Heat: A Mode of Motion |
Common terms and phrases
absorbed absorption Acetic ether action amount of heat Amylene aqueous vapour atmosphere atoms augmented ball beam bismuth Bisulphide of carbon body boiling bromine calorescence calorific carbonic acid cause cell chilled Chloroform cold colour combustion condensation cool copper cube cylinder deflection degrees diathermic distance earth effect electric lamp emitted energy expansion experiment experimental tube feet flame flask focus force friction galvanometer gases glaciers glass hence hydrogen incandescent inch intercepted invisible rays Iodide iodine Joule lampblack light liquid luminous matter Melloni mercury metal molecules motion moves needle observed obtained olefiant gas oxygen particles pass placed plate platinum pressure produced quantity of heat radiant heat radiation raise result rocksalt screen sensible solar solid source of heat space spectrum spiral substance sufficient Sulphuric ether surface temperature thermo-electric pile thermometer thickness tion transparent velocity vessel vibration visible visible spectrum waves weight wire
Popular passages
Page 59 - 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...
Page 489 - 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 27 - 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 100 - ... the particles move round their own axes, and separate from each other, penetrating in right lines through space. Temperature may be conceived to depend upon the velocities of the vibrations; increase of capacity on the motion being performed in greater space; and the diminution of temperature, during the conversion of solids into fluids or gases, may be explained on the idea of the loss of vibratory motion, in consequence of the revolution of particles round their axes, at the moment when the...
Page 100 - ... and elastic fluids, besides the vibratory motion, which must be conceived greatest in the last, the particles have a motion round their own axes with different velocities, the particles of elastic fluids moving with the greatest quickness ;. and that in ethereal substances the particles move round their own axes, and separate from each other, penetrating in right lines through space.
Page 99 - The immediate cause of the phenomena of heat then is motion, and the laws of its communication are precisely the same, as the laws of the communication of motion.
Page 364 - The removal, for a single summer night, of the aqueous vapour from the atmosphere which covers England, would be attended by the destruction of every plant which a freezing temperature could kill. In Sahara, where ' the soil is fire and the wind is flame,' the refrigeration at night is often painful to bear.
Page 100 - ... lower temperature, that is, can give an expansive motion to its particles, it is a probable inference that its own particles are possessed of motion; but as there is no change in the position of its parts as long as its temperature is uniform, the motion, if it exist, must be a vibratory or undulatory motion, or a motion of the particles round their axes, or a motion of particles round each other.
Page 147 - ... thunder down the declivities with a vehemence almost sufficient to stun the observer. I have also seen snow-flakes descending so softly as not to hurt the fragile spangles of which they were composed ; yet to produce from aqueous...
Page 99 - Heat, then, or that power which prevents the actual contact of the corpuscles of bodies, and which is the cause of our peculiar sensations of heat and cold, may be defined a peculiar motion, probably a vibration of the corpuscles of bodies, tending to separate them.