37 
Steam Engine, 
ther before compression, are precisely equal to the sensi- 
ble and latent heat taken together of the denser steam. But 
in the dense steam, the sensible heat is increased, and the 
latent heat proportionally diminished. The explanation 
of this fact will be furnished by a principle to be hereafter 
explained, that the capacities of elastic Jiuids for calorie 
are uniformly diminished hy increasing their density. 
The large quantity of caloric, latent in steam, renders its 
application extremely useful for practical purposes. Thus^ 
water may be heated, as in the foregoing experiment, at a 
considerable distance from the source of heat, by lengthen- 
ing the conducting pipe e. This furnishes us with a 
commodious method of warming the water of baths, 
which, in certain cases of disease, it is of importance to 
have near the patient’s bed room ; for the boiler, in which 
the water is heated, may thus be placed on the ground 
floor, or in the cellar of a house ; and the steam convey- 
ed by pipes into an upper apartment. Steam may also 
be applied to the purpose of heating or evaporating water, 
by a modification of the apparatus. 
Specific Caloric. 
Equal weights of the same body, at the same tempera- 
ture, contain the same quantities of caloric. But equal 
weights of different bodies, at the same temperature, con- 
tain unequal quantities of caloric. The quantity of calo- 
ric, which one body contains, compared with that contain- 
ed in another, is called its specific caloric ; and the power 
or property, which enables bodies to retain different quan- 
tities of caloric, has been called capacity for caloric. The 
method of determining the specific caloric, or comparative 
quantities of caloric in different bodies, is as follows : 
It has already been observed, that equal weights of the 
same body, at different temperatures, give, on admixture, 
the arithmetical mean. Thus, the temperature of a pint 
