On the existence of a limit to vaporization / [Michael Faraday].

  • Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the existence of a limit to vaporization / [Michael Faraday]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    EXISTENCE OF A LIMIT TO VAPORIZATION. Read before the Royal Society, June 15, 1826. Xt is well known that within the limits recognised by expe- riment, the constitution of vapour * in contact with the body from which it rises, is such, that its tension increases with increased temperature, and diminishes with diminished tempe- rature ; and, though in the latter case we can, with many substances, so far attenuate the vapour as soon to make its presence inappreciable to our tests, yet an opinion is very prevalent, and I believe general,-f that still small portions are produced; the tension being correspondent to the compara- tively low temperature of the substance. Upon this view, it has been supposed that every substance in vacuo or sur- rounded by vapour or gas, having no chemical action upon it, has an atmosphere of its own around it; and that our atmosphere must contain, diffused through it, minute portions of the vapours of all those substances with which it is in contact, even down to the earths and metals. I believe that a theory of meteorites has been formed upon this opinion. Perhaps the point has never been distinctly considered; * By the term vapour, I mean throughout this paper that state of a body in which it is permanently and indefinitely elastic. + See Sir H. Davy’s paper on Electrical Phenomena exhibited in Vacuo. Phil. Trans, mdcccxxii. p. 70.