The following table gives the specific gravities of many metals.
In 1815 he published anonymously in the Annals of Philosophy a paper "On the relation between the specific gravities of bodies in their gaseous state and the weights of their atoms," in which he calculated that the atomic weights of a number of the elements are multiples of that of hydrogen; and in a second paper published in the same periodical the following year he suggested that the rrpcbrn iiXrl of the ancients is realized in hydrogen, from which the other elements are formed by some process of condensation or grouping.
There are also other balls for showing the specific gravities quite to common water, which make the instrument perfect in its kind."
Adie's sliding hydrometer is of the ordinary form, but can be adjusted for liquids of widely differing specific gravities by drawing out a sliding tube, thus changing the volume of the hydrometer while its weight remains constant.
He also replaced the letters on the stem by the corresponding specific gravities referred to water as unity.