Desire a third person to double the number of the order in which the wearer of the ring stands, and add 5 to that number, then multiply that sum by 5, and to the product add 10. Let him then add 1 to the last number, if the ring be on the right hand, and 2 if on the left, and multiply the whole by 10: to this product he must add the number of the finger, beginning with the thumb, and multiply the whole again by 10. Desire him then to add the number of the joint; and lastly, to increase the whole by 35.
This being done, he is to declare the amount of the whole, from which you are to subtract 3535; and the remainder will consist of four figures, the first of which will give the place in which the person stands, the second the hand, 1 denoting the right, and 2 the left hand, the third number the finger, and the fourth the joint.
Example.
Suppose the person stands the second in order, and has put the ring on the second joint of the little finger of the left hand:
| Double the order is | 4 | |
| Add | 5 | |
| 9 | ||
| Multiply by | 5 | |
| 45 | ||
| Add | 10 | |
| 55 | ||
| Number for left hand | 2 | |
| 57 | ||
| Multiply by | 10 | |
| 570 | ||
| Number of finger | 5 | |
| 575 | ||
| Multiply by | 10 | |
| 5750 | ||
| Number of joint | 2 | |
| 5752 | ||
| Add | 35 | |
| 5787 | ||
| Subtract | 3535 | |
| 2252 | ||
Hence it will appear that the first 2 denotes the second person in order, the second 2 the left hand, 5 the little finger, and 2 the second joint.
To make a Deaf Man hear the Sound of a Musical Instrument.
It must be a stringed instrument, with a neck of some length, as a lute, a guitar, or the like; and before you begin to play, you must by signs direct the deaf man to take hold with his teeth of the end of the neck of the instrument; for then, if one strikes the strings with the bow one after another, the sound will enter the deaf man’s mouth, and be conveyed to the organ of hearing through a hole in the palate, and thus the deaf man will hear with a great deal of pleasure the sound of the instrument, as has been several times experienced; nay, those who are not deaf may make the experiment upon themselves, by stopping their ears so as not to hear the instrument, and then holding the end of the instrument in their teeth, while another touches the strings.
When two Vessels or Chests are like one another, and of equal Weight, being filled with different Metals, to distinguish the one from the other.
This is easily resolved, if we consider that two pieces of different metals, of equal weight in air, do not weigh equally in water, because that of the greatest specific gravity takes up a lesser space in water; it being a certain truth, that any metal weighs less in water than in air, by reason of the water, the room of which it fills; for example, if the water weighs a pound, the metal will weigh in that water a pound less than in the air: this gravitation diminishes more or less, according as the specific gravity of the metal is greater than that of the water.