The Boy's Playbook of Science / Including the Various Manipulations and Arrangements of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus Required for the Successful Performance of Scientific Experiments in Illustration of the Elementary Branches of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy

by John Henry Pepper

f. Board cut and painted to represent the leaning-tower of Pisa. g. The centre of gravity and plummet line suspended from it. h. The hinge which attaches it to the base board. i. The string, sufficiently long to unwind and allow the plummet to hang outside the base, so that, when cut, the model falls in the direction of the arrow.

The leaning-towers of Bologna are likewise celebrated for their great inclination; so also (in England) is the hanging-tower, or, more correctly, the massive wall which has formed part of a tower at Bridgenorth, Salop; it deviates from the perpendicular, but the centre of gravity and the line of direction fall within the base, and it remains secure; indeed, so little fears are entertained of its tumbling down, that a stable has been erected beneath it.

Fig. 55.

No. 1. Two billiard-cues arranged for the experiment and fixed to a board: the ball is rolling up. No. 2. Sections showing that the centre of gravity, c, is higher at a than at b, which represents the thick end of the cues; it therefore, in effect, rolls down hill.

One of the most curious paradoxes is displayed in the ascent of a billiard-ball from the thin to the thick ends of two billiard-cues placed at an angle, as in our drawing above; here the centre of gravity is raised at starting, and the ball moves in consequence of its actually falling from the high to the low level.

Much of the stability of a body depends on the height through which the centre of gravity must be elevated before the body can be overthrown. The greater this height, the greater will be the immovability of the mass. One of the grandest examples of this fact is shown in the ancient Pyramids; and whilst gigantic palaces, with vast columns, and all the solid grandeur belonging to Egyptian architecture, have succumbed to time and lie more or less prostrate upon the earth, the Pyramids, in their simple form and solidity, remain almost as they were built, and it will be noticed, in the accompanying sketch, how difficult, if not impossible, it would be to attempt to overthrow bodily one of these great monuments of ancient times.

Fig. 56.

c. Centre of gravity, which must be raised to d before it can be overthrown.