grammes. But it is very easy to see that, while the small piston falls one metre, the large one will only rise one centimetre. For the quantity of water under the pistons being always the same, if this be pushed down one metre in the narrow cylinder, it will only rise one centimetre in the wide one.
Let us now consider what we gain by this machine. The power of ten kilogrammes applied to the smaller piston is made to fall through one metre, and this represents the amount of energy which we have expended upon our machine, while, as a return, we obtain 1000 kilogrammes raised through one single centimetre. Here, then, as in the case of the pulleys, the return of energy is precisely the same as the expenditure, and, provided we ignore friction, we neither gain nor lose anything by the machine. All that we do is to transmute the energy into a more convenient form—what we gain in power we lose in space; but we are willing to sacrifice space or quickness of motion in order to obtain the tremendous pressure or force which we get by means of the hydrostatic press.
Principle of Virtual Velocities.
44. These illustrations will have prepared our readers to perceive the true function of a machine. This was first clearly defined by Galileo, who saw that in any machine, no matter of what kind, if we raise a large weight by means of a small one, it will be found that the small weight, multiplied into the space through which it
