In repeating some of the experiments of Professor Plateau, described in seven interesting memoirs published in “The Transactions of the Belgian Academy,” and in prosecuting his own experiments on the colours of the soap-bubble, the author of this paper observed several new phenomena which may have escaped the notice of the Belgian philosopher.Professor Plateau has described and drawn the beautiful systems of soap-films, obtained by lifting from a soap solution a cube made of wires about one and a half inch long. This system is a polyhedron, composed of twelve similar films stretching from the wires, and united to a plane quadrangular film in the centre. When this vertical film was blown upon, M. Von Rees observed that it was reduced to a line, and then reproduced in a horizontal position, from which it could be blown again into a vertical position.
Figures of equilibrium of an inhomogeneous self-gravitating fluid
