the mass of the whole earth is compared with that of a globe of water of the same size, and, the size being known, is expressible in pounds or tons.
By a process of this sort Newton had in fact, with extraordinary insight, estimated that the density of the earth was between five and six times as great as that of water.[1]
It was, however, clearly desirable to solve the problem in a less conjectural manner, by a direct comparison of the gravitational attraction exerted by the earth with that exerted by a known mass—a method that would at the same time afford a valuable test of Newton's theory of the gravitating properties of portions of the earth, as distinguished from the whole earth. In their Peruvian expedition (§ 221), Bouguer and La Condamine had noticed certain small deflections of the plumb-line, which indicated an attraction by Chimborazo, near which they were working; but the observations were too uncertain to be depended on. Maskelyne selected for his purpose Schehallien in Perthshire, a narrow ridge running east and west. The direction of the plumb-line was observed (1774) on each side of the ridge, and a change in direction amounting to about 12" was found to be caused by the attraction of the mountain. As the direction of the plumb-line depends on the attraction of the earth as a whole and on that of the mountain, this deflection at once led to a comparison of the two attractions. Hence an intricate calculation performed by Charles Hutton ( 1737–1823) led to a comparison of the average densities of the earth and mountain, and hence to the final conclusion (published in 1778) that the earth's density was about 412 times that of water. As Hutton's estimate of the density of the mountain was avowedly almost conjectural, this result was of course correspondingly uncertain.
A few years later John Michell (1724–1793) suggested, and the famous chemist and electrician Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) carried out (1798), an experiment in which the mountain was replaced by a pair of heavy balls, and their attraction on another body was compared with that of the earth, the result being that the density of the earth was found to be about 512 times that of water.
- ↑ Principia, Book III., proposition 10.
