A course of six lectures on the chemical history of a candle : to which is added, a lecture on platinum / by Michael Faraday ; edited by William Crookes.

  • Michael Faraday
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A course of six lectures on the chemical history of a candle : to which is added, a lecture on platinum / by Michael Faraday ; edited by William Crookes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    whether we alter it into ice by cooling, or whether we change it into steam by heat, it increases in volume,—in the one case very strangely and powerfully, and in the other case very largely and wonderfully. For instance, I will now take this tin cylinder, and pour a little water into it, and seeing how much water I pour in, you may easily estimate for yourselves how high it will rise in the vessel: it will cover the bottom about two inches. I am now about to convert the water into steam, for the purpose of show- ing to you the different volumes which water occupies in its different states of water and steam. Let us now take the case of water changing into ice: we can effect that by cooling it in a mixture of salt and pounded ice (12)—and I shall do so to show you the expansion of water into a thing of larger bulk when it is so changed. These bottles [holding one] are made of strong cast iron, very strong and very thick—I suppose they are the third of an inch in thickness; they are very carefully filled with water, so as to exclude all air, and then they are screwed down tight. We shall see that when we freeze the water in these iron vessels, they will not be able