ether continually at the temperature of 33° (106.25°), and under the common pressure of the atmosphere, we shall have it always in an elaslic aëriform state; and that the same thing will happen with alkohol when above 67° (182.75°), and with water when above 80° (212°); all which are perfectly conformable to the following experiment[1].
I filled a large vessel ABCD (Plate VII. Fig. 16.) with water, at 35° (110.75°), or 36° (113°); I suppose the vessel transparent, that we may see what takes place in the experiment; and we can easily hold the hands in water at that temperature without inconvenience. Into it I plunged some narrow necked bottles F, G, which were filled with the water, after which they were turned up, so as to rest on their mouths on the bottom of the vessel. Having next put some ether into a very small matrass, with its neck abc, twice bent as in the Plate, I plunged this matrass into the water, so as to have its neck inserted into the mouth of one of the bottles F. Immediately upon feeling the effects of the heat communicated to it by the water in the vessel ABCD it began to boil; and the caloric entering into combination with it, changed it into elastic aëriform fluid, with which I filled several bottles succestively, F, G, &c. This
- ↑ Vide Memoirs of the French Academy, anno 1780, p. 335.—A.
