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
I found also, that lumps of clay, or marl, of two inches, refrigerated
so as to be held in the hand in 45 minutes; those of two inches and a
half in 58; and those of three inches in 75, which being compared with
the time of refrigeration of iron bullets of the same diameters, gives
46 to 80 for two inches, 58 to 102 for two inches and a half, and 75 to
127 for three inches, which nearly form the ratio of 9 to 5; so that
for the refrigeration of clay, more than half the time is required than
for iron.
It is necessary to observe, that globes of clay heated white, lost
more of their weight than iron bullets, even to the ninth or tenth
part of their weight: whereas marl heated in the same fire, lost
scarcely any thing, although the whole surface was covered over with
scales, and reduced into glass. As this appeared singular, I repeated
the experiment several times, increasing the fire, and continuing it
longer than for iron; and although it scarcely required a third of the
time to redden marl, to what it did to redden iron, I kept them in the
fire thrice as long as was requisite, to see if they would lose more,
but I found very trifling diminutions; for the globe of two inches
heated for eight minutes, which weighed seven ounces, two drachms,
and thirty grains, before it was put in the fire, lost only forty-one
grains, which does not make a hundredth part of its weight; and that
of three inches, which weighed twenty-four ounces, five drachms, and
thirteen grains, having been heated by the fire for eighteen minutes,
that is nearly as much as iron, lost only seventy-eight grains, which
does not make the hundredth and eighty-first part of its weight. These
losses are so trifling, that it may be looked upon, in general, as
certain that pure clay loses nothing of its weight in the fire; for
those trifling diminutions were certainly occasioned by the ferruginous
parts which were found in the clay, and which were in part destroyed by
the fire. It is also worthy of observation, that the duration of heat
in different matters exposed to the same fire for an equal time, is
always in the same proportion, whether the degree of heat be greater or
smaller.
I have made similar experiments on globes of marble, stone, lead, and
tin, by a heat only strong enough to melt tin, and I found, that iron
refrigerated in eighteen minutes, so as to be able to hold it in the
hand, marble refrigerated to the same degree in twelve minutes, stone
in eleven, lead in nine, and tin in eight. It is not, therefore, in
proportion to their density, as is commonly supposed, that bodies
receive and lose more or less heat, but in an inverse ratio of their
solidity; that is, of their greater or lesser _non fluidity_; so that,
by the same heat, less time is requisite to heat or cool the most dense
fluid.
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