Lighter fluid

“ But the truth is, that the capacity for containing heat depends neither on the oxygenation nor hydrogenation of a fluid, but upon its density. The more fluid and the more easily expansible into vapour that any substance is, the greater quantity of heat it is capable of containing, and vice versa. ”

“ This fluid may possibly be the same with that which attracted by and entering into other more solid matter, dilates the substance, by separating the constituent particles and so rendering some solids fluid, and maintaining the fluidity of others; of which fluid when our bodies are totally deprived, they are said to be frozen; when they have a proper quantity they are in health, and fit to perform all their functions ”

“ Hence, whatever may be the nature of the aërial fluid, when absolutely pure, that which we breathe, and which commonly goes under the name of air, must be considered as an exceedingly heterogeneous mixture, various at various times, and which it is by no means possible to analyze with accuracy. The whole mass of it contains a great deal of water, together with the vast collection of particles raised from all bodies of matter on the surface of the earth by effluvia, exhalations, &c., so that it may be termed a chaos of the particles of all sorts of matter confusedly mingled together. ”

“ When a body passes from a state of solidity to that of fluidity, it absorbs a quantity of heat, which becomes chemically combined with it, and insensible to the touch or the thermometer; in the same manner, when it passes from a fluid state to that of vapour or gas, it combines with a still larger quantity of heat, which remains latent in it, so long as it continues in the state of gas, but when it returns to the liquid or solid state, it gives out the heat which was combined with it, which, being set at liberty, flows into the surrounding bodies, and augments their temperature. ”

“ But what are liquid, formed Of fluid body, they indeed must be Of elements more smooth and round—because Their globules severally will not cohere: To suck the poppy-seeds from palm of hand Is quite as easy as drinking water down, And they, once struck, roll like unto the same. But that thou seest among the things that flow Some bitter, as the brine of ocean is, Is not the least a marvel... For since 'tis fluid, smooth its atoms are And round, with painful rough ones mixed therein ”

“ The properties of hydrogen gas compared with those of the denser aëriform fluids will, in some slight degree, aid our conception of the excessive mobility and penetrating activity of a fluid so constituted. ”

“ In the center of each small representation of the face of the sun is a hollow glass button filled with another form of liquid obtained from the sun’s rays, which we call ‘Light Fluid.’ When light is required in a certain part or in the entire part in any room or hall in this building, a small lever is moved by pressing a button, conveniently situated for that purpose, which brings in contact the principal liquid and the ‘Light’ liquid, with the result you now see ”

“ That the water, and such other fluid bodies, are nothing but a congeries of particles agitated or made fluid by it in the same manner as the particles of Salt are agitated or made fluid by a parcel of water, in which they are dissolv’d, and subsiding to the bottom of it, constitute a fluid body, much more massie and dense, and less fluid then the pure water it self.
That the air on the other side is a certain company of particles of quite another kind, that is, such as are very much smaller, and more easily moveable by the motion of this fluid medium ”

“ We hardly know any Fluid in all Nature, except Fire, whose constituent Parts are so exceeding subtle and small as those of Water are. They'll pass Pores and Interstices, that neither Air nor any other Fluid will. This enables them to enter the finest Tubes and Vessels of Plants, and to introduce the Terrestrial Matter, conveying it to all Parts of them; whilst each, by means of Organs 'tis endowed with for the Purpose, intercepts and assumes into it self such Particles as are suitable to its own Nature, letting the rest pass on through the common Ducts. ”

“ Nor do I much concern my self, to determine what the Figure of the particles of this exceedingly subtile fluid medium must be, nor whether it have any interstitiated pores or vacuities, it being sufficient to solve all the Phænomena to suppose it an exceedingly fluid, or the most fluid body in the world, and as yet impossible to determine the other difficulties.
That being so exceeding fluid a body, it easily gives passage to all other bodies to move to and fro in it. ”

“ It is possible, in the nature of things, for us to conceive that the fluid which we call water may be produced from other constituents than oxygen or hydrogen, or that such a fluid may even now exist undiscovered, the product of elements altogether unknown. ”

“ There are three physical states or conditions of matter, which are the solid, liquid and gaseous, which in this connection apply to Ice, Water and Steam. A solid offers resistance both to change of shape and to change of bulk.
A Fluid offers no resistance to change of shape. Again fluids can be divided into liquids and vapors or gases. Water is the most familiar example of a liquid. A liquid can be poured out in drops while a gas or vapor flows in a stream or streams. ”

“ For this it will be necessary to consider the variations of the energy of the fluids only so far as they are immediately connected with the changes in the solid. We may suppose the solid with so much of the fluid as is in close proximity to it to be enclosed in a fixed envelop, which is impermeable to matter and to heat, and to which the solid is firmly attached wherever they meet. ”

“ For when I have collected an elastic fluid, and observe concerning it that its expansive power is increased by heat and diminished by cold, while it still uniformly retains its elastic fluidity, but also discover in it properties and behaviour different from those of common air, then I consider myself justified in believing that this is a peculiar kind of air. ”

“ He watched as the fluid he had poured emerged into glass tubing no thicker than a human hair, and, under the tons per square inch pressure, stretched into fine fluid columns less than half a dozen molecules thick. ”

“ To the questions,—What are the forces by which absorption, secretion, and the vital motions, of fluids are produced?—no satisfactory answer has been returned. Yet still some steps have been made, which it may be instructive to point out.
12. In Absorption it would appear that a part of the agency is inorganic; for not only dead membranes, but inorganic substances, absorb fluids, and even absorb them with elective forces, according to the ingredients, of the fluid. A force which is of this kind, and which has been termed Endosmose, has been found to produce very curious effects. ”

“ The Science of Hydrostatics depends upon the Fundamental Principle that fluids press equally in all directions. This principle necessarily results from the conception of a Fluid, as a body of which the parts are perfectly moveable in all directions. For since the Fluid is a body, it can transmit pressure; and the transmitted pressure is equal to the original pressure, in virtue of the Axiom that Reaction is equal to Action. That the Fundamental Principle is not derived from experience, is plain both from its evidence and from its history. ”

“ The scientist poured a small quantity of the fluid into a thin glass, and holding it high in his hand, said: “The black fluid you see before you we call Ebony Fluid, because of its color. The great struggle the corpse underwent after the injection of this fluid into it, was due to the struggle of the microbes trying to resist the influence of the fluid. The battle was bravely fought, but the microbes were conquered at last. Nothing in life can resist its influence. ”

“ Under the pressure in these minute vessels, fluid matter oozes through their walls and bathes all the neighbouring tissues. This fluid holds in solution the matters needed for nourishing the tissues, and it also contains gases in solution. Thus the fluid is both a nutritive and respiratory medium; by it the tissues are nourished, and by it they breathe. ”

“ When any secreted fluid is produced in an unusual quantity, and at the same time the power of absorption is increased in equal proportion, not only the heat of the gland becomes more intense, but the secreted fluid becomes thicker and milder, its thinner and saline parts being re-absorbed: and these are distinguishable both by their greater consistence, and by their heat, from the fluids, which are effused by the retrograde motions of the lymphatics ”

“ Fluid. A form of matter, in which its particles readily flow, or slide, over each other. Airs, or gases, are called elastic fluids, because they are readily reduced to a smaller bulk by pressure. Liquids, are denominated non-elastic fluids, because they suffer but little diminution of bulk, by any mechanical force.
Focus. That point in which converging rays unite.
Force. That power which acts upon a body, either tending to create, or to stop motion.
Fountain. A jet, or stream of water, forced upwards by the weight of other water, by the elasticity of air, or some other mechanical pressure. ”

“ EVERY one knows that the matter which constitutes the various natural bodies occurs in three different forms, namely, the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous states. So, too, every one knows that the state of a body is not at all immutable: a solid may be fused and volatilized; a liquid may become a solid, or be transformed into vapor; a gas may be changed into a liquid or a solid—all these changes occurring according to the conditions of temperature or of pressure to which the solids, liquids, or gases, are subjected. ”

“ They are facts, however; liquids capable of being mixed, if connected by porous arches (bibulous paper is convenient for illustrating by experiment) reverse the rule men have accepted to explain the phenomena of liquid equilibrium, for I repeat, the lighter one rushes into that which is heavier, and the surface of the heavier liquid rises. You can try the experiment with alcohol and water, taking precautions to prevent evaporation, or you can vary the experiment with solutions of various salts of different densities ”

“ All this time the water is receiving heat, which, instead of raising its temperature, is becoming latent in the particles as they change from their liquid to their vaporous state. As I said of the change from the solid to the liquid state, so here, every particle of the liquid must have just so much of latent heat in order to become aeriform. Whenever therefore any solid substance becomes liquid, or liquid becomes aeriform, heat is absorbed and becomes latent. ”

“ There is a beautiful phenomenon which accompanies the expansion of ether under the influence of heat. Placed in a flask to which heat is applied, the ether will go off in vapour; and as the heat increases, the vapour will gradually light up into a lovely flame. The expansibility of air, which is vapour in a permanent form, can be shown by experiment. If we tie up an empty or collapsed bladder, and place it in a vessel over an air-pump, we may see, as we withdraw the air from the vessel, and so diminish its pressure, the bladder gradually expand and swell as it does under inflation. ”

“ Thus, when a gas is absorbed by water, much heat is evolved, and we may suppose the result to be due in part to chemical combination, and in part to the condensation of the gas into a liquid, by which means its latent heat is rendered sensible. On the other hand, when a liquid unites with a solid, or when two solids unite with one another, and the product is a liquid, we have very often the absorption of heat, the heat rendered latent by the dissolution of the solid being more than that generated by combination. ”

“ The Particles of Fluids which do not cohere too strongly, and are of such a Smallness as renders them most susceptible of those Agitations which keep Liquors in a Fluor, are most easily separated and rarified into Vapour, and in the Language of the Chymists, they are volatile, rarifying with an easy Heat, and condensing with Cold. But those which are grosser, and so less susceptible of Agitation, or cohere by a stronger Attraction, are not separated without a stronger Heat, or perhaps not without Fermentation. ”

“ Now when the light we examine comes from a glowing solid, like white-hot iron, or a glowing liquid, or a gas under such enormous pressure that it behaves like a liquid, then the images of the slit always overlap each other, so that we see a continuous unbroken band of colour. However much you spread out the light you can never break up or separate the spectrum in any part. [2] But when you send the light, of a glowing gas such as hydrogen through the spectroscope, or of a substance melted into gas or vapour, such as sodium or iron vaporised by great heat, then it is a different story. ”

“ The more a liquid is expanded by a given change of temperature, the greater will be the difference of specific gravity between the part which is heated and the rest of the mass, and the more rapid, therefore, will be the circulation from the change. Any tenacity or viscosity in the liquid will impede its motion, and when water is thickened with flour, or other farinaceous substances, it parts with its acquired heat very slowly. ”

“ If, however, coincidently with the application of pressure, opportunity be given for the excess of heat to be dissipated to a colder surrounding medium, the molecules, giving off their excess of energy, become relatively quiescent, and at a certain stage the gas becomes a liquid. ”