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MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT.
acquired by the gas after its compression, and evidently in inverse ratio with this specific heat. Thus we can easily form the table of the elevations of temperature of the different gases for a compression of .
Names of Gases. | Elevation of Temperature for a Reduction of Volume of |
---|---|
Atmospheric Air | 1.000 |
Hydrogen Gas | 1.160 |
Carbonic Acid | 0.730 |
Oxygen | 1.035 |
Nitrogen | 1.000 |
Protoxide of Nitrogen | 0.667 |
Olefiant Gas | 0.558 |
Oxide of Carbon | 0.955 |
A second compression of (of the altered volume), as we shall presently see, would also raise the temperature of these gases nearly as much as the first; but it would not be the same with a third, a fourth, a hundredth such compression. The capacity of gases for heat changes with their volume. It is not unlikely that it changes also with the temperature.
We shall now deduce from the general proposi-