Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1877 — Borne Words About Heat. [ARTICLE]

Borne Words About Heat.

Why write about a subject as “old as the hills.” We have a great respect for some old things, particularly air, light and water, and we are not willing to dis pense with any of these things because they are not of modern invention. They are old, very old, so old that “ none living can say aught about their growth.” We like to think about them; we are thankful for them, and do not care to be classed with the men of Athens who “spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thine.” In 1796, Count Rumford presented to the Royal Society of London one thousand pounds, three per cent, consols, for the purchase of a prize medal to be given once in every two years to the author of the most Important discovery on heat. How much it contributes to our comfort all admit, but comparatively few know how to keep it under proper control. What is heat? Dr. Brewer says it is the sensation of warmth. “ Caloric is the agent which produces the sensation of warmth, but heat is the sensation itself,” and that “ when we touch a substance hotter than ourselves, a subtile, invisible stream flows from the hotter substance and produces on our nerves the sensation of warmth.” These popular statements have not yet been superseded by modern discoveries and theories. The four principal sources of heat are the sun, electricity, chemical action and mechanical action. We are told that heat comes to us from the sun at the speed of 200,000 miles in a second of time; yet, according to Dr. Herschel, “ the solar rays which produce heat are distinct from those which illuminate and produce vision.” The sun’s rays have no power of giving heat unless they impinge against a solid body; they afford heat only when they meet with an,opaque substance, and not when they pass through a transparent one, as air or water. It is affirmed by some “ who are wise above what is written," that that wonderful luminary, the sun, is losing its power, or that his resources are nearly exhausted. Mons. Buffon “ supposes that the earth, and all the planets, were once In a state of fusion: that they are now gradually cooling, and that a time will come when they will have lost so much of their heat as to be totally unfit to preserve either animal or vegetable life. This thecry we are not bound to believe, although coming from so great a man, and history contradicts it. '“ In the Augustine age, the Rhine and the Danube were commonly frozen over during several months of the year, so that when the barbarians overran the Romish Empire immense weights and large armies were transported across the ice in these rivers, a thing which at the present time would be impossible.” Ovid says that “at Tomi snow was on the ground for two years,” and Virgil affirms “ that people living on the banks of the Danube had to cut out their wine with hatchets and present it to their guests in solid portions.” In the course of lectures delivered in Washington by Prof. Agassiz, he said;. “ The Continent of North America had at one tune been overlaid by a dense mass of ice, from five to six thousand feet in thickness.” This was called the cold period. From these illustrations we are led to conclude .that “God, who made the world and all things therein,” can take

care of Its inhabitants. ' Land appear* to be capable of receiving much more of heat anaeold than water. In the vicinity of Marseilles, Dr. Raymond often observed that while the land was heated to 160 degree*; the sea waa never hotter than 77 degrees: in winter, the earth would cool down to 14 or 15 degrees, but the sea was never lower than 44 or 45 degrees. How much heat the human frame can endnre without injury is not known. Sir I. Blagden and Sir I. Banks actually breathed for some time an. atmosphere in a room prepared by Dr. Fordyce which was 52 degrees hotter than boiling water; and it is related in the History of the Academy of Sciences for 1764, that “ the oven girls of Germany often sustain a heat of from 250 degrees to 280 degrees." Parks has well said, “ that while man is blessed with a constitution enabling him to bear the extreme heat or extreme cold of al most anv part of the globe, animals appear to have a climate fitted for each race to occupy, and flourish and propagate nowhere else so well.” Fire was unknown to the ancient Egyptians. The production of fire by the flint and steel is very old. “ The Laplanders begin their contracts of marriage with the fire and flint, for fire with them is the author of life, and the flint they say is eternal, for the treasure of fire within' never fails." A very large amount of heat can be procured from the sun by means of burning glasses, or by a number of plain mirrors, properly combined. At tbe begirihing of the last century a Mr. Tschirnhausen made several burning glasses; one of which was so powerful that “ all sorts of wood, dry or green, could be fired by this instrument in a moment, water in a small vessel boiled immediately, while the ashes of herbs and wood became transparent glass in an instant” The most powerful burning mirror constructed belonged to Sir Isaac Newton, and cost some £7OO. Heat is found in everything (even, in ice), but in a latent or undeveloped state. This is easily proved by pouring cold water on lime, mixing sulphuric acid and water, or in paaking nitrate of iron, where acid, water and iron are combined, while cold; and will soon boil, and continue to boil in the open air, for mere than twenty minutes. The heat was in the iron, acid and water, before they were combined, but in a latent state. Did space permit, we could furnish many illustrations, all proving the necessity of great caution in storing" and handling a number of substances, in themselves harmless, but when piled in heaps, or in contact with other bodies, generate a large amount of heat, causing a large fire and serious loss. Lampblack and linseed oil, only partially mixed, left on cotton or canvas, will ignite sooner than anything else. Waste of any kind, saturated with oil; dirty rags used by pr inters or painters, if allowed to be thrown into a corner and there remain, will certainly cause a fire sooner or later. More fires are occasioned by spontaneous combustion than insurance companies are aware of. Heat we want, heat we have, heat we should be thankful for, but let us try to keep it under proper control.— Ed ma rd Battley, in Ji. Y. Observer