IIS JAMKS CI.KItK MAXWF.U. 



At tho meeting of the British Association at 

 Ipswich, in 1851, a paper by J. J. Waterston of 

 Bombay, on " The (icneral Theory of Gases," was read. 

 The following is an extract from the Proceedings: 



The author " conceives that the atoms of a gas, 

 being perfectly elastic, are in continual motion in all 

 directions, being constrained within a limited space 

 by their collisions with each other, and with tho 

 particles of surrounding bodies. 



" The vis viva of these motions in a given portion 

 of a gas constitutes the quantity of heat contained 

 in it. 



" He shows that the result of this state of motion 

 must be to give the gas an elasticity proportional 

 to the mean square of the velocity of the molecular 

 motions, and to the total mass of the atoms contained 

 in unity of bulk" (unit >| volume; that is to say, to 

 the density of the medium. 



"The elasticity in a given gas is the measure 

 of temperature. Equilibrium of pressure and heat 

 between two gases takes place when the number 

 of atoms in unit of volume is equal and the vis 

 viva of each atom equal Temperature, therefore, 

 in all gases is proportional to the mass of one atom 

 multiplied by the mean square of the velocity of the 

 molecular motions, being measured from an absolute 

 zero 491 Wow the zero of Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer/' 



It appears, therefore, from these extracts that the 

 discovery of the laws that temperature is measured by 

 the mean kinetic energy of a single molecule, and 

 that in a mixture of gases the mean kinetic energy of 



