A course of six lectures on the various forces of matter and their relations to each other / by Michael Faraday ; edited by William Crookes.

  • Michael Faraday
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A course of six lectures on the various forces of matter and their relations to each other / by Michael Faraday ; edited by William Crookes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    possesses it, that there is never any change in the quantity of it; and, first of all, I will take as illustration a piece of marble. Now this marble has weight—as you will see if I put it in these scales; it weighs the balance down, and if I take it off, the balance goes back again and resumes its equilibrium. I can decompose this marble and change it, in the same manner as I can change ice into water and water into steam. I can convert a part of it into its own steam easily, and show you that this steam from the marble has the property of remaining in the same place at common temperatures, which water-stea,m has not. If I add a little liquid to the marble and decompose it(^), I get that which you see—[the Lecturer here put several lumps of marble into a glass jar, and poured water and then acid over them; the carbonic acid imme- diately commenced to escape with considerable effervescence] — the appearance of boihng, which is only the separation of one part of the marble from another. Now this [marble] steam, and that [water] steam, and all other steams gravitate just like any other substance does ; they all are attracted the one towards the other, and all fall towards the earth, and what