JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



OCTOBER 1797. 



ARTICLE I. 



A Account of the Manner in •which Heat is propagated in Fluids, and its general Confcquence, 

 m the Economy of the Univerfe. By BENJAMIN Count of R VMFORD *. 



1 H E doarlne of heat is of fuch fingular importance, not only in the experiments of phi- 

 lofophers, but in the whole economy of animated and of inanimate beings, that at firft 

 fight it appears wonderful the greateft part of the difcoveries relative to this natural 

 power (hould have been made by oui cotemporaries. Not many years ago, our knowledge 

 amounted to httle more than that bodies, by the communication of heat, acquire a common 

 temperature; a fad which, Hmply expreffed, denotes nothing more than that there is a 

 ftate of equ.hbnum, at which two bodies may be in contaQ, without the communication 

 othcat from the one to the other; and again, that the communication of heat is more 

 rap.dlyefFeaed through fome bodies than through others. Th.e difcoveries of Dodors 

 , ' ' "'' ^""•^°''''' ^^^ ^'l^-^". li^-ve taught us, that when bodies equal in weight or 

 bun.-, or ahke m any other attribute (their intimate nature or compofition excepted), are 

 brought mto contaa, they do not, by acquiring the common temperature, occafion an equal 

 c.iange in the fcn/ible heat of each. In fomc inflances the heavier body mud part with a 

 greater number of degrees of its temperature before an equilibrium of communication be- 

 comes eftabhlhcd between itfclf and a lighter body; and in other inRanccs the contrary 

 wll be the cafe. If, therefore, water be ufed as a ftandard, and applied in like tempera- 

 tures and circumftances to dilTcrent bodies, tlie common temperature willdifllr accordingly 

 a. the bouies thcmfelves require a greater or lefs portion of heat to occafion f.milar changes 

 Al,rtr;.ft or abridgement from his wiitings, chiefly the Vllih ENpciiniaiial KIT.v. 



Vol, L— Octodcu 1707. p „ 



'-" * V in 



