Heat, moisture and the science of waters
The sea as the world's lowest point, instruments to weigh air and water, and vessels named siphon, jug and spring
A densely worked sheet of water science. The writer argues that heat, not the moon, drives moisture — 'the moon cannot move the sea, for [otherwise] it would move the lakes' — that hot water rises through the fire mixed within it, and that water always seeks the lowest place, so that 'lowness makes itself the magnet of water' and the sea is the lowest part of the world. He lists instruments to weigh air and to weigh water, and methods to assay a water's quality by taste, vapour, riverbed and weight, and sketches a bladder, a problem on how far a jet is thrown from a vessel kept full, and vessels labelled siphon (cicognola), jug (zaina) and spring (fonte).
On this page
Heat moves moisture; the moon and the sea
Heat causes the movement of the moist and cold halts it, as the cold region halts the clouds. The moon cannot move the sea, for otherwise it would move the lakes. Hot water rises through the element of fire within it, but a wet cloth held to a flame yields its moisture to the stronger fire.
The sea as the lowest part of the world
Where there is vital heat there is movement of humours. All rivers run to the seas and a river never stops save in the sea; therefore the sea is the lowest part of the world. Water does not move from place to place unless drawn by a lower site, so lowness is the magnet of water.
How far a jet of water is thrown
For the lettered vessel m c d — n a b — e f: if vessel a b, kept always full by the tap n, pours one brenta per hour from its spout and throws the water one braccio to f, how far will it throw per hour when the vessel is filled up to c d from the spout m?
Judging the goodness of waters
Waters may be known by the vapours of the hills and by the grasses, rushes and soil; by the riverbeds and the flow; by whether distilled from clouds, spring or cistern; and by the conduits or veins they pass through. They may be tested with raw buried vessels, heated cloths and by weighing.
Instruments that weigh air and water
A memorandum lists an instrument that weighs air, one that weighs water, a way to assay water's quality by weight with two wet cloths, and the question of the ball's bounces — how much less the second bounce is than the first.
Named water vessels: siphon, jug and spring
Small drawings are captioned with the vessels they represent — a siphon (cicognola), a jug (zaina) and a spring (fonte) — beside notes on distilling through felt and on a receptacle that draws up a pipe's humour when heated.
