Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
V. That bullet of two inches and an half heated white in 16 minutes,
cooled so as to be held in the hand in one hour 42 minutes, and to the
actual temperature in four hours 30 minutes.
VI. That bullet of three inches heated white in 19-1/2 minutes, cooled
so as to be held in the hand in two hours seven minutes, and to the
actual temperature in five hours eight minutes.
VII. That of three inches and a half heated white in 23-1/2 minutes,
cooled so as to be held in the hand in two hours 36 minutes, and to the
actual temperature in five hours 56 minutes.
VIII. That of four inches heated white in 27 minutes and a half, cooled
so as to be held in the hand in three hours two minutes, and to the
actual temperature in six hours 55 minutes.
IX. That of four inches and a half heated white in 31 minutes, cooled
so as to be held in the hand in three hours and 25 minutes, and to the
actual temperature in seven hours 46 minutes.
X. That of five inches heated white in 34 minutes, cooled, so as to
be held in the hand, in three hours 52 minutes, and to the actual
temperature in eight hours 42 minutes.
The most constant difference that can be taken between each of the
terms which express the time of cooling, from the instant the bullets
were drawn from the fire, to that when we can touch them unhurt, is
found to be about 24 minutes, for, by supposing each term to increase
24, we shall have 12, 36, 60, 84, 108, 132, 156, 180, 204, 228 minutes.
And the continuation of the real time of these coolings are, 12,
35-1/2, 58, 80, 102, 127, 156, 182, 205, 232 minutes, which approach
the first as nearly as experiment can approach calculation.
So, likewise, the most constant difference to be found between each of
the terms of cooling to actual temperature is found to be 54 minutes,
for by supposing each term to increase 54, we shall have 39, 93, 147,
201, 255, 309, 363, 417, 471, 525 minutes, and the continuation of
the real time of this cooling is found, by the preceding experiments,
to be 39, 93, 145, 196, 248, 308, 356, 415, 466, 522 minutes, which
approaches also nearest to the first.
I made the like experiments upon the same bullets twice or thrice,
but found I could only rely on the first, because each time the
bullets were heated they lost a considerable part of their weight,
which was occasioned not only by the falling off of the parts of the
surface reduced into scoria, but also by a kind of drying, or internal
calcination, which diminishes the weight of the constituent parts,
insomuch that it appears a strong fire renders the iron specifically
lighter each time it is heated; and I have found, by subsequent
experiments, that this diminution of weight varies much, according to
the different quality of the iron. Experience has also confirmed me
in the opinion, that the duration of heat, or the time taken up in
cooling of iron, is not in a smaller, as stated in a passage of Newton,
but in a larger ratio than that of the diameter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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