Now, I want you to observe that one great exertion of this power, which is known as chemical affinity, is to produce HEAT and light. You know, as a matter of fact, no doubt, that when bodies burn they give out heat; but it is a curious thing that this heat does not continue—the heat goes away as soon as the action stops, and you see thereby that it depends upon the action during the time it is going on. It is not so with gravitation: this force is continuous, and is just as effective in making that lead press on the table as it was when it first fell there. Nothing occurs there which disappears when the action of falling is over; the pressure is upon the table, and will remain there until the lead is removed; whereas, in the action of chemical affinity to give light and heat, they go away immediately the action is over. This lamp seems to evolve heat and light continuously; but it is owing to a constant stream of air coming into it on all sides, and this work of producing light and heat by chemical affinity will subside as soon as the stream of air is interrupted. What, then, is this curious condition of heat? Why is the evolution of another power of matter, of a power new to us, and which we must consider as if it were now for the very first time brought under our notice? What is heat? We recognise heat by its power of liquefying solid bodies and vaporising liquid bodies, by its power of setting in action, and very often overcoming, chemical affinity. Then, how do we obtain heat? We obtain it in various ways—most abundantly by means of the chemical affinity we have just before been speaking about; but we can also obtain it in many other ways. Friction will produce heat. The Indians rub pieces of wood together until they make them hot enough to take fire; and such things have been known as two branches of a tree rubbing together so hard as to set the tree on fire. I do not suppose I shall set these two pieces of wood on fire by friction; but I can readily produce heat enough to ignite some phosphorus. [The Lecturer here rubbed two pieces of cedar-wood strongly against each other for a minute, and then placed on them a piece of phosphorus, which immediately took fire.] And if you take a smooth metal button stuck on a cork, and rub it on a piece of soft deal wood, you will make it so hot as to scorch wood and paper, and burn a match.
Fig. 31.
I am now going to shew you that we can obtain heat, not by chemical affinity alone, but by the pressure of air. Suppose I take a pellet of cotton and moisten it with a little ether, and put it into a glass tube (fig. 31), and then take a piston and press it down suddenly, I expect I shall be able to burn a little of that ether in the vessel. It wants a suddenness of pressure, or we shall not do what we require. [The piston was forcibly pressed down, when a flame, due to the combustion of the ether, was visible in the lower part of the syringe.] All we want is to get a little ether in vapour, and give fresh air each time, and so we may go on again and again getting heat enough by the compression of air to fire the ether-vapour.
This, then, I think, will be sufficient, accompanied with all you have previously seen, to shew you how we procure heat. And now for the effects of this power. We need not consider many of them on the present occasion, because when you have seen its power of changing ice into water and water into steam, you have seen the two principal results of the application of heat. I want you now to see how it expands all bodies—all bodies but one, and that under limited circumstances. Mr. Anderson will hold a lamp under that retort, and you will see the moment he does so that the air will issue abundantly from the neck, which is under water, because the heat which he applies to the air causes it to expand. And here is a brass rod (fig. 32) which goes through that hole, and fits also accurately into this gauge; but if I make it warm with this spirit-lamp, it will only go in the gauge or through the hole with difficulty; and if I were to put it into boiling-water, it would not go through at all. Again, as soon as the heat escapes from bodies they collapse. See how the air is contracting in the vessel, now that Mr. Anderson has taken away his lamp: the stem of it is filling with water. Notice, too, now, that although I cannot get the tube through this hole or into the gauge, the moment I cool it by dipping it into water, it goes through with perfect facility; so that we have a perfect proof of this power of heat to contract and expand bodies.
Fig. 32.
LECTURE V.
MAGNETISM—ELECTRICITY.
I wonder whether we shall be too deep to-day or not. Remember that we spoke of the attraction by gravitation of all bodies to all bodies by their simple approach. Remember that we spoke of the attraction of particles of the same kind to each other,—that power which keeps them together in masses,—iron attracted to iron, brass to brass, or water to water. Remember that we found, on looking into water, that there were particles of two different kinds attracted to each other; and this was a great step beyond the first simple attraction of gravitation; because here we deal with attraction between different kinds of matter. The hydrogen could attract the oxygen, and reduce it to water, but it could not attract any of its own particles; so that there we obtained a first indication of the existence of two attractions.