Since the vapour rises from the water only in virtue of the elasticity due to its gaseous nature, it is obvious that no more can be produced, unless what is already incumbent upon the liquid have its tension abated, or be withdrawn by some means. Suppose the temperature of the water to be midway between freezing and boiling, viz. 122° Fahr., as also that of the air in contact with it, to be the same but replete with moisture, so that its interstitial spaces are filled with vapour of corresponding elasticity and specific gravity with that given off by the water, it is certain that no fresh formation of vapour can take place in these circumstances. But the moment a portion of vapour is allowed to escape, or is drawn off by condensation to another vessel, an equivalent portion of vapour will be immediately exhaled from the water.
The pressure of the air and of other vapours upon the surface of water in an open vessel, does not prevent evaporation of the liquid; it merely retards its progress. Experience shows that the space filled with an elastic fluid, as air or other gaseous body, is capable of receiving as much aqueous vapour as if it were vacuous, only the repletion of that space with the vapour proceeds more slowly in the former predicament than in the latter, but in both cases it arrives eventually at the same pitch. Dr. Dalton has very ingeniously proved, that the particles of aeriform bodies present no permanent obstacle to the introduction of a gaseous atmosphere of another kind among them, but merely obstruct its diffusion momentarily, as if by a species of friction. Hence, exhalation at atmospheric temperatures is promoted by the mechanical diffusion of the vapours through the air with ventilating fans or chimney draughts; though under brisk ebullition, the force of the steam readily overcomes that mechanical obstruction.
The quantities of water evaporated under different temperatures in like times, are proportional to the elasticities of the steam corresponding to these temperatures. A vessel of boiling water exposing a square foot of surface to the fire, evaporates 725 grains in the minute; the elasticity of the vapour is equivalent to 30 inches of mercury. To find the quantity that would be evaporated from the same surface per minute at a heat of 88° F. At this temperature the steam incumbent upon water is capable of supporting 1·28 inch of mercury; whence the rule of proportion is 30 : 1·28 ∷ 725 : 30·93; showing that about 31 grains of water would be evaporated in the minute. If the air contains already some aqueous vapour, as it commonly does, then the quantity of evaporation will be proportional to the difference between the elastic force of that vapour, and what rises from the water.
Suppose the air to be in the hygrometric state denoted by 0·38 of an inch of mercury, then the above formula will become: 30 : 1·28 - 0·38 ∷ 725 : 21·41; showing that not more than 211⁄2 grains would be evaporated per minute under these circumstances.
The elastic tension of the atmospheric vapour is readily ascertained by the old experiment of Le Roi, which consists in filling a glass cylinder (a narrow tumbler for example) with cool spring water, and noting its temperature at the instant it becomes so warm that dew ceases to be deposited upon it. This temperature is that which corresponds to the elastic tension of the atmospheric vapour. See Vapour, Table of.
Whenever the elasticity of the vapour, corresponding to the temperature of the water, is greater than the atmospheric pressure, the evaporation will take place not only from its surface, but from every point in its interior; the liquid particles throughout the mass assuming the gaseous form, as rapidly as they are actuated by the caloric, which subverts the hydrostatic equilibrium among them, to constitute the phenomena of ebullition. This turbulent vaporization takes place at any temperature, even down to the freezing point, provided the pneumatic pressure be removed from the liquid by the air pump, or any other means. Ebullition always accelerates evaporation, as it serves to carry off the aqueous particles not simply from the surface, but from the whole body of the water.
The vapours, exhaled from a liquid at any temperature, contain more heat than the fluid from which they spring; and they cease to form whenever the supply of heat into the liquid is stopped. Any volume of water requires for its conversion into vapour five and a half times as much heat as is sufficient to heat it from the freezing to the boiling temperature. The heat, in the former case, seems to be absorbed, being inappreciable by the thermometer; for steam is no hotter than the boiling water from which it rises. It has been therefore called latent heat; in contradistinction to that perceived by the touch and measured by the thermometer, which is called sensible heat. The quantity of heat absorbed by one volume of water in its conversion into steam, is about 1000° Fahr.; it would be adequate to heat 1000 volumes of water, one degree of the same scale; or to raise one volume of boiling water, confined in a non-conducting vessel, to 1180°. Were the vessel charged with water so heated, opened, it would be instantaneously emptied by vaporization, since the whole caloric equivalent to its constitution as steam, is present. When, upon the other hand, steam is condensed by contact with cold substances, so much heat is set free as is capable of heating five and a half times its weight of water, from 32° to 212° F. If the supply of heat to a copper be uniform, five hours and a half will be required to drive off its water in steam, provided one hour was taken in heating the water, from the freezing to the boiling pitch, under the atmospherical pressure.
Equal weights of vapour of any temperature contain equal quantities of heat; for example, the vapour exhaled from one pound of water, at 77° F., absorbs during its formation, and will give out in its condensation, as much heat as the steam produced by one pound of water, at 212° F. The first portion of vapour with a tension = 30 inches, occupies a space of 27·31 cubic feet; the second, with a tension of 0·92 inch, occupies a space of 890 cubic feet.[29] Suppose that these 890 volumes were to be compressed into 27·31 in a cylinder capable of confining the heat, the temperature of the vapour would rise from 77° to 212°, in virtue of the condensation, as air becomes so hot by compression in a syringe, as to ignite amadou. The latent heat of steam at 212° F. is 1180° - 180 = 1000; that of vapour, at 77°, is 1180 - 45 = 1135°; so that, in fact, the lower the temperature at which the vapour is exhaled, the greater is its latent heat, as Joseph Black and James Watt long ago proved by experiments upon distillation and the steam engine.
[29] One pound avoirdupois of water contains 27·72 cubic inches; one cubic inch of water forms 1696 cubic inches of steam at 212° F.: therefore one pound of water will form 27·31 cubic feet of such steam: and 0·92 : 30 ∷ 27·31 : 890 cubic feet.
From the preceding researches it follows, that evaporation may be effected upon two different plans:—