Unpublished paper, 'On the mechanical possibility of the descent of glaciers by their weight only' by Henry Moseley

Description

Moseley introduces his paper by writing that 'all the parts of a glacier do not descend with a common motion; it moves faster at its surface than deeper down, and at the centre of its surface than at its edges. It does not only come down bodily, but with different motions of its different parts; so that if a transverse section were made through it, the ice would be found to be moving differently at every point of that section. This fact, which appears first to have been made known by M Rendu Bishop of Annecy, has since been confirmed by the measurements of Agassiz, Forbes, and Tyndall. There is a constant displacement of the particles of the ice over one another, and alongside one another, to which is opposed that force of resistance which is known in mechanics as shearing force.'

Marked on front as 'Archives Mar 18 1869'. Annotations in coloured pencil and ink throughout. Includes one page of geometrical figures.

Subject: Mathematics / Physics

Received 21 October 1868. Read 7 January 1869.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 17 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the mechanical possibility of the descent of glaciers, by their weight only'.

Reference number

AP/51/8

Earliest possible date

23 October 1868

Physical description

Ink and coloured pencil on paper

Page extent

34 pages

Format

Drawing
Manuscript