Hot water

“ Hot water smells quite different from cold water. It is warm water—or ice—that has the really difficult smell. Why, I once followed a man for ten miles on a dark night by the smell of the hot water he had used to shave with—for the poor fellow had no soap.... Now then, let us see which way the wind is blowing. Wind is very important in long-distant smelling. ”

“ Bottles, jugs, or rubber bags, filled with hot water, hot bricks or stones, wrapped in papers or cloths, hot cloths, bags filled with hot sand, salt, or corn meal, are all convenient methods of applying dry heat. ”

“ Hot Water.—Heating by means of the circulation of hot water has been in vogue many years, but has not found favour for warming living-rooms and apartments, owing chiefly to the want of the air of comfort, and the warmth is not quite so agreeable as that radiated from an open fire ”

“ Whether the water be heated or cooled at this temperature, it expands to the boiling or freezing point when it becomes steam or ice, as the case may be.
Water, when heated, is lighter than cold water. You can prove this in filling a bath from two taps of hot and cold water at the same time. The cold falls to the bottom, and if you do not stir up the water when mixed you will have a hot surface and a cold foundation. The heat increases the volume of water, it becomes lighter, and comes uppermost. ”

“ Their hot baths for they almost all bathe in very hot water of about 110 Fahrenheit also help to keep them warm in winter. For though moderately hot water gives a chilly reaction, this is not the case when the water is extremely hot, neither is there then any fear of catching cold. ”

“ The application of hot water to the heating of churches, public libraries, and other buildings, has been attended with considerable success, and it is now looked upon as the safest, as well as one of the most effectual artificial methods of heating. ”

“ The hot water being conveyed into the pan fills the arms, and, running out through the perforated holes, causes the arms to revolve round the tun. By this means an equal and continuous shower of hot water is rained upon every portion of the goods. ”

“ We see water passing from solid ice to liquid water and gaseous steam, by a mere rise in temperature, and conversely, by abstraction of heat, steam passes back to water, and then to ice.
When one’s hands get wet they get cold. A commonplace, but convenient proof of this is to wet the finger in the mouth and hold it in the air. A sensible reduction of temperature is instantly noticeable. A more pronounced illustration is to wet the hands in a basin of water, and then plunge them in the blast of hot, dry air coming from a furnace register. ”

“ If the same hot water arose at the same heat and abundance from any natural spring, baths would be erected, and medical treatises would be written in commendation of its medicinal virtues, which, the better opinion appears now to be, are ascribable, in the majority of instances, simply to the hot water, and to its application in cases where it had not before been used. ”

“ A. Because water (being lighter than sulphuric acid) , is condensed by the heavier liquid; and its heat is squeezed out, as water from a sponge.
Q. Why does cold water, poured on lime, make it intensely hot?
A. The heat is evolved by the chemical action, produced by the cold water combining with the lime.
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Q. Where does the heat come from?
A. It was in the water and lime before; but was in a latent state.
Q. Was there heat in the cold water and lime, before they were mixed together?
A. Yes. All bodies contain heat; the coldest ice, as well as the hottest fire. ”

“ Wherever the sun-waves touch the rivers, ponds, lakes, seas, or fields of ice and snow upon our earth, they carry off invisible water-vapour. They dart down through the top layers of the water, and shake the water-particles forcibly apart; and in this case the drops fly asunder more easily and before they are so hot, because they are not kept down by a great weight of water above, as in the kettle, but find plenty of room to spread themselves out in the gaps between the air-atoms of the atmosphere. ”

“ Now the sun is continually changing the water of rivers, ponds, lakes, and of the ocean, into vapor. This vapor rises. The air about a mile above the earth, is much colder than it is on the earth; so when the hot vapor from the ocean meets the cold air, it again becomes water, and forms clouds. ”

“ The effects of the vapor bath are essentially the same as those described, though a somewhat higher degree of heat is tolerated without injury. In the hot-air bath, a still higher heat is borne with impunity. ”

“ As a bathtub lined with white porcelain,
When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,
So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady. ”

“ Boiling point, the temperature at which a fluid is converted into vapor, with the phenomena of ebullition. This is different for different liquids, and for the same liquid under different pressures. For water, at the level of the sea, barometer 30 in., it is 212 ? Fahrenheit; for alcohol, 172.96?; for ether, 94.8?; for mercury, about 675?. The boiling point of water is lowered one degree Fahrenheit for about 550 feet of ascent above the level of the sea. Ð Boiling spring, a spring which gives out very hot water, or water and steam, often ejecting it with much force; a geyser. ”

“ Superstitious people insist at other times upon pouring hot water into any vessel and then adding cold water even when the reverse process would be more convenient, simply because the{240} latter is the rule at the body-washing. ”

“ A. The salt of the sea retards evaporation; and (as the heat of the body is drawn off very gradually) the sensation of cold is prevented.
Q. Why does sprinkling a hot room with water cool it?
A. The heat of the room causes a rapid evaporation of the sprinkled water; and as the water evaporates, it absorbs heat from the room, and cools it.
Q. Why does watering the streets and roads cool them?
A. The hot streets and roads part with their heat to promote the evaporation of the water sprinkled on them.
Q. Why does a shower of rain seem to cool the air in summer-time? ”

“ Tenthly, Hot or cold water feels hotter or colder, respectively, when the hand is moved in it, than when it is kept at rest. For the hand, when at rest, has time, a little to check or exalt the vibrations in the contiguous hot or cold water. ”

“ If we plunge our hands, one into ice-cold water, and the other into water as hot as can be borne, and, after letting them stay awhile, suddenly transfer them both to a vessel full of water at a blood heat, the one will feel a sensation of heat, the other of cold. ”

“ Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action, and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone. ”

“ The fact is, heat is not at all a property of water, but when a stream of cold water happens upon a hot place, it boils up, and issues through the fissures and out of the ground in a state of heat. This cannot last very long, but in a short time the water becomes cold. If it were naturally hot, it would not cool off and lose its heat. ”

“ It is necessary, when the water has acquired its proper temperature, to withdraw the fire from the boiler, or not to use the bath immediately, as it may go on acquiring some heat from the boiler, so that we may become inconveniently hot in the bath. ”

“ But it is otherwise in tropical regions where the body and the air bathing it differ much less in temperature, and where, indeed, the air is often higher in temperature than the body. Here the rate of evaporation depends almost wholly on the quantity of surrounding vapor. If the air is hot and moist, the escape of water through the skin and lungs is greatly hindered; while it is greatly facilitated if the air is hot and dry. ”

“ A much more entertaining experiment will shew, that what will be cold to the one hand, will be warm to the other. Pour warm water into one basin, cold water into a second, and a mixture of hot and cold water into a third ”

“ Boiling water, or other liquid, presents only an inanimate element, changed to the touch, not to the eye; but molten metal, red and fiery, takes a new appearance, and seems to have life,—the heat appears to give it voluntary action, and the sense of its power of injury adds to the emotion with which it is regarded; as well as the fact that it takes and preserves the form into which it flows. In this every-day world a new sensation is a new delight. ”

“ Add to this that in these cold moist days as we pass along or as the wind blows upon us, a new sheet of cold water is as it were perpetually applied to us and hangs upon our bodies, now as water is 800 times denser than air and is a much better conductor of heat, we are starved with cold like those who go into a cold bath, both by the great number of particles in contact with the skin and their greater facility of receiving our heat. ”

“ The water in all these rivers, lakes, and oceans is constantly rising into the air in what is called moisture or vapor. We can not see this moisture, neither can we see the air.
If the air is cold, moisture does not rise rapidly; but, as the air becomes heated, it takes up more moisture, so that the more heat there is in the air, the more moisture rises. ”

“ Water, when taken up by the atmosphere, is not in an aqueous state, but is converted into vapor by the efficiency of heat, and then combines with more than five times the quantity of caloric than is required to bring ice-cold water to a boiling heat, and occupies a space 800 times greater than it does when in the form of water. ”

“ Looking down from the brink opposite, masses of dense white vapor conceal the seething volume of fallen water below, from which feathery columns of spray like those described, rainbow-covered and the source of ceaseless showers, perpetually ascend far up into the air. ”

“ The chief source of supply for water which falls on the earth is from the ocean. The heat of the sun raises a vapour from its surface. This vapour condenses and falls as rain or snow, either on sea or land. Rain after falling for some time is almost pure and for that reason is called soft. Hard water contains various minerals. ”

“ To show the poor qualities of water as a conductor of heat, take a long glass tube and fill with water. Then put a piece of ice in one end. The water at the other end may now be brought to the boiling point by means of the flame of a lamp, ere the ice at the other end is melted.
Every one is familiar with the fact that heated air rises ”

“ What an admirable system of compensation exists throughout the universe! Heat, lost by radiation, is quickly restored; water, lifted up by evaporation, has its place supplied by colder currents; mighty rivers discharge their waters in vast quantities into the ocean, and from the far-off regions of the tropics the winds come loaded with dense vapours, which, precipitated at their sources with ample and regular measure, supply all their demands. ”

“ However long we boil a fluid, in an open vessel, we cannot make it in the smallest degree hotter than the boiling point.93 When arrived at this point, the vapor absorbs the heat, and carries it off as fast as it is generated. When water is received into the atmosphere, if the air be warm, it becomes so far changed by its union with the matter of heat as to be perfectly invisible. ”

“ When we were talking about the clouds we learnt that from every wet place, as well as from the seas, lakes, and rivers, water is constantly being drawn up, so that we can see it again in the fleecy clouds which float across the sky, and again when it comes down in the showers which water the earth—the tiny heat-waves are the messengers which perform this work of evaporation. ”

“ The higher the temperature of the air the more water can it retain as vapor; and when air saturated with moisture is cooled, the water is deposited in liquid form in very small globules, forming a mist, fog, or cloud. ”

“ The manner in which heat is transmitted through fluids is altogether different from the mode in which it passes through solids; and hence the waters of the earth’s surface produce peculiar effects upon its condition as to temperature. Moreover, water is susceptible of evaporation in a degree depending upon the increase of heat; and in consequence of this property it has most extensive and important functions to discharge in the economy of nature. ”

“ For instance, a cold pitcher in the summer robs the vapor in the air of its heat, and causes it to be deposited on its own surface,—of course the water comes from the atmosphere, not through the wall of the pitcher; if we breathe on a knife blade, it condenses, in the same manner, the moisture of the breath, and becomes covered with a film of-water ”

“ The rapid evaporation of part of the water, assisted by the radiation of heat from the straw, chills the water remaining, and, if the night is favorable, thin sheets of ice form in the pans by morning. The operation is most successful when the sky is clear and a gentle dry breeze is blowing. ”

“ To the first we answer, that no matter how delicate the constitution may be, reaction can always be obtained, if water of a proper temperature be used; this temperature will vary with the vitality of the individual—the more delicate the individual the warmer the water must be. A delicate person will often receive the same shock and benefit to his system from water at a temperature of 80°, as a strong man may, perhaps, receive from water at a temperature of 42°. ”

“ Perhaps you may ask how it is that the vapor so universally present gets into the atmosphere, and where it comes from. If you pour a little water into a plate, and set it down in the open air, you will note in the course of a day or two, that the water has sensibly diminished. The air has drunk up part of it, and will drink up the whole, if the water is allowed to stand long enough. What takes place from a small quantity of water goes on from every surface of water on the face of the earth, from every brook and river and lake, and from the great sea itself. ”