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Aeriform substances, of which the air that we breathe is one, though invisible, are real substances, as appears by their excluding other substances.

That the air has weight appears by actually weighing a vessel before and after it is exhausted of air by means of an air-pump (an instrument contrived for that purpose) by its bursting a bladder, and various other experiments.

Air, being a fluid, presses in all directions, as in the experiment of the fountain in vacuo, and others.

The weight of the air is the cause of the suspension of mercury in a barometer, and of the action of pumps. The weight of atmospherical air is to that of water in the proportion of about 1 to 800, so as to press with the weight of about fourteen pounds on every square inch of surface.

Air, being an elastic fluid, is capable of occupying more or less space according to the pressure which it sustains, as appears by a bladder partially filled with air being expanded when the air is drawn from a receiver in which it is put, by means of the air-pump, and compressed in the condensing engine, an instrument the reverse of the air-pump.

Air is necessary to the conveyance of sound, to the existence of flame, and to animal life.