Count Rumford Identifies Heat 



" At the end of two hours from the beginning, 

 the temperature was 178. 



" At two hours and twenty minutes it was 200, 

 and at two hours and thirty minutes it actually 

 boiled /" 



"It would be difficult to describe the surprise 

 and astonishment expressed in the countenances 

 of the bystanders on seeing so large a quantity 

 of water heated, and actually made to boil, 

 without any fire. Though there was nothing 

 that could be considered very surprising in this 

 matter, yet I acknowledge fairly that it afforded 

 me a degree of childish pleasure which, were I 

 ambitious of the reputation of a grave philoso- 

 pher, I ought most certainly rather to hide than 

 to discover. " 



He then carefully estimates the quantity of 

 heat possessed by each portion of his apparatus 

 at the conclusion of the experiment, and, adding 

 all together, finds a total sufficient to raise 26.58 

 pounds of ice-cold water to its boiling point, or 

 through 1 80 Fahrenheit. By careful calcula- 

 tion, he finds this heat equal to that given out by 

 the combustion of 2,303.8 grains (equal to four 

 and eight-tenths ounces troy) of wax. 



He then determines the "celerity" with which 

 the heat was generated; summing up thus: 

 "From the results of these computations, it ap- 

 pears that the quantity of heat produced equably, 

 or in a continuous stream, if I may use the ex- 

 pression, by the friction of the blunt steel borer 

 against the bottom of the hollow metallic cylin- 

 159 



