Abstract
A DISCOURSE was delivered on Friday evening, June 2, at the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street, by Dr. Andrews on the “Gaseous and Liquid States of Matter,” from which we make the following extracts:— “The liquid state of matter forms a link between the solid and gaseous states. This link is, however, often suppressed, and the solid passes directly into the gaseous or vaporous form. In the intense cold of an arctic winter, hard ice will gradually change into transparent vapour without previously assuming the form of water. Carbonic acid snow passes rapidly into gas when exposed to the air, and can with difficulty be liquefied in open tubes. Its boiling point, as Faraday has shown, presents the apparent anomaly of being lower in the thermometric scale than its melting point, a statement less paradoxical than it may at first appear, if we remember that water can exist as vapour at temperatures far lower than those at which it can exist as liquid. Whether the transition be directly from solid to gaseous, or from solid to liquid and from liquid to gaseous, a marked change of physical properties occurs at each step or break, and heat is absorbed, as was proved long ago by Black, without producing elevation of temperature. Many solids and liquids will for this reason maintain a low temperature, even when surrounded by a white hot atmosphere, and the remarkable experiment of solidifying water and even mercury on a red hot plate, finds thus an easy explanation. The term spheroidal state, when applied to water floating on a cushion of vapour over a red hot plate, is, however, apt to mislead. The water is not here in any peculiar state. It is simply water evaporating rapidly at a few degrees below its boiling point, and all its properties, even those of capillarity, are the properties of ordinary water at 96°5C. The interesting phenomena peared. He afterwards succeeded in repeating the experiment in glass tubes, and arrived at the following results. An hermetically sealed glass tube, containing sufficient alcohol to occupy two-fifths of its capacity, was gradually heated, when the liquid was seen to dilate, and its mobility at the same time to become gradually greater. After attaining to nearly twice its original volume, the liquid completely disappeared, and was converted into a vapour so transparent that the tube appeared to be quite empty. On allowing the tube to cool, a very thick cloud was formed, after which the liquid reappeared in its former state.
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On the Gaseous and Liquid States of Matter . Nature 4, 186–188 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004186a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004186a0