There can be little doubt, he thinks, that these general facts of the condensation of the gases will have many practical applications. They offer, for instance, easy methods of impregnating liquids with carbonic acid and other gases, without mechanical pressure. They afford means of producing great diminutions of temperature, by the rapidity with which large quantities of liquids may be rendered aëriform; and as compression occasions similar effects to cold, in preventing the formation of elastic substances, there is great reason to believe that it may be successfully employed for the preservation of animal and vegetable substances for the purposes of food. Davy might also have added, that the same general views will explain natural and other phenomena not previously understood. They certainly afford a plausible explanation of the nature of _blowers_ in coal-mines; and they may lead to more satisfactory views on other subjects of geology. They assign a limit to the expansive force of gas under increasing pressure, and account for effects connected with the _blasting_ of rocks, which would otherwise appear anomalous.[83] [83] In the year 1812, Mr. Babbage attempted to ascertain whether pressure would prevent decomposition: for this purpose, a hole about thirty inches deep, and two inches in diameter, was bored downward into a limestone rock, into which was then poured a quantity of strong muriatic acid, and a conical wooden plug, that had been previously soaked in tallow, was immediately driven hard into the mouth of the hole. It was expected either that the decomposition would be prevented, or that the gas developed would split the rock by its expansive force: but nothing happened. Now, it is most probable that a part of the carbonic acid had condensed into a liquid, and thus prevented that developement of power which Mr. Babbage had expected would have torn the rock asunder.