Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/242

218 We also know that always in the collision of bodies there occurs a change of temperature, an elevation of temperature. We cannot, as did M. Berthollet, attribute the heat set free in this case to the reduction of the volume of the body; for when this reduction has reached its limit the liberation of heat would cease. Now this does not occur.

It is sufficient that the body change form by percussion, without change of volume, to produce disengagement of heat.

If, for example, we take a cube of lead and strike it successively on each of its faces, there will always be heat liberated, without sensible diminution in this disengagement, so long as the blows are continued with equal force. This does not occur when medals are struck. In this case the metal cannot change form after the first blows of the die, and the effect of the collision is not conveyed to the medal, but to the threads of the screw which are strained, and to its supports.

It would seem, then, that heat set free should be attributed to the friction of the molecules of the metal, which change place relatively to each other, that is, the heat is set free just where the moving force is expended.

A similar remark will apply in regard to the