A new departure in science : being a second edition of a new chapter in the story of nature.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new departure in science : being a second edition of a new chapter in the story of nature. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    could not help but think that this was likely to prove a much more important factor in the production of the tides than any tidal wave in the water. Under these circumstances, intending to see what the atmospheric pressure really was at high water and at low water afloat and ashore, I took a very sensitive aneroid and paid more than one visit to the end of the pier at high water and at low water. I saw that the atmospheric pressure must increase if the land or water went down, and decrease in the contrary case. I saw that I should have no difficulty in detecting this movement, for the tidal rise and fall here was about 20 feet, and the aneroid I had with me was sufficiently delicate to mark plainly a movement of 5 feet up and down, one degree, which might easily have been sub-divided into five or ten, corresponding to ten feet of movement up and down. On the first day I found that the water went up at high water and down at low water, but that, instead of going down and up to the extent of 20 feet, the movement amounted to no more than 6 feet. On the second day, still only attending to the water, I found that there was no perceptible difference in the level of the water at high water and at low water. On the third day, turning from the water to the land, I found, to my great delight, that the land went down at high water and up at low water, and that this movement amounted fully to 9 feet. The aneroid was perfectly true, and there could be no doubt as to the fact. And here, unfortunately, the matter ended, for I was called back to town on the next day, and for a long time afterwards I had other matters to attend to which had little regard to the tides.