Wilkes-Barre Paper - The Action of Small Spheres of Solids in Ascending Currents of Fluids and in Fluids at Rest

The following discussion was suggested by an experiment of Mr. Krom, the Manufacturer of air-jigs, to illustrate the superiority of air over water as a medium of concentration. The paper is written in the interest of no system of concentration, but simply to test the experiment, and, perchance, to add something to the general fund of information on the subject. To speak of testing an experiment by a theoretical discussion, may seem a misuse of terms, but the theories concerning falling bodies and the resistance of fluids are pretty well crystallized into laws, which may properly be used to show where experiments which seem to refute them were improperly performed, and that instead of refuting they only corroborate. It is well known that a sphere of galena & inch in diameter, and a sphere of quartz 1/2 inch in diameter, are equal falling in water ; that is, these two spheres, being placed together in a column of water at rest or in motion, will practically remain together, filling or rising together, or remaining in suspension. Mr. Krom, to show that these