Conversations on Chemistry Part 13

You do not take notice that the heat is imparted from one liquid to the other, through the medium of the phial itself, the external surface of which receives the heat from the water in the gla.s.s, whilst its internal surface transmits it to the liquid it contains. Now take the phial out of the hot water, and observe the effect of its cooling.

EMILY.

The currents are reversed; the external current now descends, and the internal one rises. --I guess the reason of this change:-- the phial being in contact with cold air instead of hot water, the external particles are cooled instead of being heated; they therefore descend and force up the central particles, which, being warmer, are consequently lighter.

MRS. B.

It is just so. Count Rumford hence infers that no alteration of temperature can take place in a fluid, without an internal motion of its particles, and as this motion is produced only by the comparative levity of the heated particles, heat cannot be propagated downwards.

But though I believe that Count Rumford's theory as to heat being incapable of pervading fluids is not strictly correct, yet there is, no doubt, much truth in his observation, that the communication is materially promoted by a motion of the parts; and this accounts for the cold that is found to prevail at the bottom of the lakes in Switzerland, which are fed by rivers issuing from the snowy Alps. The water of these rivers being colder, and therefore more dense than that of the lakes, subsides to the bottom, where it cannot be affected by the warmer temperature of the surface; the motion of the waves may communicate this temperature to some little depth, but it can descend no further than the agitation extends.

EMILY.

But when the atmosphere is colder than the lake, the colder surface of the water will descend, for the very reason that the warmer will not.

MRS. B.

Certainly: and it is on this account that neither a lake, nor any body of water whatever, can be frozen until every particle of the water has risen to the surface to give off its caloric to the colder atmosphere; therefore the deeper a body of water is, the longer will be the time it requires to be frozen.

EMILY.

But if the temperature of the whole body of water be brought down to the freezing point, why is only the surface frozen?

MRS. B.

The temperature of the whole body is lowered, but not to the freezing point. The diminution of heat, as you know, produces a contraction in the bulk of fluids, as well as of solids. This effect, however, does not take place in water below the temperature of 40 degrees, which is 8 degrees above the freezing point. At that temperature, therefore, the internal motion, occasioned by the increased specific gravity of the condensed particles, ceases; for when the water at the surface no longer condenses, it will no longer descend, and leave a fresh surface exposed to the atmosphere: this surface alone, therefore, will be further exposed to its severity, and will soon be brought down to the freezing point, when it becomes ice, which being a bad conductor of heat, preserves the water beneath a long time from being affected by the external cold.

CAROLINE.

And the sea does not freeze, I suppose, because its depth is so great, that a frost never lasts long enough to bring down the temperature of such a great body of water to 40 degrees?

MRS. B.

That is one reason why the sea, as a large ma.s.s of water, does not freeze. But, independently of this, salt water does not freeze till it is cooled much below 32 degrees, and with respect to the law of condensation, salt water is an exception, as it condenses even many degrees below the freezing point. When the caloric of fresh water, therefore, is imprisoned by the ice on its surface, the ocean still continues throwing off heat into the atmosphere, which is a most signal dispensation of Providence to moderate the intensity of the cold in winter.

CAROLINE.

This theory of the non-conducting power of liquids, does not, I suppose, hold good with respect to air, otherwise the atmosphere would not be heated by the rays of the sun pa.s.sing through it?

MRS. B.

Nor is it heated in that way. The pure atmosphere is a perfectly transparent medium, which neither radiates, absorbs, nor conducts caloric, but transmits the rays of the sun to us without in any way diminishing their intensity. The air is therefore not more heated, by the sun's rays pa.s.sing through it, than diamond, gla.s.s, water, or any other transparent medium.

CAROLINE.

That is very extraordinary! Are gla.s.s windows not heated then by the sun shining on them?

MRS. B.

No; not if the gla.s.s be perfectly transparent. A most convincing proof that gla.s.s transmits the rays of the sun without being heated by them is afforded by the burning lens, which by converging the rays to a focus will set combustible bodies on fire, without its own temperature being raised.

EMILY.

Yet, Mrs. B., if I hold a piece of gla.s.s near the fire it is almost immediately warmed by it; the gla.s.s therefore must retain some of the caloric radiated by the fire? Is it that the solar rays alone pa.s.s freely through gla.s.s without paying tribute? It seems unaccountable that the radiation of a common fire should have power to do what the sun's rays cannot accomplish.

MRS. B.

It is not because the rays from the fire have more power, but rather because they have less, that they heat gla.s.s and other transparent bodies. It is true, however, that as you approach the source of heat the rays being nearer each other, the heat is more condensed, and can produce effects of which the solar rays, from the great distance of their source, are incapable. Thus we should find it impossible to roast a joint of meat by the sun's rays, though it is so easily done by culinary heat. Yet caloric emanated from burning bodies, which is commonly called _culinary heat_, has neither the intensity nor the velocity of solar rays. All caloric, we have said, is supposed to proceed originally from the sun; but after having been incorporated with terrestrial bodies, and again given out by them, though its nature is not essentially altered, it retains neither the intensity nor the velocity with which it first emanated from that luminary; it has therefore not the power of pa.s.sing through transparent mediums, such as gla.s.s and water, without being partially retained by those bodies.

EMILY.

I recollect that in the experiment on the reflection of heat, the gla.s.s skreen which you interposed between the burning taper and the mirror, arrested the rays of caloric, and suffered only those of light to pa.s.s through it.

CAROLINE.

Gla.s.s windows, then, though they cannot be heated by the sun shining on them, may be heated internally by a fire in the room? But, Mrs. B., since the atmosphere is not warmed by the solar rays pa.s.sing through it, how does it obtain heat; for all the fires that are burning on the surface of the earth would contribute very little towards warming it?

EMILY.

The radiation of heat is not confined to burning bodies: for all bodies, you know, have that property; therefore, not only every thing upon the surface of the earth, but the earth itself, must radiate heat; and this terrestrial caloric, not having, I suppose, sufficient power to traverse the atmosphere, communicates heat to it.

MRS. B.

Your inference is extremely well drawn, Emily; but the foundation on which it rests is not sound; for the fact is, that terrestrial or culinary heat, though it cannot pa.s.s through the denser transparent mediums, such as gla.s.s or water, without loss, traverses the atmosphere completely: so that all the heat which the earth radiates, unless it meet with clouds or any foreign body to intercept its pa.s.sage, pa.s.ses into the distant regions of the universe.

CAROLINE.

What a pity that so much heat should be wasted!

MRS. B.

Before you are tempted to object to any law of nature, reflect whether it may not prove to be one of the numberless dispensations of Providence for our good. If all the heat which the earth has received from the sun, since the creation had been acc.u.mulated in it, its temperature by this time would, no doubt, have been more elevated than any human being could have borne.

CAROLINE.

I spoke indeed very inconsiderately. But, Mrs. B., though the earth, at such a high temperature, might have scorched our feet, we should always have had a cool refreshing air to breathe, since the radiation of the earth does not heat the atmosphere.

EMILY.

The cool air would have afforded but very insufficient refreshment, whilst our bodies were exposed to the burning radiation of the earth.

MRS. B.

Nor should we have breathed a cool air; for though it is true that heat is not communicated to the atmosphere by radiation, yet the air is warmed by contact with heated bodies, in the same manner as solids or liquids. The stratum of air which is immediately in contact with the earth is heated by it; it becomes specifically lighter and rises, making way for another stratum of air which is in its turn heated and carried upwards; and thus each successive stratum of air is warmed by coming in contact with the earth. You may perceive this effect in a sultry day, if you attentively observe the strata of air near the surface of the earth; they appear in constant agitation, for though it is true the air is itself invisible, yet the sun shining on the vapours floating in it, render them visible, like the amber dust in the water. The temperature of the surface of the earth is therefore the source from whence the atmosphere derives its heat, though it is communicated neither by radiation, nor transmitted from one particle of it to another by the conducting power; but every particle of air must come in contact with the earth in order to receive heat from it.

EMILY.

Wind then by agitating the air should contribute to cool the earth and warm the atmosphere, by bringing a more rapid succession of fresh strata of air in contact with the earth, and yet in general wind feels cooler than still air?