Om Materialprøvningens Udvikling i Norden
Og om Statsprøveanstaltens Virksomhed

 109 »forent resitentiæ, non omnino expectation! tuæ respondisse ...«, which means: »What you write that the beams formed by you according »to the prescriptions of Galileo after a parabola in height dont »answer to your expectations about their being all over of the »same power of resistance . . .« Blondel continues saying that to begin with he wondered very much at this but that he had now found out that Galileo was wrong. Page 486 he writes: »Atque ex istis omnibus patel ratio cur nimiam quam in Gali- »læum habebas fiduciam experimenta tua deluserunt«, which »means: »From all this it appears why your experiments have dis- »appointed your too great confidence in Galileo«. This is as far as known the first place in any literature where there is spoken about experiments on testing of materials. Page 493 Blondel writes: »Etiam atque etiam te rogo ad me quam primum rescribe »quid sentias factis præsertim, ea qua soles sedulitate atque so- »lertia experimentis«. Here Blondel writes again about P. W.’s experiments, the meaning being: »Again and again I beg you to write as soon as possible to »me, what you think and especially when you with your usual »diligence and aptness have made experiments«. The question is now: Is P. W. the celebrated c o m m ander VT ürtz ? The name of Würtz is not mentioned as we see; but Prof. Fridericia takes it for granted that it is he who is meant, for in the introduction to the letter Blondel says that he has not been able to answer P. VT.’s communication as W.’s master has flown from the Sarmates (i. e. the Poles) to the Cimbrians1) which must be an allusion to Karl Gustavs, the king of Sweden’s march from Poland to Denmark in July 1657, Wiiitz being in Swedish service during this campaign. The second part of Blondel’s »fourth Problem« which is in Nam a quo tempore a Sarma tis ad Cimbros evolavit Heros vester . . .