i64 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 tion arises, whence came the caloric which served to heat, not only 

 the water, but also the metal and the objects immediately surround- 

 ing it ? 



I am far from desiring to deceive anyone by an imposing arrange- 

 ment of facts ; but the facts in my experiments were so very striking 

 that it was altogether impossible for me to help instituting comparisons 

 and making calculations with regard to them which would make them 

 clear, especially to those not yet sufficiently acquainted with such in- 

 vestigations. 



I will now close my remarks with an entirely new computation. I 

 will show whether it is probable that the metal could supply all the heat 

 which was produced by friction in the experiment in question. If we 

 are to make this supposition, we must, in the first place, allow that all 

 the heat came directly from the particles of metal which were sepa- 

 rated from the solid mass of metal by the friction ; for, since the mass 

 remained in the same condition throughout the entire experiment, it is 

 evident that it could contribute in no measure to the effect produced. 



We will now inquire how much heat would have been developed if 

 the experiment had been carried on without cessation, until the whole 

 mass of metal had been reduced to powder by the friction. 



After the experiment had lasted an hour and a half, there were 

 4145 grains (Troy) of the metallic dust, and during that time an 

 amount of heat was produced by the friction sufficient to raise 26.58 

 pounds of ice-cold water to the boiling point. 



Since the mass of metal weighed 11 3. 13 pounds, or 791,190 grains, 

 all this metal would have been reduced to powder if the experiment 

 had lasted uninterruptedly, day and night, for 477% hours, or for 19 

 days 2 1 1/2 hours, and during this time an amount of heat would have 

 been produced sufficient to have raised 5078 pounds of water to the 

 boiling-point. 



Since the metal used in this experiment showed a capacity for heat 

 which was to that of vi^ter as o. 11 to i, it is evident that this amount 

 of heat would have been sufficient to raise a mass of the same metal 

 46,165 pounds in weight through 180 degrees of Fahrenheit's scale, 

 or from the temperature of melting ice to that of boiling water. 



This amount of heat would be sufficient to melt a mass of metal 

 sixteen times heavier than that which I used in the experiment. 



Is it at all conceivable that such an enormous quantity of caloric 



