Atmosphere : a philosophical work / by George Woodhead.

  • Woodhead, George.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Atmosphere : a philosophical work / by George Woodhead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    water is thrown upon them. If a piece of red-hot iron, or any other red-hot suh- stance, be plunged into water, the air which it contains, and which is the cause of its redness, will he perceived issuing from it in innumerable bubbles. Hence, atmospheric air appears to be the active agent in the melting of metals. Aided by intense light, it seems to enter into them, and to be the power wliich ultimately separates the particles composing them, and produces the appearance called melt- ing. Moreover, the currents of air wliich agitate boiling water enter through the metal or substance of the vessel in which the water boils. This, I think, is evident from the following facts:—the air issues from the metal, or substance of the vessel, as is plainly perceived by observing it. It may be caught before it reaches the sur- face of the water. And if a tin vessel containing water be partly immersed in a vessel of boiling water, the water in the tin vessel may be raised to boiling heat, but it will not boil, because it is protected