From Eddie van Dijk
Govert Schilling says of the way in which a pendulum’s plane of swing appears to rotate with respect to a laboratory on Earth: “This effect was first demonstrated by French physicist Léon Foucault in 1851” (27 November 2004, p 28).
In E. Grimsehl’s A Textbook of Physics there is a footnote in the volume on mechanics (p 168, 1947 edition) that says: “Foucault was unaware that the pendulum experiment had been previously performed with satisfactory results by V. Viviani in 1661 at Florence, and by Bartolini in 1833 at Rimini.” I have tried to locate Viviani’s work without success. I would appreciate a reference to his work, so that I might see the original.
Stellenbosch, South Africa
