Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 95, August 23, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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VOL. IV.—No. 95.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23. 1851.
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If the propounders of this theory had from the first explained that they do not claim, for the plane of oscillation , an exemption from the general rotation of the earth, but only the difference of rotation due to the excess of velocity with which one extremity of the line of oscillation may be affected more than the other, it would have saved a world of fruitless conjecture and misunderstanding.
For myself I can say that it is only recently I have become satisfied that this is the real extent of the claim; and I confess that had I been aware of it sooner, I should have regarded the theory with greater respect than I have hitherto been disposed to do. Perhaps this avowal may render more acceptable the present note, in which I shall endeavour to make plain to others that which so long remained obscure to myself.
It is well known that the more we advance from the poles of the earth towards the equator, so much greater becomes the velocity with which the surface of the earth revolves—just as any spot near the circumference of a revolving wheel travels farther in a given time, and consequently swifter, than a spot near the centre of the same wheel: hence, London being nearer to the equator than Edinburgh, the former must rotate with greater velocity than the latter. Now if we imagine a pendulum suspended from such an altitude, and in such a position, that one extremity of its line of oscillation shall be supposed to reach to London and the other to Edinburgh; and if we imagine the ball of such pendulum to be drawn towards, and retained over London, it is clear that, so long as it remains in that situation, it will share the velocity of London, and rotate with it. But if it be set at liberty it will immediately begin to oscillate between London and Edinburgh, retaining, it is asserted , the velocity of the former place. Therefore during its first excursion towards Edinburgh, it will be impressed with a velocity greater than that of the several points of the earth over which it has to traverse; so that when it arrives at Edinburgh it will be in advance of the rotation of that place; and consequently its actual line of oscillation, instead of falling directly upon Edinburgh, will diverge, and fall somewhere to the east of it.