[40] If 34,500 units of heat are evolved in the combustion of 1 part of hydrogen, and this heat is transmitted to the resulting 9 parts by weight of aqueous vapour, then we find that, taking the specific heat of the latter as 0·475, each unit of heat raises the temperature of 1 part by weight of aqueous vapour 2°·1 and 9 parts by weight (2·1 ÷ 9) O°·23; hence the 34,500 units of heat raise its temperature 7,935°. If detonating gas is converted into water in a closed space, then the aqueous vapour formed cannot expand, and therefore, in calculating the temperature of combustion, the specific heat at a constant volume must be taken into consideration; for aqueous vapour it is 0·36. This figure gives a still higher temperature for the flame. In reality it is much lower, but the results given by different observers are very contradictory (from 1,700° to 2,400°), the discrepancies depending on the fact that flames of different sizes are cooled by radiation to a different degree, but mainly on the fact that the methods and apparatus (pyrometers) for the determination of high temperatures, although they enable relative changes of temperature to be judged, are of little use for determining their absolute magnitude. By taking the temperature of the flame of detonating gas as 2,000°, I give, I think, the average of the most trustworthy determinations and calculations based upon the determination of the variation of the specific heat of aqueous vapour and other gases (_see_ Chapter XLI.) [41] It is evident that not only hydrogen, but every other combustible gas, will give an explosive mixture with oxygen. For this reason coal-gas mixed with air explodes when the mixture is ignited. The pressure obtained in the explosions serves as the _motive power of gas engines_. In this case advantage is taken, not only of the pressure produced by the explosion, but also of that contraction which takes place after the explosion. On this is based the construction of several motors, of which Lenoir's was formerly, and Otto's is now, the best known. The explosion is usually produced by coal-gas and air, but of late the vapours of combustible liquids (kerosene, benzene) are also being employed in place of gas (Chapter IX.) In Lenoir's engine a mixture of coal-gas and air is ignited by means of sparks from a Ruhmkorff's coil, but in the most recent machines the gases are ignited by the direct action of a gas jet, or by contact with the hot walls of a side tube. [Illustration: FIG. 34.--Safety burner for detonating gas, described in text.]