ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE PHENOMENA. 397 



In some rudimentary experiments we may wish merely 

 to establish the existence of a quantitative effect without 

 precisely measuring its amount ; if there exist causes of 

 error of which we can neither render the amount known 

 or inappreciable, the best way will be to make them all 

 negative so that the quantitative effects will be less than 

 the truth rather than greater. Mr. Grove, for instance, 

 in proving that the magnetization or demagnetization of 

 a piece of iron raises its temperature, took care to maintain 

 the electro-magnet by which the iron was acted upon at 

 a lower temperature, so that it would cool rather than 

 warm the iron by radiation or conduction l . 



Rumford s celebrated experiment to prove that heat was 

 generated out of mechanical force in the boring of a 

 cannon was subject to the difficulty that heat might be 

 brought to the cannon by conduction from neighbouring 

 bodies. It was an ingenious device of Davy to produce 

 friction by a piece of clock-work resting upon a block 

 of ice in an exhausted receiver ; as the machine rose in 

 temperature above 32, it was certain that no heat was 

 received by conduction from the support 111 . In many 

 other experiments ice may be employed to prevent the 

 access of heat by conduction, and this device, first put in 

 practice by Murray 11 , is beautifully employed in Bunsen s 

 calorimeter. 



To obtain the true temperature of the air, though 

 apparently so easy, is really a very difficult matter, 

 because the thermometer employed is sure to be affected 

 either by the sun s rays, the radiation from neighbouring 

 objects, or the escape of heat into space. These sources 



1 The Correlation of Physical Forces, 3rd ed. p. 159. 



m Collected works of Sir H. Davy, vol. ii. pp. 12-14. Elements of 

 Chemical Philosophy, p. 94. 



n Nicholson s Journal, vol. i. p. 241; quoted in Treatise on Heat, 

 Useful Knowledge Society, p. 24. 



