On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 1

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J. Murray, 1869 - 432 pages
 

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Page 29 - ... descriptions, and that there is an equivalence in quantity between the phenomena that have disappeared and those which have been produced, insomuch that if the process be reversed the very same quantity which had disappeared will reappear without increase or diminution. Thus, the amount of heat which will raise the temperature of a pound of water one degree of the thermometer will, if expended, say in the expansion of steam, lift a weight of 772 pounds one foot, or a weight of one pound 772 feet...
Page 154 - Bunsen and the speaker state, in the memoir above referred to, that " the steady and equable light evolved by magnesium wire burning in the air, and the immense chemical action thus produced, render this source of light valuable as a simple means of obtaining a given amount of chemical illumination ; and that the combustion of this metal constitutes so definite and simple a source of light for the purpose of photochemical measurement, that the wide distribution of magnesium becomes desirable.
Page 134 - Hence I hesitate not to say that optical analysis can distinguish the minutest portions of these two substances from each other with as much certainty, if not more, than any other known method.
Page 24 - Agreeing with those who admit the conservation of force to be a principle in physics, as large and sure as that of the indestructibility of matter or the invariability of gravity, I think that no particular idea of force has a right to unlimited or unqualified acceptance, that does not include assent to it...
Page 35 - Take, for example, red cloth. A small portion of the incident light is reflected at the outer surfaces of the fibres, and this portion, if it could be observed alone, would be found to be colourless. The greater part of the light penetrates into the fibres, when it immediately begins to suffer absorption on the part of the colouring matter. On arriving at the second surface of the fibre, a portion is reflected and a portion passes on, to be afterwards reflected from, or absorbed by, fibres lying...
Page 29 - ... currents, would either of them be sufficient to demonstrate the immateriality of heat; and would so afford, if required, a perfect confirmation of Sir Humphry Davy's views. 4. Considering it as thus established, that heat is not a substance, but a dynamical form of mechanical effect, we perceive that there must be an equivalence between mechanical work and heat, as between cause and effect. The first published statement of this principle appears to be in Mayer's Bemerkungen...
Page 48 - ... radiation the gases are sensibly transparent. An extension of this reasoning enables us at once to conclude, that the sum of the absorptions of the two chambers taken separately must always be greater than the absorption effected by a single column of the gas of a length equal to the sum of the two chambers. This conclusion is illustrated in a striking manner by the experiments ; and it is further found that when the mean of the sums of the absorptions is divided by the absorption of the sum,...
Page 133 - For instance, the orange ray may be the effect of the strontia, since Mr. Herschel found in the flame of muriate of strontia a ray of that colour. If this opinion should be correct, and applicable to the other definite rays, a glance at the prismatic spectrum of a flame may show it to contain substances which it would otherwise require a laborious chemical analysis to detect.
Page 24 - I come to its uses. No hypothesis should be admitted, nor any assertion of a fact credited, that denies the principle. No view should be inconsistent or incompatible with it. Many of our hypotheses in the present state of science may not comprehend it, and may be unable to suggest its consequences ; but none should oppose or contradict it.
Page 54 - Remove for a single summer night the aqueous vapour from the air which overspreads this country, and you would assuredly destroy every plant capable of being destroyed by a freezing temperature. The warmth of our fields and gardens would pour itself unrequited into space, and the sun would rise upon an island held fast in the iron grip of frost.

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