Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2: In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by ExperimentsMarcet, Mrs. (Jane Haldimand)
Science
Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2: In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments
Marcet, Mrs. (Jane Haldimand)
Chemistry
Will you give no credit to any sense but that of sight? You may feel the
rays of caloric which you receive from any body of a temperature higher
than your own; the loss of the caloric you part with in return, it is
true, is not perceptible; for as you gain more than you lose, instead of
suffering a diminution, you are really making an acquisition of caloric.
It is, therefore, only when you are parting with it to a body of a lower
temperature, that you are sensible of the sensation of cold, because you
then sustain an absolute loss of caloric.
EMILY.
And in this case we cannot be sensible of the small quantity of heat we
receive in exchange from the colder body, because it serves only to
diminish the loss.
MRS. B.
Very well, indeed, Emily. Professor Pictet, of Geneva, has made some
very interesting experiments, which prove not only that caloric radiates
from all bodies whatever, but that these rays may be reflected,
according to the laws of optics, in the same manner as light. I shall
repeat these experiments before you, having procured mirrors fit for the
purpose; and it will afford us an opportunity of using the differential
thermometer, which is particularly well adapted for these experiments.
--I place an iron bullet, (PLATE III. Fig. 1.) about two inches in
diameter, and heated to a degree not sufficient to render it luminous,
in the focus of this large metallic concave mirror. The rays of heat
which fall on this mirror are reflected, agreeably to the property of
concave mirrors, in a parallel direction, so as to fall on a similar
mirror, which, you see, is placed opposite to the first, at the distance
of about ten feet; thence the rays converge to the focus of the second
mirror, in which I place one of the bulbs of this thermometer. Now,
observe in what manner it is affected by the caloric which is reflected
on it from the heated bullet. --The air is dilated in the bulb which we
placed in the focus of the mirror, and the liquor rises considerably in
the opposite leg.
[Illustration: Plate III. Vol. I. p. 54
Mr. Pictet’s Apparatus for the Reflection of Heat.
Fig. 1.
A.A. & B.B Concave mirrors fixed on stands.
C Heated Bullet placed in the focus of the mirror A.
D Thermometer, with its bulb placed in the focus of the mirror B.
1.2.3.4 Rays of Caloric radiating from the bullet & falling on the
mirror A.
5.6.7.8 The same rays reflected from the mirror A to the mirror B.
9.10.11.12 The same rays reflected by the mirror B to the
Thermometer.]
EMILY.
But would not the same effect take place, if the rays of caloric from
the heated bullet fell directly on the thermometer, without the
assistance of the mirrors?
MRS. B.
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