V. Impact with a liquid surface, studied by the aid of instantaneous photography

In three papers, published in the ‘Proceedings' of the Society, in 1877 and 1882, I had the honour to communicate to the Society the results of experiments on various classes of impact with a liquid surface which may all be conveniently referred to as “splashes.” The splashes studied were those produced (i.) by a liquid sphere falling on a horizontal solid plate, (ii.) by a liquid sphere falling into a liquid, (iii.) by a solid sphere falling into a liquid. The phenomena were examined by means of an electric flash of very short duration, which by a suitable mechanism could be so timed as to illuminate the splash at any stage which it was desired to observe, within three or four thousandths of a second. After a sufficient number of repetitions to secure accuracy, a drawing was made of the configuration thus revealed, and when one stage had been sufficiently studied, the observer passed on to a later stage. Since, however, each drawing was made from a separate, though similar splash, it was not possible to obtain accurate information about those details which were at once too minute to be seized in such single, momentary glimpses, and too unstable to be capable of exact reproduction in another splash.