nothing
than 1 could.
The water simply acted as an
agent for the transference of force. |
to move among themselves, yield to
the slightest distorting force, and if |
a certain pressure is put upon any |
part of a body of water that same |
H=cssure is transmitted to all the |
other parts, and is felt equally in all |
directions, down, up and sideways |
That the pressure is felt in an up
ard direction may be easily proved |
by pushing an empty dipper bottom, /
downward into pail full of watersl
The water rises around the outside |
of the dipper and overfiows the sides |
of the pail.
1t is the force with which you push |
down the dipper that presses the |
water upward, the particles of water I
under the dipper transmitting Sthe !
pressure to all the other particles |
of water in the pail.
But even its own weight causes
water to press upward If it were
not so there would be no such thing
as floating bodies. When water is
at rest the pressure at every point
within it is equal in all directions, |
and just sufficient to balance its own
gravity a body which is, bulk for
bulk, heavier than water, sinks be-
cause its downward pressure exceeds |
the upward pressure of the water
If it has the same weight, bulk for
bulk, it will be in equilibrium when
immersed in water. The reason un-
derlying the "hydrostatic paradox
is that. since the particles of water
h