116 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
s team ; and in a state of combination with other bo¬ 
dies. 
What is the most simple state of water 7 
That of ice ; because water contains a larger portion 
of caloric, (a) 
How do we define vapour 7 
Vapour is water combined with a still greater quan¬ 
tity of caloric. ( b ) 
What are the properties of vapour 7 
Vapour, owing to the large portion of caloric which 
is combined with it, takes a gaseous form, acquires 
great expansive force, (c) and a capability of support¬ 
ing enormous weights; whence it has become a use¬ 
ful and powerful agent for raising minerals of all 
kinds, and even water itself, from deep pits, and for 
other very important purposes. ( d ) 
In lohal proportions are oxygen and hydrogen com¬ 
bined to form water 7 
Water is composed of 88 parts by weight of oxy¬ 
gen, and 12 of hydrogen, in every 100 parts of the 
fluid. 
How is it known that water is a compound substance 7 
Several methods have been contrived whereby wa¬ 
ter may be decomposed, and the exact proportion ol 
its constituent parts ascertained. 
Do you know any of the methods of decomposing wa¬ 
ter ? 
Yes, there are several: it may be done by forcing 
it through a tube over red-hot chai-coal, by passing 
repeated electrical shocks through it, and also by 
means of the galvanic apparatus. 
Does nature decompose water in any of her operations 7 
Certainly, by many: particularly by means of every 
living vegetable ; all vegetables having the power of 
decomposing water, by a secret operation peculiar to 
themselves. Fish, in general, and all cold-blooded 
(a) Ice at 32° must absorb 140° of caloric before it 
can become fluid; or such a quantity as would raise a 
body of water of equal bulk with itself from 32’ to 172 
This may be very evident to a youth who has been 
taught the use of a thermometer, by the following direc¬ 
tion : 
“ Take any quantity, by weight, of ice or snow at 32°, 
and mix it with an equal weight of water heated exactly 
to 172’. The snow instantly melts and the tempera¬ 
ture of the mixture is still only at thirty-two degrees. 
Here the water is cooled 140°, while the temperature 
of the snow is not increased at all; so that 140° of ca¬ 
loric have disappeared. They must have combined 
with the snow; but they have only melted it without 
increasing its temperature. Hence, it follows irresisti 
bly that ice, when converted into water, absorbs and 
combines with 140° of caloric. X^ator, tbpn, after being 
cooled down to 32’, cannot freeze till it has parted wtili 
140° of caloric; and ice, after being heated to 32’ 
(which is the exact freezing point,) cannot melt till it 
has absorbed 140’ more of caloric. This is the cause 
of the extreme slowness of these operations. There 
can be no doubt, then, but water owes its fluidity to its 
latent caloric, and that its caloric of fluidity is 140°. 
( b ) However long we boil water in an open vessel, 
we cannot make it in the smallest degree, hotter than 
its boiling point. When arrived at this point, the vapour 
absorbs the heat, and carries it off as fast as it is gene¬ 
rated. Yet by continued heat, united with additional 
compression, both the expansibility and temperature 
of steam may be greatly increased; and some construc¬ 
tors of steam engines have lately availed themselves of 
this property, to augment the power and diminish the 
expense. 
Owing to the quantity of caloric that liquids require 
to convert them into vapour, all evaporation produces 
cold. It has been remarked before, that an animal 
might be frozen to death in the midst of summer, by re¬ 
peatedly sprinkling ether upon him. Its evaporation 
would shortly carry oil’ the whole of his vital heat. 
Water thrown on hot bodies acts in the same way; it 
becomes, in an instant, converted into vapour, and thus 
deprives these bodies of a great portion of the caloric 
they contained. 
(c) The expansive force of steam is found by experi¬ 
ment to be much greater than that of gunpowder. Some 
volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, it is supposed, owe 
their terrible effects to this power of steam; the water 
of the sea finding its way to subterraneous fires. In 
boiling oil, the workmen are very careful to prevent 
any water coming near it; for a single drop coming 
among it would instantly, by the excessive heat of the 
oil, be converted into vapour, and would force part of 
the oil over the sides of the boiler. 
It is to the expansive force of steam, that the well 
known motion in wat- r, called boiling, is to he asci'ibed. 
The vapour is first formed at the bottom of the vessel, 
and, passing through the water, causes that motion in 
it which we call ebullition. 
( d) §Jmim is now employed in a vast variety of ways 
in thejljSperent manufactories of this kingdom. It is 
used economy of fuel in a great number of 
dye-house?PS*hmous parts of Great-Britain. It should, 
however, be remembered, that whenever it is intended 
to heat water by means of steam, the steam must not be 
thrown in upon its surface, but must be conducted to the 
bottom of tiie cold liquor before it can be disengaged, oi- 
the effect will not be produced, water having but little 
power of conducting heat downwards-. 
amphibious animals, we have reason to think, are en¬ 
dowed also with the same faculty. 
For what purpose are vegetables endowed with this 
power of decomposing water 7 
They combine part of its hydrogen, as well as of 
its oxygen, with the carbon of the atmosphere and 
of the soil, to form the vegetable compounds, oil, wax, 
gum, resin, sugar, &c.; while the superfluous oxygen 
is abundantly evolved by the leaves; 
“ Killing infectious damps, and the spent air 
Storing afresh with elemental life.” (e) 
Can you recapitulate what has hitherto been detailed 
of the nature of oxygen 7 
Yes : oxygen is the basis of vital air, as well as one 
of the constituent parts of water; it is the chief sup¬ 
port of life and heat; and performs an important part 
in most of the changes which take place in the mine¬ 
ral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. 
What is hydrogen, the other constituent part of water 7 
Hydrogen is the base of that gas which was for¬ 
merly called inflammable air, and is, when in the 
aeriform state, the lightest of all ponderable things. 
Has any method been discovered of composing water 
by a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen 7 
Yes : there are several ways of doing this, so that 
the composition of this fluid is now ascertained beyond 
all doubt. 
Do you know any of the methods which have been em¬ 
ployed to form water by a mixture of its constituent 
parts 7 
If a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gases, in pro¬ 
portion, be fired, the inflammation will unite the basis 
of the two gases, without separating the whole of 
their caloric, and water will be the product. 
Is there any reason to suppose that water is thus form¬ 
ed in any of the great operations of nature 7 
Yes : it is probable that the torrents of rain which 
generally accompany thunder storms, may arise from 
a sudden combustion of hydrogen and oxygen gases. 
How is the atmosphere furnished with this hydrogen 
gas 7 
Hydrogen is continually emanating from, and is the 
consequence of, every species of vegetable and animal 
decay or putrefaction ; and it is also evolved from va¬ 
rious mines, volcanoes, and other natural sources. 
What is the specific gravity of water 7 
A wine-pint measure of water weighs rather more 
than one pound; and a cubic foot of water weighs 
about 1,000 ounces, or 62^ pounds avoirdupois. It 
is 825 times heavier than atmospheric air. 
What change does water undergo in order to be con¬ 
verted into ice 7 
The atmosphere, when its temperature is suffi¬ 
ciently low, deprives the water of a certain portion of 
its caloric—crystallization then ensues, and the water 
solidifies and beomes ice. (/) 
What do you mean by crystallization 7 
By crystallization, is understood the concretion of 
certain substances into regular forms, occasioned by 
the loss of a portion of their caloric. 
To what substances is the term usually applied 7 
The term is generally applied to compound bodies 
of the saline kind, and to their separation in regular 
and peculiar figures, from the water in which they 
were dissolved.. 
You have said that ice is the most simple state of wa¬ 
ter : do you then imagine that water is naturally solid 7 
Near the poles water is eternally solid : there it is 
similar to the hardest rocks, and may be formed by the 
chisel of the statuary, like stone. 
Is this great solidily of ice at the poles owing to its 
being frozen in such large masses! 
The great solidity of ice at the poles is occasioned 
by the very low temperature of the circumambient 
air; for in very cold countries ice may be ground so 
(e) When a living vegetable is moistened with water 
and the sun shines upon it, two very important opera¬ 
tions are performed at the same time by the decomposi¬ 
tion of the water which the sun’s rays enable the plant 
to effect, viz; the plant is nourished by hydrogen, and 
the atmosphere is purified by the restoration of its oxy¬ 
gen. 
(/) Water in freezing crystallizes in filaments, which 
are uniformly joined at angles of 60 and 120 degrees. 
The word crystal originally signified ice. 
It is owing to the expansion of water in freezing, that 
rocks and trees are often split during intense frosts. 
According to the calculations of the Florentine acade¬ 
mies, a spherule, or little globe of water, only one inch 
in diameter, expands in freezing with a force superior 
to the resistance of 13| tons weight. Major Williams 
also attempted to prevent this expansion; hut during 
the operation the iron plug which stopped the orifice of 
the bomb-shell containing the freezing water, and which 
was more than two pounds weight, was projected seve¬ 
ral hundred feet with great velocity; and in another 
experiment, the shell burst. The imbecility of man 
never appears so conspicuous as when he attempts to 
counteract the operation of laws which were designed 
by infinite beneficence for his preservation and com¬ 
fort. The law in question is eminently important, and 
nature has made it unalterable. 
fine as to be blown away by the wind, and will still 
be ice. 
Is ice the only instance of water existing in a state 
of solidity 7 
No : water becomes still more solid in the compo¬ 
sition called mortar and in cements, having parted 
with more of its caloric in that combination than it 
does in the act of freezing. ( g ) 
What other instances are there of water taking a solid 
form 7 
Water is also combined in a state of solidity in 
many alkaline, earthy, and metallic salts, (h) both na¬ 
tural and artificial; and most of these, when deprived 
of it, lose their transparency and also their crystal¬ 
line form. 
What are the general and more obvious advantages 
which we derive from water 7 
Water is a necessary beverage for man and other 
animals; is perpetually used as a solvent (i) for a 
great variety of solid bodies; acts an important part 
in conveying nourishment to the vegetable world, and 
giving salubrity to the atmospherical regions; and 
lastly, by its accumulation in the ocean, affords a 
ready communication with distant countries;—the 
whole of which evidently teaches how provident the 
great author of nature has been in his attentions to 
to the comforts and conveniences, as well as to the 
wants, of his numerous creatures. 
Beauty lias little to do with engaging the love of 
women. The air, the manner, the tone, the conver¬ 
sation, the something that interests, and something 
to be proud of—these are the attributes of the man 
made to be beloved.— Bulwer. 
(g) Though water takes a solid form in its various 
combinations, such as with lime, saline crystals, &c. we 
know of no method of compressing it when in a fluid 
state. The Florentine academicians filled a globe of 
gold perfectly full of water, and submitted it to a very 
powerfull press; hut could not perceive that they were 
able to make it occupy a less space than it did at first. 
They gave it such a degree of pressure that at length 
the water exuded through the pores of the metal. 
( h) If water be thrown on quick-lime, it will be re¬ 
tained by it with such force that nothing less than an 
intense red heat will separate it. In its combination 
with lime it becomes much more solid than when in the 
state of ice; which may he proved by direct experiment. 
Calcined plaster of Paris, in a pulverulent state, be¬ 
comes quickly solid by mixing it with water. Saussure 
has proved that alumina, when mixed with water, re¬ 
tains a tenth of its weight of that fluid at a heat which 
would melt iron. 
(i) It should be remembered, that all bodies which 
are soluble in water, form during their solution, a che¬ 
mical combination with the water, and that solutions in 
water, are not mechanical mixtures. 
Water is not only employed as a solvent for many 
solid substances, but has important uses in a variety of 
compounds. Besides imparting solidity to the classes 
of salts, it gives energy to the action of many of the 
acids, and is even necessarj^ in their formation. Muri¬ 
atic acid and nitrous acid gases are condensed so as to 
form liquid acids, merely by their union with water. 
FROM THE STEAM PRESS OF 
PACKARD, VAN BENTHUYSEN & Co. 
