Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/216

1826.] with vapour; but then, if half were taken out of the receiver, the remaining portion, in place of filling the vessel, would submit to the force of gravity, would contract into the lower half of the receiver, until, by the approximation of the particles, the vapour there existing should have an elasticity equal to the force of gravity to which it was subject. This is a necessary consequence of Dr. Wollaston's argument.

There is yet another method of diminishing the elasticity of vapour, namely, by diminution of temperature. With respect to the most elastic substances, as air and many gases, the comparatively small range which we can command beneath common temperatures, does nothing more at the earth's surface than diminish in a slight degree their elasticity, though two or three of them, as sulphurous acid and chlorine, have been in part condensed into liquids. But with respect to innumerable bodies, their tendency to form vapour is so small, that at common temperatures the vapour produced approximates in rarity to the air upon the limits of our atmosphere; and with these, the power we possess of lessening tension by diminution of temperature, may be quite sufficient to render it a smaller force than its opponent, gravity; in which case it will be easy to comprehend that the vapour would give way to the latter, and be entirely condensed. The metal, silver for instance, when violently heated, as on charcoal urged by a jet of oxygen, or by the oxy-hydrogen or oxy-alcohol flame, is converted into vapour; lower the temperature, and before the metal falls beneath a white heat, the tension of the vapour is so far diminished, that its existence becomes inappreciable by the most delicate tests. Suppose, however, that portions are formed, and that vapour of a certain tension is produced at that temperature; it must be astonishingly diminished by the time the metal has sunk to a mere red heat; and we can hardly conceive it possible, I think, that the silver should have descended to common temperatures, before its accompanying vapour will, by its gradual diminution in tension, if uninfluenced by other circumstances, have had an elastic force far inferior to the force of gravity; in which case, that moment at which the two forces had become equal, would be the last moment in which vapour could exist around it; the metal at every lower temperature being perfectly fixed.