XXVIII. On the forms assumed by drops of liquids falling vertically on a horizontal plate

Abstract

My attention was first drawn to the subject of this paper last spring, by Mr. H. F. Newall, of the Rugby School Natural-History Society, who showed me the mark made by drops of water and mercury falling on a smoked glass plate, the lampblack being swept away in concentric circles and radial striæ. The patterns thus left were generally symmetrical and beautiful, and varied with the height of fall of the drop. I have since sought to investigate the cause of these appearances in Prof. Helmholtz’s laboratory in Berlin.