392 Phenomena oj Atomic 



For the Mmithly Mayaxine. 



PHENOMENA q/" ATOMIC MOTION and 

 of GASES. 



1. TJEAT is llie uiotion of atoms, 

 M.M. and the words " motion of 

 atoms" are its synonime and equiva- 

 lent ; and Heat and its varieties are, 

 like all other phenomena, produced by 

 quantity multiplied by velocity, or by 

 matter into motion. 



2. Heat is either rendered apptirent 

 by the nervous perception of feeling 

 or is visible in that radiation of atoms, 

 •which decomposes the body from 

 which the radiation proceeds. 



3. The radiations do not take place 

 into empty space, but into space al- 

 ready full of atoms in the state of gas ; 

 consequently, the radiating atoms are 

 obstructed, and deflected into circles 

 of rotation. 



4. These circles are larger or smal- 

 ler as the imparted motion or heat is 

 greater or less ; and hence atoms ra- 

 diated form gas more or less expan- 

 sive. Gas, consequently, is alouis til- 

 ling space by their momenta. 



5. As space is a vacuum, except so 

 far as it is filled witii gas, or atoms in 

 motion, so these will in such vacuum 

 continue to move tor e\er, except so 

 far as they lose their motion by colli- 

 sion with fixed bodies, or with atoms in 

 less intense motions ; and hence arise 

 permanent gases, and gases more or 

 less permanent, as their original ex- 

 citement was greater or less. 



6. Whatever stops them or fixes 

 them receives their momenta or heat ; 

 as when gas is condensed it loses part 

 of its motion, and the body receiving 

 the motion becomes hot. 



7. In the act of respiration, animals 

 fix gas, become warm, and receive the 

 energy of the atoms of gas into their 

 system ; and animal heat and energy 

 is derived simply from fixing atoms of 

 gas, and from receiving the momenta 

 of its atoms. 



8. Aqueous gas, when suddenly re- 

 converted into water, in parting with 

 its momentum, heat.-> the proximate 

 body to which the motion is imparted; 

 but, when such an excitement is given 

 to the atoms as that they cannot be refix- 

 ed.then, as they do not impart their mo- 

 tion, they indicate no heat, but create 

 even a sense of coldness, by causing 

 an evaporation from the skin immerstd 

 in a space occupied by them.* 



• This fact has been known these thirty 

 year!!, and was an object of speculation to 



Motion and of Gases. [June f, 



9. So also atmospheric air, and other 

 gases usually considered permanent, 

 exhibit no heat ; but, so far as they 

 cause an evaporation or a parting with 

 motion, create a sense of coldness. 

 Whenever the air is warm, it is be- 

 cause vapouis easily refixed are mixed 

 with it. Fixation and heat are simul- 

 taneous. Evaporation or gassification 

 and coldness are also simultaneous. 



10. When no foreign atoms arc 

 mixed with the atmospiiere, or wIk n 

 there is no evaporation or materials to 

 refix and part with motion, then the 

 atniosjihere is at once clear and cold, 

 as in the winter of cold climates; hut 

 wilt n there are foreign atoms to refix, 

 as in summer or in a close room, then 

 the air is at once misty and warm. 



11. Flame is visible gas; or gas 

 whose atoms are so snnall, and ra- 

 diated with such velocity, as to per- 

 meate the humours of the e\e, and 

 other triinsparent bodies, producing, 

 by reiterated fixation, the sense of 

 heat. It appears to result from the 

 fixation of energetic atoms called 

 oxygenous, and the transfer of their 

 momenta to atoms sn.allcr or rarer, 

 called hydrogenous. 



12. Hydrogen must exist in a body 

 cajiable of combustion, and hy(lro>;eM 

 gas be generated ; while oxygen must 

 exist in the adjoining atmosphere, and 

 be fixed, before tlame is produced. 

 It is the result of the action of the 

 latter transleried to the I'ornser. 



13. This new theory of gassification 

 illustrates every variety of phenoniena 

 by simple mechanical action, without 

 any gratuitous ])rinciple whatever; 

 and it paiticularly exjilains the mode 

 by which the excited atoms of a cubic 

 inch of matter fills ten thousand times 

 their space with their power or mo- 

 menta, without any principle either of 

 repulsion or caloric. 



Common Sense. 



the writer full twenty years ago, when he 

 was misled by the airogaiit a>>siiniptioii8 

 of the superslilious. phihsophfi about the 

 fanciful principle of caloric. But the philo- 

 sophy of gratuitous powers begins now to 

 be heard only in the monkish cloisters of 

 universities, or within the walls of super- 

 animated societies, which have been dele, 

 riorated by self-election through eight or 

 ten generations. We want retornied uni- 

 versities and renovated societies ; and then 

 the entire machinery of the diirk ages will 

 pass away, and, " like the baseless fabric 

 of a vision, leave not a wreck behind." 



For 



