It does not follow that the bodies thus equalized in temperature contain equal quantities of caloric; far from it. Each body requires a particular quantity of caloric to raise its temperature through a certain number of degrees; and such quantity is called its specific caloric. A pound of water, for instance, will take just twice as much caloric as a pound of olive oil, to raise its temperature through the same number of degrees; the specific caloric of water is therefore double that of oil. Mix any quantity of oil at 60 deg. of temperature with an equal weight of water at 90 deg., and you will find the temperature of the mixture to be nearly 80 deg., instead of only 74 deg. or 75 deg., showing that while the water has lost only 10 deg. of caloric, the mixture has risen 20 deg. If the oil be at 90 deg., and the water at 60 deg., the resulting temperature will be only 70 deg., or thereabouts, instead of 75 deg., the mean; thus, here the hot oil has lost 20 deg., while the mixture has risen only 10 deg.; the water, then, contains at the same temperature twice as much caloric as the oil; its specific caloric is double that of the oil. This mean temperature does result when equal weights of the same body at different temperatures are mixed together.
The sensations called heat and cold are by no means accurate measures of the real temperature of any substances, for many causes influence these sensations, some belonging to the substances themselves, others to the state of our organs at the time. Every one has remarked that metals in a warm room feel warmer, and in a cold room colder than wooden articles, and these again than woolen or cotton articles of dress or furniture; this arises from metals being what is termed better conductors of heat than wood, and this better than wool, &c., that is, they give out or absorb caloric more rapidly than these last. Some philosophers, wishing to ascertain how much heat the human body could endure, had a room heated with stoves, every crevice being carefully stopped, until the temperature rose so high that a beefsteak placed on the table was sufficiently cooked to be eaten. They were dressed in flannel, and could with impunity touch the carpets, curtains, &c., in the room; but the iron handles, fire-irons, and all metallic substances, burnt their fingers; and one who wore silver spectacles was obliged to remove them to save his nose. The fallacy of our sensations may be easily shown by taking two basins, placing in one some water at 100 deg., in another some water at as low a temperature as can easily be procured—hold the right hand in one, the left in the other, for a few minutes, and then mix them, and place both hands in the mixture; it will feel quite cold to the hand that had been in the hotter water, and hot to the other.
In order to arrive at a correct estimate of the temperature of bodies, instruments are made use of called thermometers, or measurers of heat, which show increase or diminution of temperature by the rising or falling of a column of some fluid in a tube of glass, one end of which is expanded into a bulb, and the other hermetically sealed. This effect is produced by the expansion or swelling of the fluid as caloric is added to, and its contraction when caloric is abstracted from it. Colored spirits of wine, or quicksilver, are the most usual thermometric fluids, and the tube containing them is fixed to a wooden or metallic frame, on which certain divisions are marked, called degrees.
That in general use in America is called Fahrenheit’s from the name of the person who first introduced that particular scale. In this thermometer, the point at which the mercury in the tube stands when plunged into melting ice, is marked 32 degrees, and the distance between that point and the point to which the mercury rises in boiling water is divided into 180 equal parts, called degrees; so that water is said to boil at 212 degrees = 180 degrees + 32 degrees. There are two other scales of temperature used in different parts of the world, but it is not worth while to notice them here.
Not only do different bodies at the same degree of temperature contain very different quantities of caloric, but this also is the case with the same body in different forms. Ice, water, and steam are three forms of the same body, but ice at 32 degrees contains much less caloric than water at the same temperature, and water at 212 degrees contains much less caloric than steam (or water in a state of vapor) at that temperature.
Place in a jar any given quantity of snow, or small pieces of ice, at 32 degrees, and in another the same weight of water at 32 degrees, pour on each an equal weight of water at 172 degrees, and you will find that in the first case the ice will be melted, but the temperature will remain at 32 degrees, or thereabouts, while the temperature of the water in the other vessel will have risen to 100 degrees or thereabouts, being as near as possible the half of the excess of the temperature of the hot water, 140 degrees over that of the cold, namely 70 degrees added to 32 degrees, the original temperature. Now, what has become of the heat which was added to the ice, and is apparently lost?—it is absorbed by the ice in its passage to the fluid state; so that water may be said to be a compound of ice and caloric.
Again, take 10 ounces of water at about 50 degrees, and add 1 oz. of water at 212 degrees, and the temperature of the mixture will be about 66 degrees; then condense some steam at 212 degrees into another 10 oz. of water until it has become 11 oz., and you will find the temperature will be nearly 212 degrees. Why does the ounce of steam at 212 degrees raise the temperature of the water so much higher than the ounce of water at the same temperature? Obviously because it contains hidden in its substance a vast quantity of caloric, not to be detected by the thermometer; in fact, that steam is a compound of water and caloric, as water is a compound of ice and caloric; and this caloric which exists, more or less, in all bodies without producing any obvious effect, is called latent caloric, from the Latin verb lateo, to lie hid. The quantity of caloric thus absorbed, as it were, by various bodies, differs for each body, and for the same body in different forms, as mentioned above.
EXPANSION.
As a general rule, all bodies, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, are expanded by caloric. This may be shown by experiments in each form of matter.
Have a small iron rod made, which when cold just passes through a hole in a plate of metal; heat it, and it will no longer pass; after a time the rod will return to its former temperature, and then will go through the hole as before. The rod increases in length as well as width; if you have a gauge divided into 1/100 of an inch, and place the rod in it when cold, noting its position, on heating it will extend to a greater length in the gauge, returning to its former place when cool.