A.—­I mean to express the heat consumed in accomplishing the vaporization compared with that necessary for producing the temperature.  The latent heat of steam is usually reckoned at about 1000 degrees, by which it is meant that there is as much heat in any given weight of steam as would raise its constituent water 1000 degrees if the expansion of the water could be prevented, or as would raise 1000 times that quantity of water one degree.  The boiling point of water, being 212 degrees, is 180 degrees above the freezing point of water—­the freezing point being 32 degrees; so that it requires 1180 times as much heat to raise 1 lb. of water into steam, as to raise 1180 lbs. of water one degree; or it requires about as much heat to raise a pound of boiling water into steam, as would raise 5-1/2 lbs. of water from the freezing to the boiling point; 5-1/2 multiplied by 180 being 990 or 1000 nearly.

136. Q.—­When it is stated that the latent heat of steam is 1000 degrees, it is only meant that this is a rough approximation to the truth?

A.—­Precisely so.  The latent heat, in point of fact, is not uniform at all temperatures, neither is the total amount of heat the same at all temperatures.  M. Regnault has shown, by a very elaborate series of experiments on steam, which he has lately concluded, that the total heat in steam increases somewhat with the pressure, and that the latent heat diminishes somewhat with the pressure.  This will be made obvious by the following numbers: 

Pressure.  Temperature.  Total Heat.  Latent Heat.
  15 lbs. 213.1 deg. 1178.9 deg. 965.8 deg.
  50 281.0 1199.6 918.6 100 327.8 1213.9 886.1

If, then, steam of 100 lbs. be expanded down to steam of 15 lbs., it will have 35 degrees of heat over that which is required for the maintenance of the vaporous state, or, in other words, it will be surcharged with heat.

137. Q.—­What do you understand by specific heat?

A.—­By specific heat, I understand the relative quantities of heat in bodies at the same temperature, just as by specific gravity I understand the relative quantities of matter in bodies of the same bulk.  Equal weights of quicksilver and water at the same temperature do not contain the same quantities of heat, any more than equal bulks of those liquids contain the same quantity of matter.  The absolute quantity of heat in any body is not known; but the relative heat of bodies at the same temperature, or in other words their specific heats, have been ascertained and arranged in tables,—­ the specific heat of water being taken as unity.

138. Q.—­In what way does the specific heat of a body enable the quantity of heat in it to be determined?

A.—­If any body has only half the specific heat of water, then a pound of that body will, at any given temperature, have only half the heat in it that is in a pound of water at the same temperature.  The specific heat of air is .2669, that of water being 1; or it is 3.75 times less than that of water.  An amount of heat, therefore, which would raise a pound of water 1 degree would raise a pound of air 3.75 degrees.