The Pulfrich Effect: Galileo's Spurt Camera

Comments on Measuring Brief Intervals of Time: Galileo (1638)

Note: Copyright on the original work and the translation herein has expired. The text passages below are in public domain.

Text of Passage on Translator's page 179 (original p. [213]):

For the measurement of time, we employed a large vessel of water placed in an elevated position; to the bottom of this vessel was soldered a pipe of small diameter giving a thin jet of water, which we collected in a small glass during the time of each descent, whether for the whole length of the channel or for a part of its length; the water thus collected was weighed, after each descent, on a very accurate balance; the differences and ratios of these weights gave us the differences and ratios of the times, and this with such accuracy that although the operation was repeated many, many times, there was no appreciable discrepancy in the results.

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