A History of Science — Volume 3Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 3
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
"When the air of a room is warmer than the external atmosphere, the
effect of an outside shutter on the temperature of the glass of the
window will be directly opposite to what has just been stated; since
it must prevent the radiation, into the atmosphere, of the heat of the
chamber transmitted through the glass.
"2. Count Rumford appears to have rightly conjectured that the
inhabitants of certain hot countries, who sleep at nights on the tops of
their houses, are cooled during this exposure by the radiation of their
heat to the sky; or, according to his manner of expression, by receiving
frigorific rays from the heavens. Another fact of this kind seems to be
the greater chill which we often experience upon passing at night from
the cover of a house into the air than might have been expected from the
cold of the external atmosphere. The cause, indeed, is said to be the
quickness of transition from one situation to another. But if this were
the whole reason, an equal chill would be felt in the day, when the
difference, in point of heat, between the internal and external air was
the same as at night, which is not the case. Besides, if I can trust my
own observation, the feeling of cold from this cause is more remarkable
in a clear than in a cloudy night, and in the country than in towns. The
following appears to be the manner in which these things are chiefly to
be explained:
"During the day our bodies while in the open air, although not
immediately exposed to the sun's rays, are yet constantly deriving
heat from them by means of the reflection of the atmosphere. This heat,
though it produces little change on the temperature of the air which it
traverses, affords us some compensation for the heat which we radiate to
the heavens. At night, also, if the sky be overcast, some compensation
will be made to us, both in the town and in the country, though in a
less degree than during the day, as the clouds will remit towards the
earth no inconsiderable quantity of heat. But on a clear night, in an
open part of the country, nothing almost can be returned to us from
above in place of the heat which we radiate upward. In towns, however,
some compensation will be afforded even on the clearest nights for the
heat which we lose in the open air by that which is radiated to us from
the sun round buildings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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