356 Mr A. J. Adie on the Expansion of Stone, 



be altogether groundless, as I have found no stone which ex- 

 pands less than the black marble from Gal way in Ireland. 



Since the commencement of my experiments, I have seen a 

 notice in the London and Edinburgh Journal of Science, of a 

 letter read on the 12th of March 1834 to the Geological Society 

 of London by Mr Charles Bab b age, in which the author states, 

 that, from the experiments of Colonel Tot ten, recorded in Sil- 

 liman's Journal, he has calculated a table of the expansion, in 

 feet and decimal parts, of granite, marble, and sandstone, from 

 which he finds the alteration in bulk so great, that, supposing the 

 strata under the temple of Serapis to expand at the same rate as 

 sandstone, and an increase of temperature equal to 100° to act 

 on them to the depth of five miles, the temple would be raised 

 25 feet. He therefore concludes, that the different changes of 

 level which this edifice has undergone in reference to the surface 

 of the sea, may be accounted for, simply by supposing the tem- 

 perature of the subjacent rocks to have been altered. The sand- 

 stone which Colonel Totten had experimented on has been even 

 more sensible to change than any of my specimens ; because I find 

 that a similar increase of temperature acting on a mass of what 

 the marble-cutters call Sicilian white marble, five miles thick, 

 would produce an elevation of only 19.8 feet, or about }ths of 

 the other ; and it expands more than any other stone I have 

 tried. 



Before making any farther remarks on the experiments them- 

 selves, I shall give an account of the construction of my pyro- 

 meter, and of the manner in which the experiments were con- 

 ducted, so that every one may be enabled to judge how far he 

 may rely on the accuracy of the results at which I have arrived. 



Description of a Pyrometer heated by a Current of Steam. 



The pyrometer I employed was constructed of a large piece 

 of an oak tree of very straight growth, which was squared to eight 



