Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/133

Rh They will be numberless. The motion produced by the dilatation and compression of solid or liquid bodies would only be very slight. In order to give them sufficient amplitude we should be forced to make use of complicated mechanisms. It would be necessary to employ materials of the greatest strength to transmit enormous pressure; finally, the successive operations would be executed very slowly compared to those of the ordinary steam-engine, so that apparatus of large dimensions and heavy cost would produce but very ordinary results.

The elastic fluids, gases or vapors, are the means really adapted to the development of the motive power of heat. They combine all the conditions necessary to fulfil this office. They are easy to compress; they can be almost infinitely expanded; variations of volume occasion in them great changes of temperature; and, lastly, they are very mobile, easy to heat and to cool, easy to transport from one place to another, which enables them to produce rapidly the desired effects. We can easily conceive a multitude of machines fitted to develop the motive power of heat through the use of elastic fluids; but in whatever way we look at it, we should not lose sight of the following principles: