BUBBLE, in philosophy, small drops or vesicles of any fluid filled with air, and either formed on its surface, by an addi tion of more of the fluid, as in raining, &c. or in its substance, by an intestine motion of its component particles.
Bubbles are dilatable or compressible, i. e. they take up more or less room, as the included air is more or less heated, or more or less pressed from without, and are round, because the included aura acts equally from within, all round ; their coat is formed of minute particles of the fluid, retained either by the velocity of the air, or by the brisk attraction between those minute parts and the air.
The little bubbles rising up from fluids, or hanging on their surface, form the white scum at top, and these same bub bles form the steam or vapour flying from liquors in boiling.
Runaxx, in commerce, a cant term, given to a kind of projects for raising of money on imaginary grounds, much prac tised in France and England, in the years 1719, 1720, and 1721.
The pretence of those schemes was, the raising a capital for retrieving, setting on foot, or carrying on some promising and useful branch of trade, manufacture, machinery, or the like : to this end pro posals were made out, sheaving the advan tages to be derived from the undertaking, and inviting persons to be engaged in it. The sum necessary to manage the affair, together with the profits expected from it, were divided into shares or subscrip tions, to be purchased by any disposed to adventure therein.
Bubbles, by which the public have been tricked, are of two kinds, viz. 1. Those which we may properly enough term trad ing bubbles ; and, 2. Stock or fund-bub bles. The former have been of various kinds ; and the latter at different times ; the most remarkable one in this country was that in 1720.