On the temperature of the earth and sea, in reference to the theory of central heat : a lecture, delivered at the Royal Institution, February 20th, 1846, Lord de Mauley, V.P. in the chair / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Alfred Swaine Taylor
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the temperature of the earth and sea, in reference to the theory of central heat : a lecture, delivered at the Royal Institution, February 20th, 1846, Lord de Mauley, V.P. in the chair / by Alfred S. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    LINES OF EQUAL TERRESTRIAL HEAT. feet; in Joseph’s well, ut Cairo, at the depth of two hundred and ten feet—in the tropics this temperature exists still nearer the surface: in Sibei’ia it is scarcely possible to assign the depth at which this temperature would he obtained, since at four hundred feet the temperature of the strata begins to rise only above the fi-eezing point. Making all due allowance for elevation and depression above the sea level, it is obvious that there must be great in-egularity in these isogeothennal lines, or lines of equal teiTestrial heat. In some instances there is a near approximation over great distances. Thus the water of an Ai’tesian weU at Vienna, 200 feet deep, has a temperature of 56°; while the water of another, at Hanwell, in Middlesex, at the depth of 290 feet, has the same temperatm’e. These places are about a thousand miles apart. The water of the well of Grenelle, in Paris, at 1794 feet in depth, has a temperature of 82°; that of Mondorf, which is 2,202 feet deep, has a tempe- rature of 93°; therefore increasing in a proportion which might be anticipated from the difierence in the depth. The existence of subterranean heat is an old hypothesis. Cosmogonists have imagined that the whole earth was once in a state of fusion; and that, as a result of attraction and rapid rotation on its polar axis, it assumed in its semihquid condition the form of an oblate spheroid. The existence of ^'itlified rocks scattered over a large extent of the earth’s surface, with the well-known phenomena of volcanic action, lent considerable support to this opinion. These hypotheses must not, however, detain us, as our object is rather to shew that to which reasoning from well-ascertained facts will lead, than to criticise schemes wliich pretend to explain the grand phenomena of creation. There are several sources of •prooj upon wdiich the existence of a high temperatine within the interior of the earth is made to depend:— 1. The progressive rise of the thermometer as we descend into mines, and other deep excavations, below tlie level of the sea. 2. The high temperature of the water which issues from Artesian wells carried to a groat dc])th.