Experiment replication - De Beaumont 1676 (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, 6/6/2022)

Replication in laboratory of an experiment reported by John de Beaumont, “Two letters... concerning rock-plants and their growth,” Philosophical Transactions 11: 724–742 (1676):

“Those who endeavour to explicate those figurations mechanically, seem to have a harder task; for, if they say with Hippocrates, Spiritu distenta omnia progeneris affinitate distant; as though, when the mineral spirit had extended the matter, it fell into those figures upon a spontaneous recess according to its proper weight, which gives order and measure to things; as he mechanically shews by a bladder, into which if earth, sand, and filings of lead be put, and water be added to them, and we give them motion by blowing in the bladder through a reed, first they are mixt together with the water, but in a while continuing in a gentle motion they separate themselves and retire each to its like, the lead to the lead &c.” (p. 740)

Date: June 6, 2022

Place: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (MD), US

Project and Funding Source: Horizon 2020 – MGA MSCA-IF – Grant agreement No. 101019781 – SOUNDEPTH

Work Package: 4