NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



140 degrees below zero, centigrade scale, the im- 

 palpable air we breathe becomes a liquid; a little 

 lower, it turns to snow it is solid air. At yet 

 colder cold, or at about 240 degrees below, the 

 lightest and most volatile of known substances, the 

 gas hydrogen, likewise turns to a liquid, and a few 

 degrees lower still to a solid. 



The temperature of space is thirteen to fifteen 

 degrees lower still. Of course, it can only be cal- 

 culated, for there seems no human means of at- 

 taining it. Various methods indicate space tem- 

 perature at 273 degrees centigrade (460 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit). This is what present-day sci- 

 ence regards as "absolute zero," the coldest cold, 

 the point at which all motion of the atoms has 

 ceased. But this may be a delusion; there may 

 be no such point. 



Measured, then, from the temperature which this 

 populous earth will one day, dead and lifeless, at- 

 tain, our little living world lies within the narrow 

 limits of about 280 degrees to 350 degrees of the 

 "absolute" scale. When we turn to known tem- 

 peratures above this, we find a far greater reach. 

 The interior of a good grate fire reaches several 

 hundred degrees above boiling water; a gas-flame 

 to 600 or 700 degrees centigrade. The " lime-light " 

 used in the theatres and magic - lantern shows 

 reaches 2200 degrees or 2500 degrees centigrade, 



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