The steam, as it comes out of the spout, is so hot that it will scald you if you put your finger in it. But you may satisfy yourself that it is very hot, without scalding your fingers, by holding a stick of sealing-wax in it. The wax will soften, just as if you held it before the fire. Moreover, if you look through the steam, just where it leaves the spout, you will see that it is quite transparent; it is only at some little distance from the spout that it loses its transparency, changes into a white opaque cloud, and rapidly vanishes in the air. 33. =The taking away of Heat from Steam causes the steam to change into Hot Water.= Now take a cold spoon, or a cold plate, and hold it against the jet of steam, for a moment or two. When you take it away, you will find that it is quite wet, being covered with drops of warm water, and, moreover, the cold spoon, or plate, has become warm. And if you fit a long cold metal pipe to the nozzle of the tea-kettle, you will find that no steam at all issues from the end of the pipe, but only water, while the pipe becomes warmed. Thus the heat passes from the fire into the saucepan, or kettle, and thence to the water which they contain; the water gets hotter and hotter, and, when it has taken in a certain quantity of heat, it becomes steam, or vapour of water. When the steam comes against the cold plate, or passes through the cold pipe, it gives up the heat it has taken in to the plate, or the metal of the pipe. They carry off the heat which kept the water in a condition of a =vapour=, and so it passes back into the condition of =liquid=. Thus steam and water are two conditions of the same thing, =water=; they are effects of the quantity of heat which the water has taken in. 34. =When Water is changed into Steam, its Volume becomes about 1,700 times greater that it was at first.=