Archimedes Texts

256
they would perswade us) bestirs her self
so mightily to keep it from being de
serted.

I hope I shall not need to reminde Your
Lordship, that I have all this while been
speaking of a Vacuum, not in the strict
and Philosophical sense, but in that more
obvious and familiar one that has been
formerly declar'd.

And therefore I shall now proceed to
observe in the last place, that our 33d Ex
periment affords us a notable proof of the
unheeded strength of that pressure which
is sustain'd by the Corpuscles of what we
call the free Air, and presume to be un
compress'd. For, as fluid and yielding a
Body as it is, our Experiment teaches us,
That ev'n in our Climate, and without
any other compression then what is (at
least here below) Natural, or (to speak
more properly) ordinary to it, it bears so
strongly upon the Bodies whereunto it is
contiguous, that a Cylinder of this free
Air, not exceeding three Inches in Dia
meter is able to raise and carry up a
weight, amounting to between sixteen
and seventeen hundred Ounces. I said,