Rollo's Philosophy Part 9

"Now, as all the air around us," continued Rollo's father, "is pressed down very heavily, and is condensed a great deal, it is all the time endeavoring to expand; and it would expand, were it not that the great burden of the air above it keeps it condensed. But water is not compressed, and has no tendency to expand. The water of Rollo's dam, for instance, had all the weight of the atmosphere resting upon it, but it did not compress it at all, and so it did not tend to expand.

"And now," said his father, "I cannot perform any experiment, to show you that air tends strongly to expand or swell out into a great s.p.a.ce, while water does not; but I can make a supposition, which will ill.u.s.trate it. Suppose we had a large, but very thin, gla.s.s bottle, filled with water, and put down upon the floor in the middle of this room. Suppose, also, that we had another bottle, of the same size and shape, filled with air, and we put that down upon the floor by the side of the other; both bottles being stopped very tight. Now, if we could by any means suddenly take away all the air from the room, so that there should be nothing around the bottles, then the bottle of water would remain just as it is, for the gla.s.s would have nothing to support but the weight of the water, and it would be strong enough for that. But the bottle of air would fly all to pieces; for that would not rest quietly, like the water, satisfied with the s.p.a.ce which it already has, and only pressing with its own weight upon the sides of the gla.s.s; but it would immediately expand with so much force as to break the thin gla.s.s all to pieces."

"Would it!" exclaimed Rollo and Nathan together. "And would it make a loud noise?"

"Yes," replied their father, "I presume it would make a loud explosion; that is, if the air in the room around it could by any means be all at once and suddenly removed.

"And so you must remember," he continued, "that there are two very remarkable differences between air and water. Air may be condensed by pressure, and, as it exists all around us, is greatly condensed by the pressure of the air above, and it may be compressed more. And air is expansive, while water is not. Whenever the pressure upon it is removed, it suddenly expands, or spreads out in all directions."

"O dear me!" said Nathan, with a sigh.

"What is the matter?" said his father.

"Why, I can't understand it very well."

"Can't you?" said his father. "Well, I must admit that you are rather too young to study pneumatics."

"Pneumatics?" repeated Rollo.

"Yes," said his father; "that is the name of this science."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Then it sailed slowly away."--Page 85.]

"What, the science of air?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said his father, "the science which treats of air, and of all other compressible and expansive fluids. But let me think. I must try to tell you something which Nathan can understand and be interested in. If I had a very light feather, I could let him perform an experiment."

"Would a little down do?" said Rollo's mother.

"Yes," replied his father, "that would be better than a feather."

Mrs. Holiday then went and brought a little down, and handed it to Rollo's father. Now, there was a lamp upon the table, of a peculiar kind, called a study lamp. It had a gla.s.s tube, called a chimney, around the wick, and consequently around the flame itself, being round, like a ring.

Rollo's father told Nathan to hold the down over the top of this gla.s.s chimney, and then to let it go.

Nathan did so. The little tuft of down was wafted up into the air, quite high above the lamp, and then it sailed slowly away, and fell down upon the table.

"I know what makes it rise," said Rollo. "It is the heat. The heat makes it rise."

"Do you think so?" said his father. "Then take the down, and lay it gently upon the hearth, before the fire, as near as you can."

Rollo did so. He had to take his hand away very quick, for it was quite hot there. The little tuft remained quietly upon the hearth where he placed it.

"There," said his father, "is not that a hotter place than it was over the lamp?"

"Yes, sir," said Rollo.

"Then, if it was heat that made it rise, why does not it rise now?"

Rollo could not tell.

"I will tell you how it was," said his father. "Heat makes air more expansive. When air is heated, it swells; when it is cool, it shrinks again. Now, if it swells, it becomes lighter, and so it is buoyed up by the heavier air around it; just as wood at the bottom of the sea would be buoyed up, and would rise to the surface of the water. Now, the heat of the lamp heats the air that is in the gla.s.s chimney, and swells it.

This makes it lighter; and so the air around it, which is heavier, buoys it up, and it carries up the feather with it."

"No, the down, father," said Nathan.

"Yes, the down," said his father.

"Then it seems to me, after all," said Rollo, "that it is the heat which makes it rise."

"Yes," said his father, "it does, indirectly. It expands the air; that makes it lighter; then the heavy air around it buoys it up, and, when it goes up, it carries up the down. So that it is not strictly correct to say, that the heat carries it up. The heat sets in operation a train of causes and effects, the last of which results in carrying up the feather.

"Now," continued his father, "there is always a stream of air going up, wherever there is a lamp, or a fire, or heat, which heats the air in any way. The expanded air from a fire goes up chimney. The cool and heavy air in the room and out of doors crowds it up."

"The air out of doors?" said Rollo. "How can that crowd it up?"

"Why, it presses in through all the crevices and openings all around the room, and crowds the light air up the chimney. All the smoke is carried up too with it, and it comes pouring out at the top of the chimney all the time."

"You can see that the air presses in at all these crevices," continued Rollo's father, "by experiment."

"What experiment is it?" said Rollo; "let us try it."

"I will let Nathan try it," said his father, "and you may go with him and see the effect. First," he continued, "you see by the smoke, that the air really goes up the chimney; and I will show you that other air really crowds into the s.p.a.ce, from other parts of the room."

So he took a lamp from the table,--not the study lamp; it was a common lamp,--and held it at various places in the opening of the fireplace, by the jambs and near the upper part; and Rollo and Nathan saw that the flame, in all cases, was turned in towards the chimney.

"Yes," said Rollo, "I see it is drawn in."

"No," said his father; "strictly speaking, it is not _drawn_ in; it is pressed in, by the cool and heavy air of the room."

"I thought," said Rollo's mother, "that the chimney _drew_ the air from the room into it."

"That is what is generally said," replied Mr. Holiday, "but it is not strictly true. The common idea is, that the hot air rises in the chimney, and so draws the air from the room to supply its place; but this is not so. In the first place, nothing can rise unless it is forced up. The lightest things have some weight, and would, if left to themselves, fall. The hottest and lightest air in a chimney would fall to the earth, if there was no cooler and heavier air around it, to force it to rise;--just as the lightest cork, which would rise very quick from the bottom of the sea, would fall back again very quick, if the water was not there.

"Remember, then, Nathan and Rollo, that, when a fire is built in a fireplace, so as to warm the air in the chimney, it makes this air not so heavy; and then the cool air all around it in the room and out of doors, presses in, and crowds under the light air, and makes it ascend."

"But, father," said Nathan, "you said I might perform an experiment."

"Very well, I am ready now. Take the lamp, and carry it around the room, and hold it opposite any little opening you can find."

"I can't find any little openings," said Nathan.

"O yes," said his father; "the key-hole of the door is a little opening, and there is a narrow crevice all around the door; and you will find little crevices around the windows. Now, hold the lamp opposite any of these, and you will see that the air presses in."

So Nathan went with the lamp, Rollo following him, and held the lamp opposite to the key-hole, and the crevices around the door and windows; only, when he came to the window, his father told him to be very careful not to set the curtain on fire.

Rollo wanted Nathan to let him try it once; and so Nathan gave him the lamp. He said he meant to make a crevice; and so he pushed up the window a very little way, and held the lamp opposite to the opening. The air pressed the flame in towards the room, in all cases.