POISEUILLE, (JEAN LÉONARD MARIE). - ESTABLISHING "POISEUILLE'S LAW" OF THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS IN TUBES.

Recherches experimentale sur les mouvement des liquides dans les tubes de très petits diamètres. (+ 2 Suites, all).

Paris, Bachelier, 1840-41. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome XI, No 24 a. 26, Tome XII, No 2. (3 entire issues offered). Pp. 933-990, pp. 1021-1067 a. pp. 28-124. Poiseuille's paper: pp. 961-967, 1041-1048 a. pp. 112-115.

First printing of this importent paper in physiology and hydrodynamics, establishing the law which was later named after him. "Together with Hagen, Poiseuille established the dependence of the flow on the driving pressure, the diameter and the length of the tube and on the viscosity of the fluid. This relation, which is named after him, is fundamental in all hydrodynamic considerations of the circulatory system,"(Gedeon "Science and Technology in Medicine", p. 188).

"Poiseuille’s interest in blood circulation led him to experiment on the flow and outflow of distilled water in capillary tubes with diameters ranging from 0.03 mm. to 0.14 mm. Such experiments had been carried out before, especially by Franz Joseph von Gerstner and Pierre-Simon Girard; but since they used tubes with larger diameters, their experiments were disturbed by turbulence. In his 1840 paper, "Recherches expérimentales sur le movement des liquides dans les tubes de très-petits diamètres," Poiseuille announced the law Q = k(D4p/L), where Q is the volume discharged in unit time, k is a constant, p is the pressure difference in mm. of mercury at the two ends of the tube, D is the diameter, and L is the length. He also measured the variation of Q with the temperature T (from 0° C. to 45° C.) and found Q = 1836.724 × (1 + 0.0336793T + 0.0002209936T2)(D4p/L), which agrees within 0.5 percent with modern values. Poiseuille also found that the law was not valid if the length L (as a function of the diameter) was below a certain limit."(DSB).

Garrison & Morton: 768

Order-nr.: 49455