Water current

“ In passing over shallows or rapids, where the current is swift, the water remains open and exposed to the air. At these points in its course it parts with its accumulated air and heat very rapidly, a thin vapor or mist being often perceptible in the air at such places, owing to the rapid radiation. ”

“ Where the current is to be concentrated in a manner still more energetic than that described, this can be effected by raising the objective part above the surface of the water, and then applying the surface board. ”

“ Running water confined within a narrow channel, and so compelled to move with force sufficient to give an energetic scouring to the walls of its conduit, may be trusted to carry with it or to drive before it pretty nearly all foreign matter that may have been contributed to it, but the moment this vigorous current is checked, that moment the tendency to excessive deposit begins. ”

“ As the liquid does not accumulate on the ball, there must necessarily be as great a current downward as upward, giving the column of liquid a rapid circular motion, which continues until the electricity from the conductor is nearly all discharged, silently, or until it is discharged by a spark descending into the liquid. The same phenomena take place with oil or water. Using the latter liquid, the ball must be brought much nearer, or a much greater quantity of electricity is necessary to raise it. ”

“ It may be discovered that hydrogen is composed of fifty different bodies, that oxygen is transformed into hydrogen, that the electric current is a ponderable force or a luminous emission. No matter what is going to be discovered, we shall never, in any case, prevent what we call to-day an electric current from transforming, under certain conditions of combined pressure and temperature, what we call water into two gases, each having different properties, gases which are emitted in volumetrical proportions of 2 to 1. ”

“ Causes of Ocean Currents The primary generating forces are wind and differences in water density caused by variations in heat and salinity Currents generated by these forces are modified by such factors as depth of water, underwater topography including shape of the basin in which the current is running, extent and location of land, and deflection by the rotation of the Earth. ”

“ Now water, while its capacities for heat are scarcely exceeded by those of any other substance, is one of the most complete of non-conductors. Heat does not permeate water as it does iron, for instance, or other good conductors. ”

“ Wind is a flowing wave of air, moving hither and thither indefinitely. It is produced when heat meets moisture, the rush of heat generating a mighty current of air. That this is the fact we may learn from bronze eolipiles, and thus by means of a scientific invention discover a divine truth lurking in the laws of the heavens. Eolipiles are hollow bronze balls, with a very small opening through which water is poured into them. Set before a fire, not a breath issues from them before they get warm; but as soon as they begin to boil, out comes a strong blast due to the fire. ”

“ Just as water, by seeking its own level, acquires an even and uniform pressure, so the electricity of the air seeks an even and uniform potential. If a body of cold, dry and highly charged air flows into a region of low potential, or into one oppositely charged, an interchange, or flow of electricity, results. ”

“ There is a multitude of waters - For the electric spark, by decomposing atmospheric air, converts the hydrogen and oxygen gases, of which it is composed, into water; which falls down in the form of rain. ”

“ At each oscillation some energy is frittered away into heat in the conductor, and if the conductor and condenser have a special form, energy may be rapidly removed from the system by the electric waves which are formed in the surrounding æther or dielectric. These waves consist in the propagation through the medium of lines of electric strain, just as an air wave consists in the propagation through the air of regions of air-compression, or a water wave consists in the propagation of an elevation on the surface. ”

“ The currents in this sea may to some extent be considered as convection currents, caused by the cooling of the water near the surface, which becomes heavier, sinks, and must be replaced on the surface by warmer water coming from the south, which is also influenced by the prevailing winds. On account of the rotation of the earth the northward-running water on the surface, as well as the sinking water, will be driven in a north-easterly or easterly direction, while the southward-flowing water along the bottom, as well as the rising water, is driven south-west or westward. ”

“ The eminent Swiss savant, Professor de Saussure, already referred to, held that all atmospheric electricity was due to71 the evaporation of the waters of the globe through the effect of the sun. To prove this, he made a great number of experiments, showing that whenever water, whether pure or containing more or less salt, whether acid or alkaline, is projected upon a metal crucible heated to redness, the evaporation that takes place immediately is accompanied by strong liberation of electricity. The fact is undisputed by scientific men, but not so the conclusion. ”

“ GEOTHERMAL— The term `geothermal' refers to heat energy stored in the Earth's crust that can be accessed for direct use or electric power generation. (6) HYDROTHERMAL— The term `hydrothermal' refers to naturally occurring subsurface reservoirs of hot water or steam. ”

“ The expansive force of this vapor increases rapidly as the heat increases, but yet in all cases the surface of water is covered with an atmosphere of aqueous vapor, the pressure, or tension of which is limited by the temperature of the water. ”

“ A few words will indicate the magnitude of the forces which are called into silent and comparatively unobserved operation in the atmosphere by the sun's heat in the production and recondensation of aqueous vapor. It has, as I noticed, been estimated that on the average five feet of water falls annually as rain over the whole earth. Supposing that condensation takes place at an average height of 3,000 feet above the surface, the force of evaporation must be equivalent to a power capable of lifting five feet of water, over the whole surface of the globe, 3,000 feet during the year. ”

“ When rain falls, the one will absorb more water than the other; both will gain an increase of conductive power; but the one which has absorbed most water will have the greatest increase, and being thus the better conductor, will draw a greater portion of heat from the hot nucleus below to the surface—will become, in fact, temporarily hotter, and, as a consequence, expand more than the other. ”

“ If while the stream is flowing we suddenly close the end of the tube, the momentum of the water produces a sudden pressure, which is much greater than that due to the head of water, and may be sufficient to burst the pipe. ”

“ Now what the spunge is to water, the same is water to the electric fluid.
When a portion of water is in its common dense state, it can hold no more electric fluid than it has: if any be added, it spreads on the surface.
When the same portion of water is rarefied into vapour, and forms a cloud, it is then capable of receiving [277] and absorbing a much greater quantity; there is room for each particle to have an electric atmosphere.
Thus water, in its rarefied state, or in the form of a cloud, will be in a negative state of electricity; it will have less than its natural quantity ”

“ And so it is with water or any liquid. When it is heated it becomes larger and thinner, just as air does, and so is lighter. It rises, therefore, being pushed up by the heavier cold water. There are, therefore, the same up and down currents in water that there are in the air. When one is heating water, the warm water is all the time going up, and the cold water is going down. If you heat it in a glass vessel, and have some little light things in the water, you can see them go up and down in the currents in the same way that you see motes moving up and down in the currents of the air. ”

“ The water should be pure, not only that unembarrassed results may be obtained, but also that, as the freezing proceeds, a minute portion of concentrated saline solution may not be formed, which remaining fluid, and being interposed in the ice, or passing into cracks resulting from contraction, may exhibit conducting powers independent of the ice itself. ”

“ You have learnt by sad experience that water, which seems to offer so little resistance to a body drawn slowly through it, is remarkably hard if struck violently. In fact, if enclosed, it becomes more incompressible than steel, without in any way losing its fluidity. We possess in water, therefore, a very useful agent for transmitting energy from one point to another. Shove one end of a column of water, and it gives a push to anything at its other end; but then it must be enclosed in a tube to guide its operation. ”

“ When the ice is all melted potential energy is no longer stored, but is manifested in the sensible heating of water, the degree of which is measurable by the thermometer, until it reaches the boiling point, where it is again arrested. All of the surplus heat above that temperature is consumed in rending the liquid water into moisture globules that float away into the air, each one of them charged with a store of potential energy. Let us follow this vapor spherule as it floats into the upper regions of the atmosphere. ”

“ Water being electrified, the vapours arising from it will be equally electrified; and floating in the air, in the form of clouds, or otherwise, will retain that quantity of electrical fire, till they meet with other clouds or bodies not so much electrified, and then will communicate as beforementioned.
5. Every particle of matter electrified is repelled by every other particle equally electrified. Thus the stream of a fountain, naturally dense and continual, when electrified, will separate and spread in the form of a brush, every drop endeavouring to recede from every other drop. ”

“ As, therefore, the heated water cannot impart its heat to its neighboring particles, it remains expanded and rises by its levity, while colder portions come to be heated in turn, thus setting up currents in the fluid. ”

“ The observations of atmospheric electricity consist essentially in determining the amount and character of the difference of potential between two points not very far distant from each other, as, for instance, the end of the pipe from which the water-drops are discharged, and the nearest point of the earth or buildings resting on the earth. ”

“ If water, in its rarefied state, as a cloud, requires, and will absorb more of the electric fluid than when in its dense state as water, why does it not acquire from the earth all it wants at the instant of its leaving the surface, while it is yet near, and but just rising in vapour? ”

“ Is it wafted along by currents, that is, by water which, after having been heated near the equator to 80°, then flows to the north with this temperature? Or is it carried there simply by the rays of the sun, as the snow-line is carried up the mountain in summer? We have reason to believe that it is carried from one parallel to another by each of these agents acting together, but mostly through the instrumentality of currents, for currents are the chief agents for distributing heat to the various parts of the ocean. ”

“ The effect of the passage of electricity through water is something like the effect which would be produced by a storm, or other agency, in this room, which caused all the boys of this audience to go to one side, and all the girls to go to the other—excepting that in water there are always two parts of hydrogen to one part or volume of oxygen. ”

“ But clouds formed by vapours raised from the sea, having both fires, and particularly a great quantity of the electrical, support their water strongly, raise it high, and being moved by winds may bring it over the middle of the broadest continent from the middle of the widest ocean. ”

“ Above three-quarters of the globe, water and air are in constant contact, continually exchanging heat and moisture. This is a major factor in the making of weather and climate. The sea constantly feeds electricity into the atmosphere, primarily through the electron-scrubbing action of tiny popping bubbles at the sea surface. ”

“ Water is often heated in a reservoir at a distance from the source of heat by the circulation produced in pipes leading to the source of heat and back. The winds and the great currents of the ocean are convection currents. ”

“ So concreted humid things attract when a little resolved into air (the effluvia in the intermediate space tending to produce unity) ; for water has on wet bodies, or on bodies wet with abundant moisture on the top of water, the force of an effluvium. Clear air is a convenient medium for an electrical effluvium excited from concreted humour. Wet bodies projecting above the surface of water (if they are near) run together so that they may unite; for the surface of the water is raised around wet substances. But a dry thing is not impelled to a wet one, nor a wet to a dry, but seems to run away. ”

“ If the particles of water bring electrical fire when {40}they attach themselves to air, the repulsion between the particles of water electrified, joins with the natural repulsion of the air, to force its particles to a greater distance, whereby the triangles are dilated, and the air rises, carrying up with it the water. ”

“ The reader will readily perceive that as regards stability the water composing the sea is in precisely the same condition as the atmosphere, namely, that of a liquid heated in its upper strata, and any circulatory motion of the water must therefore be accompanied by corresponding transformations of energy. ”