A rudimentary treatise on warming and ventilation : being a concise exposition of the general principles of the art of warming and ventilating domestic and public buildings, mines, lighthouses, ships, etc / by Charles Tomlinson.

  • Charles Tomlinson
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A rudimentary treatise on warming and ventilation : being a concise exposition of the general principles of the art of warming and ventilating domestic and public buildings, mines, lighthouses, ships, etc / by Charles Tomlinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    visible; or, after sun-set, the river may be warmer than the air, and the escaping vapour condenses into large rolling masses. But we especially notice the beneficial effects of differences of temperature between the air and the earth in the formation of dew; the moisture which the heat of the day had exhaled from the earth is deposited when a cloudless sky allows the earth to radiate its heat into space, and to cool down below the temperature of the air; the refreshing moisture is then condensed upon vegetation and upon sur- faces where it is most needed. Not only are we able to trace in the atmosphere those great and regular motions which bring about an interchange between the air of the equator and that of either pole, but there are other motions, apparently more fitful and irregular, in the winds, which blow from all points of the compass, and tend perpetually to restore the equilibrium of heat and moisture. How wonderful, too, is the action of the atmosphere on light. By its means the sun's rays are diffused, and their in- fluence extended from the sunshine to the shade. Were it not for the atmosphere, the sun would shine in an intensely dark sky, and no object would be visible unless the solar rays fell directly upon it. Sun-set would be a sudden transition from light to darkness; and sun-rise a painful change from intense darkness to intense light. But under the present wise and providential arrangement, the transition from day to night is calm and peaceful; the sun departs in splendour, like a monarch attended by a gorgeous court, leaving a mild and subdued scene of beauty behind; the soothing influences of evening gradually steal upon us, and new scenes of wonder and beauty gradually become unfolded. After some hours of peace and rest, the portals of the eastern sky slowly open, and one rosy messenger after another ascends to announce the advent of the king of day. In addition to t-liese complicated duties which the atmos- phere has to perform, there are yet others still more wonder- ful. A large number of the operations of nature are, a8 it were, daguerreotyped in the air in such a manner, as to convey to sentient and intelligent creatures information of B 2
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