Arthur Mason Worthington

“ If the spark be bright, the impression is left on the eye long enough for the attention to be directed to it, and for a clear idea to be formed of what has been seen.
The writer of this article has recently applied this method to watching the changes of form in drops of various liquids falling vertically on a horizontal plate. As usually seen, a drop of water falling
from a height of ten or twelve inches on a smooth solid substance, such as glass or wood, seems to make an indiscriminate splash. The whole splash takes place so quickly that the eye cannot follow the changes of form ”

“ AMONG the many ways in which electricity is called in to give assistance in various physical investigations, one of the most elegant and interesting is the application of the electric spark to render momentarily visible a body that is rapidly moving or changing its form. ”

“ A second drop must be let fall in the same way, and be illumined by the spark not at the first moment of contact, but a shade later, say 1100 second later, when the drop will have spread itself out slightly on the plate; and similarly we must illuminate a third drop a shade later than the second, and so on. The observer can, after a little practice, draw from memory on each occasion the drop in the form in which he has seen it. ”