A blacksmith may hammer a small piece of iron until it becomes red hot. With this he may light a match, and kindle the fire of his forge. The iron has become more dense by the hammering, and it cannot again be heated to the same degree by similar means, until it has been exposed in fire, to a red heat. Is it not possible that, by hammering, the particles of iron have been driven closer together, and the latent heat driven out? No further hammering will force the atoms nearer, and therefore no further heat can be developed. But when the iron has again absorbed caloric, by being plunged in a fire, it is again charged with latent heat. Indians produce sparks by rubbing together two pieces of wood. Two pieces of ice may be rubbed together until sufficient warmth is developed to melt them both. The axles of railway carriages frequently become red hot from friction.
Yes; whenever oxygen combines with carbon to form carbonic acid gas, an extrication of heat takes place, however minute the amount. Such a combination occurs much more extensively during the germination of seeds and the impregnation of flowers, than at any other time. In the germination of barley heaped in rooms, previous to being converted into malt, it is well known that a considerable amount of heat is developed.
91. Has any investigation of this subject ever been carefully made?
Yes. Lamarck, Senebier, and De Candolle, found the flowers of the Arum Maculatum, between three and seven o'clock in the afternoon, as much as 7 deg. Reaum. warmer than the external air. Schultz found a difference of 4 deg. to 5 deg. between the heat of the spathe of the Canadian pinnatifolium and the surrounding air, at six to seven o'clock p.m. Other observations have established differences of as much as 30 deg. between the temperature of the spathe of the Arum cordifolium, and that of the surrounding atmosphere.
"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh in all."—Corinthians xii.
92. Have plants sometimes a temperature lower than that of the surrounding air?
Yes. It has not only been found that under particular circumstances the heat of certain parts of plants is elevated to a very remarkable degree, but that, under nearly all circumstances, they have a temperature different from that of the external air, being warmer in winter, and cooler in summer.