386. The Sand-Blast

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Among the many remarkable anticipations contained in T. Young's Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1807) is that in which he explains the effect of what is now commonly known as the sand-blast. On p. 144 he writes:—“There is, however, a limit beyond which the velocity of a body striking another cannot be increased without overcoming its resilience, and breaking it, however small the bulk of the first body may be, and this limit depends on the inertia of the parts of the second body, which must not be disregarded when they are impelled with a considerable velocity. For it is demonstrable that there is a certain velocity, dependent on the nature of a substance, with which the effect of any impulse or pressure is transmitted through it; a certain portion of time, which is shorter accordingly as the body is more elastic, being required for the propagation of the force through any part of it; and if the actual velocity of any impulse be in a greater proportion to this velocity than the extensi

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