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Rivers are consist of water running down an inclined plane by 
the force of gravity.   Were it not for the resistance the water
meets with in the bed of the river the as well as at the bottom as at 
the sides the water would run down infinitely faster.
Bodies floating in this running water descend are acted upon 
also by the force of gravity.   They have a tendency to move with 
as great a velocity as that which the water itself would have 
had were it not for the   met with  there no resistance against the bed of the 
river.   These floating bodies do not touch the bed of the 
river, their motion is not impeded till we come to consider 
the resistance they meet with in the water itself.   But they 
meet with none till their motion excedes that of the water.
 Their motion then must excede that of the water, and that 
the more so the less they are affected by that resistance: 
hence the better their shape is adapted to divide the water, 
and the greater proportion their gravity has to their surface
of resistance the quicker they will be impelled by their 
gravity through the medium which tends to retard their 
motion.   They would acquire, were it not for their resistance  they meet with from  or the 
water, precisely that degree of velocity which the water itself would acquire
were it not for the resistance  it meets with from  against the land. 
 1783 } S.B. Petersburgh
 Oct. } to 
 15/ } J.B. - Linc. Inn
 26 } Velocity of floating 
 bodies in Rivers 
 Sh. II 
 (No 1)
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 Identifier: | JB/539/442/002"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539.  | 
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 1783-10-19  | 
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 539  | 
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 442  | 
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 002  | 
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 Correspondence  | 
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 Samuel Bentham  | 
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