Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/71

Rh liberated or absorbed—a distinct, measurable quantity. This fact was established by Hess in 1840, and since then the thermal values of many reactions have been determined, notably by Thomsen in Denmark and Berthelot in France. The data are already numerous, but as yet they have not been co-ordinated into any general law. They are in great measure the raw material with which some future scholar is to build. One fact, however, is already clear—namely, that the heat of formation or of combustion of any compound is conditioned by its structure. Two isomeric substances may differ widely in their calorific constants, an observation which has repeatedly been verified. Thus the conception of structure, of atomic grouping, appears again a chief factor in a set of unsolved problems.

In the relations of chemistry to heat perhaps the greatest advances have been made in the extension of our resources, particularly in regard to the development and control of temperatures. At the beginning of the century the range of temperatures available to the chemist was narrowly limited—from the freezing point of mercury at one end to the heat of a blast furnace at the other. His command of heat and cold are now vastly greater than then, and the steps which have been taken are worth tracing.

At the lower end of the scale the greatest progress has been made through the liquefaction of gases. When a liquid evaporates, heat is absorbed, or, reversely stated, cold is produced, and the more rapid the evaporation the greater is the cooling effect. A command of more volatile liquids is therefore a command of cold, and the liquefied gases represent the extreme limit of our power in that direction.

Near the beginning of the century, by combining cold and pressure, sulphurous acid and chlorine were reduced to the liquid state. In 1823 Faraday succeeded in liquefying still other gases, and in 1835 Thilorier went even further and reduced carbonic acid to a snowlike solid. Liquid chlorine, sulphurous acid, and carbonic acid, stored in strong cylinders of steel, are now commercial products, manufactured and sold in large quantities like any other merchandise. They can be transported to long distances and kept indefinitely, to the great convenience of chemists and the furtherance of research.

In 1845 Faraday published the results of further investigations, when it appeared that all but six of the known gases had been reduced to the liquid state. Through cold and pressure lower and lower temperatures were gained, each step forward having given a foothold from which a new advance was possible. In 1877 Pictet and Cailletet simultaneously succeeded in liquefying four of the