Rollo's Philosophy. [Air]

by Jacob Abbott

"Yes," said his mother; "when there is a fire in the room, and none in the entry, then the cold air in the entry runs down through the key-hole into the room."

"It don't run down, mother," said Rollo; "it blows right in straight."

"Perhaps I ought to have said it spouts in," said his mother, "just as the water did from the hole in your dam. And, now," she continued, "come and hold the tuft near the chimney."

Rollo did so; and he found that it was carried in, proving, as their father had showed them before, that the heavy, cold air, pressing into the room, crowded the warm, light air up the chimney.

"Now, should you think," said their mother, "that the cold air could come in through the key-hole, as fast as it goes up the chimney?"

Both Rollo and Nathan thought that it could not.

"Then go all around the room," said she, "and see if you can find any other place, where it comes in. For it is plain, you see, that the light air cannot be driven up chimney any faster than cold and heavy air comes in to drive it up and take its place."

So Rollo and Nathan went around the room, holding their tuft at all the places they could find, where they supposed there could be openings for the cold air to press in. They found currents coming in around the windows, and by the hinges of the doors; and at length Rollo said, he meant to open the window a little way, and see if the cold air from out of doors would not press in there too. He did so, and the tuft was blown in very far, showing that the cold air from out of doors pressed in very strongly.

"Now, if all these openings were to be stopped," said their mother, "then no cold air could crowd into the room; and of course the hot air could not be buoyed up into the chimney, and a great deal of the hot air and smoke would come into the room. This very often happens when houses are first built, and the rooms are very tight.

"But now, Rollo," she continued, "suppose that the door was opened wide; then should not you think that more cold and heavy air would press in, than could go up the chimney?"