The new air world : $b The science of meteorology simplifiedMoore, Willis L. (Willis Luther)
Science
The new air world : $b The science of meteorology simplified
Moore, Willis L. (Willis Luther)
Meteorology
Now carefully fix in the mind that a liquid does not need to be
raised to its boiling point before vaporization begins, for it
operates at all temperatures, even after the liquid is frozen, but
much more rapidly from the liquid. If one wishes to test this: weigh
a piece of ice during very cold weather. Then leave it out in a
temperature that is below freezing for several days, and on weighing
again it will be found that the ice has lost weight. All evaporation
produces a cooling effect because of the heat that is rendered latent
in the process of changing the liquid or the solid to a gaseous form.
The drier the air the greater is the cooling effected by keeping the
surface wetted, and the cooling is accelerated by placing the wet
object where there is a free circulation of air.
A wooden water bucket that has been soaked for a day or two so
that every part of the wood is saturated with water, will, if kept
closed, keep water all day in the open field practically as cool as
when it left the deep well, and often cooler. Not enough use is made
of cooling by evaporation by those who have not ice in the summer.
Inexpensive and fairly effective refrigerators may be made, by any
mechanic, of lattice-work sides covered with any thick fabric and
kept moist, which would keep milk, butter, fruit, vegetables, and
cooked meats in good condition if placed in a hallway with a good
circulation of air, or in any shady place with good ventilation.
Most solids expand with gain in temperature and therefore possess
greater volume in the liquid form than in the solid, and the
temperature of their melting points rises as they are subjected to
increasing pressure. The law reverses when applied to ice, which
contracts in melting. To few is it known that a skater on ice really
rides upon water molecules, for the sharp edge of the skate, when
applied to the ice under the weight of one’s body, is lubricated by
the slight melting of the ice in immediate contact with the skate,
the molecules of water returning to the form of ice as soon as the
skater passes and the pressure is relieved. The strange phenomenon
may be witnessed by passing a wire through a block of ice without
severing it into two pieces, by attaching heavy weights to the two
ends of the wire and suspending it across the ice, the ice slowly
melting as the result of the pressure applied by the underside of the
wire and freezing molecules closing the space on top of the wire. By
this process do we account for the moving of glaciers down tortuous
valleys as though they were liquids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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