Set a lighted candle on the plate, and cover it with a tall receiver. The candle will continue to burn while the air remains, but when exhausted, will go out, and the smoke from the wick, instead of rising, will descend in dense clouds towards the bottom of the glass, because the air which would have supported it has been withdrawn.
THE SOUNDLESS BELL.
Set a bell on the pump-plate, having a contrivance so as to ring it at pleasure, and cover it with a receiver; then make the clapper sound against the bell, and it will be heard to sound very well; now exhaust the receiver of air, and then when the clapper strikes against the sides of the bell the sound can be scarcely heard.
THE FLOATING FISH.
If a glass vessel containing water, in which a couple of fish are put, be placed under the receiver, upon exhausting the air the fish will be unable to keep at the bottom of the glass owing to the expansion of the air within their bodies, contained in the air bladder. They will consequently rise and float, belly upwards, upon the surface of the water.
THE DIVING BELL.
The diving bell is a pneumatic engine, by means of which persons can descend to great depths in the sea, and recover from it valuable portions of wrecks and other things. Its principle may be well illustrated by the following experiment. Take a glass tumbler, and plunge it into the water with the mouth downwards, and it will be found that the water will not rise much more than half way in the tumbler. This may be made very evident if a piece of cork be suffered to float inside the glass on the surface of the water. The air within the tumbler does not entirely exclude the water, because air is elastic, and consequently compressible, and hence the air in the tumbler is what is called condensed. The diving bell is formed upon the above principle; but instead of being glass it is a wooden or metal vessel, of very large dimensions, so as to hold three or four persons, who are supplied with air from above by means of powerful pumps, whilst the excess of air escapes at the bottom of the bell.
EXPERIMENTS.
1. Place a cylinder of strong glass, open at both ends, on the plate of the air-pump, and put your hand on the other end, and you will of course be able to remove it at pleasure. Now exhaust the air from the interior of the cylinder, and at each stroke of the pump you will feel your hand pressed tighter and tighter on the cylinder, until you will not be able to remove it: as soon as the air is again admitted to the interior of the cylinder, the pressure within will be restored, and the hand again be at liberty.
2. Tie a piece of moistened bladder very firmly over one end of a similar glass cylinder, and place the open end on the plate of the pump. As soon as you begin to exhaust the air from the interior, the bladder, which was previously quite horizontal, will begin to bulge inwards, the concavity increasing as the exhaustion proceeds, until the bladder, no longer able to bear the weight of the superincumbent air, breaks with a loud report.