No amount of pressure will condense steam to
water unless the heat is removed. So take heat away from air till it
is more than two hundred degrees below zero, and then a pressure of
about two hundred atmospheres (14.7 pounds each) changes common air to
fluid. It fights desperately against condensation, growing hot with
the effort, and it maintains its resilience for years at any point of
pressure short of the final surrender that gives up to become liquid.
Perhaps sometime we shall have the pure air of the mountains or the sea
condensed to fluid and sold by the quart to the dwellers in the city,
to be expanded into air once more.
The marvel is not greater that gas is able to sustain itself under the
awful pressure with its particles in extreme dispersion, than that what
we call solids should have their molecules in a mazy dance and yet keep
their strength.
Since this world, in power, fineness, finish, beauty, and adaptations,
not only surpasses our accomplishment, but also is past our finding out
to its perfection, it must have been made by One stronger, finer, and
wiser than we are.
MOBILITY OF SEEMING SOLIDS
When a human breath, or the white jet of a steam whistle, or the black
cough of a locomotive smokestack is projected into the air it is easy
to see that the air is mobile. Its particles easily roll over one
another in voluminously infolding wreaths.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51