Page:The Liquefaction of Gases.djvu/25

Rh elastic fluid to make its escape, the report was scarcely audible at the distance of a few paces, and did not at all resemble the report which commonly attends the explosion of gunpowder. It was more like the noise which attends the breaking of a small glass tube, than any thing else to which it could be compared. In many of the experiments, in which the elastic vapour was confined, this feeble report attending the explosion of the powder, was immediately followed by another noise totally different from it, which appeared to be occasioned by the falling back of the weight upon the end of the barrel, after it had been a little raised, but not sufficiently to permit the leather stopper to be driven quite out of the bore. In some of these experiments a very small part only of the generated elastic fluid made its escape, in these cases the report was of a peculiar kind, and though perfectly audible at some considerable distance, yet not at all resembling the report of a musket. It was rather a very strong sudden hissing, than a clear distinct and sharp report."

In another place it is said, "What was very remarkable in all these experiments, in which the generated elastic vapour was completely confined, was the small degree of expansive force which this vapour appeared to possess, after it had been suffered to remain a few minutes, or even only a few seconds, confined in the barrel; for upon raising the weight, by means of its lever, and suffering this vapour to escape, instead of escaping with a loud report it rushed out with a hissing noise, hardly so loud or so sharp as the report of a common air-gun, and its effects against the leather stopper, by which it assisted in raising the weight, were so very feeble as not to be sensible." This the Count attributes to the formation of a hard mass, like a stone, within the cylinder, occasioned by the condensation of what was, at the moment of