6        ON THE EFFECT OF THE INTERNAL FRICTION  OF  FLUIDS
pendulum oscillating within a concentric spherical envelope, and have pointed out the source of an error into which Poisson had fallen, in concluding that such an envelope would have no effect. When the radius of the envelope becomes infinite, the solution agrees with that which Poisson had obtained for the case of an unlimited mass of fluid. I have also investigated the increase of resistance due to the confinement of the fluid by a distant rigid plane. The same paper contains likewise the calculation of the resistance to a long cylinder oscillating in a mass of fluid either unlimited, or confined by a cylindrical envelope, having the same axis as the cylinder in its position of equilibrium. In the case of an unconfined mass of fluid, it appeared that the effect of inertia was the same as if a mass equal to that of the fluid displaced were distributed along the axis of the cylinder, so that n = 2 in the case of a pendulum consisting of a long cylindrical rod. This nearly agrees with Baily's result for the long 1J inch tube ; but, on comparing it with the results obtained with the cylindrical rods, we observe the same sort of discrepancy between theory and observation as was noticed in the case of spheres. The discrepancy is, Jiowever, far more striking in the present case, as might naturally have been expected, after what had been observed with spheres, on account of the far smaller diameter of the solids employed.
A few years ago Professor Thomson communicated to me a very beautiful and powerful method which he had applied to the theory of electricity, which depended on the consideration of what he called electrical images. The same method, I found, applied, with a certain modification, to some interesting problems relating to ball pendulums. It enabled me to calculate the resistance to a sphere, oscillating in presence of a fixed sphere, or within a spherical envelope, or the resistance to a pair of spheres either in contact, or connected by a narrow rod, the direction of oscillation being, in all these cases, that of the line joining the centres of the spheres. The effect of a rigid plane perpendicular to the direction of motion is of course included as a particular case. The method even applies, as Professor Thomson pointed out to me, to the uncouth solid bounded by the exterior segments of two intersecting spheres, provided the exterior angle of intersection be a submultiple of two "right angles. A set of corresponding problems, in which the spheres are replaced by long cylinders, may be solved in a similar manner. These results were mentioned at the meeting of the British Asso-