Heat a Mode of Motion

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D. Appleton, 1890 - 591 pages
 

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Page 46 - It is hardly necessary to add, that anything which any insulated body, or system of bodies, can continue to furnish without limitation, cannot possibly be a material substance ; and it appears to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any distinct idea of anything capable of being excited and communicated in the manner the Heat was excited and communicated in these experiments, except it be MOTION.
Page 508 - The sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produced all winds, and those disturbances in the electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which give rise to the phenomena of lightning, and probably also to those of terrestrial magnetism and the aurora.
Page 179 - I then flattened two opposite sides of the globe with a heavy hammer, by which the water was necessarily contracted into less space ; a sphere being the figure of largest capacity. And when the hammering had no more effect in making the water shrink, I made use of a mill or press ; till the water impatient of further pressure exuded through the solid lead like a fine dew. I then computed the space lost by the compression, and concluded that this was the extent of compression which the water had suffered...
Page 37 - Heat is a very brisk agitation of the insensible parts of the object, which produces in us that sensation from whence we denominate the object hot ; so what in our sensation is heat, in the object is nothing but motion.
Page 509 - ... our coal strata. By them the waters of the sea are made to circulate in vapour through the air, and irrigate the land, producing springs and rivers. By them are produced all disturbances of the chemical equilibrium of the elements of nature, which, by a series of compositions and decompositions, give rise to new products, and originate a transfer of materials.
Page 503 - Sun (a little more than that of water), would take off from the mass a layer of about '5 of a foot thick in a minute, or of about 55 miles thick in a year. At the same rate continued, a mass as large as the Sun is at present would burn away in 8000 years.
Page 516 - Given the masses and distances of the planets, we can infer the perturbations consequent on their mutual attractions. Given the nature of a disturbance in water, air, or ether, we can infer from the properties of the medium how its particles will be affected. In all this we deal with physical laws, and the mind runs freely along the line which connects the phenomena, from beginning to end. But when we endeavour to pass, by a similar process, from the region of physics to that of thought, we meet...
Page 45 - Heat may thus be produced merely by the strength of a horse, and in a case of necessity, this heat might be used in cooking victuals. But no circumstances could be imagined in which this method of procuring heat would be advantageous ; for more heat might be obtained by using the fodder necessary for the support of a horse as fuel.
Page 507 - America groves of tropical palms flourished, in which gigantic lizards, and, after them, elephants, whose mighty remains are still buried in the earth, found a home. Different geologists, proceeding from different premises, have sought to estimate the length of the above period, and they set it down from one to nine millions of years.
Page 229 - It is quite manifest that the thing most needed to produce the glaciers is an improved condenser ; we cannot afford to lose an iota of solar action ; we need, if anything, more vapour, but we need a condenser so powerful that this vapour, instead of falling in liquid showers to the earth, shall be so far reduced in temperature as to descend in snow. The problem, I think, is thus narrowed to the precise issue on which its solution depends.

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