Weekly national intelligencer., 1853-03-26
THE CALORIC ENGINE.
PARIS, FEBRuARY "a, Il

| PARIS, FEBRUARY "a, 1853
The public and the scientific circles Of France are
already taking lively interest in the experiment OF
the caloric ship of Capt. ERICSSON which is occu-
pying SO yiyidly the public attention in the United
States. Every paper has its article upon the sub
Iject, in which the machine itself is more or less
lucidly described, and its principle more or less
learnedly discussed. The journals are rife, too,
with the claims interposed by divers French savans,
whose names have never been heard of before each
endeavoring to establish for himself individually,
and for France generally, the glory Of the invention
None OF the great inventions and scientific discoveries
which illustrate the century have been made without the
Intervention of these pretensons The steam engine the
electric telegraph etherzaton &C. are all indigenous to
France, according to these writer's shall allude pre-
senty to some Of these claims with which the Academy
Sciences of Paris has Of late been entertained touching
the Ericsson ship and the principle it involves Among
the scientific popular writers Of this country whose aen-
ton has been attracted to this subject is NJ LEON Fou
cAULT, whose is already familiar your readers as
the inventor Of the experiment Of the pendulum as making
visible the rotation of the earth He has published the
Journal des De6as long article upon this subject The
name Of the author well the intrinsic merit Of the
article, win impart interest to short extract Abiding
to the French claimants for portion of the glory due to
Ericsson, M. FoUoAULr says:
it is not given to every body to prosecute them to
umphant conclusion and it, asserted air ilated by
heat has been made with economy to propel fine ship
this admirable invention win bear through all ages and
over oil space the glorious name Of Ericsson
Economy" he adds, !" economy Of fuel has been in
these late the great Of all the researches which
have atemptedt substitute other agent the place
Of steam least associate with auxiliary
ether, for instance choroform. These researches
have been inspired by this very just idea which considers
heat to be the moving principle that anmates all machines
wor rkad hv fire. VIII siders tha
and saturated uated vpors only agents proper for
receiving and transmitting portion of thepower residing
in heat Penetrated with this idea, it impossible to
without regret the pus OF steam sent out into the air
by the high pressure engines and the sream Of hot
water flowing from the factories in which the condenser
Of Watt is in operation To prevent this escape of heat
to it to disappear upon the spot and yet not be lost
under the sensible form Of greater less elevation of
temperature such in its most general expression is the
problem to be resolved by economical machine worked
by fire. Imagine what is as yet difficult for minds
to conceive Of but imagine that those of cea
thrown into the furnace produce withoutthe machine
itself sensible heat that all the Intermediary agents.
liquids vapors leave the machine at the tempera
ure they possessed when entering it, and then you will
have idea Of absolute economy and you viii have sup
posed machine which gives the totaty Of the useful
effect theoretically represented by the amount of COM
bustible consumed
But it will be objected, there is conception purely
imaginary The ideal machine you describing is sim
ply furnace filed with burning Goals, from which
heat radiaes it is the miracle of fire without heat Well
ts miracle Is partay accomplished In every steam en-
gne but the proportion of heat which disappears and
becomes transformed into moving power is small that
has escaped the observation Of almost every body
of those who have most contributed to the perfection of
inventions intended to effect this transformation. Far
from bewalng this long neglect of phenomenon which
lies secret that it is just starting into evidence from the
immensely aborious researches of Mr.. V. Regnault
heat let rather rejoice it for the greater the admit
ted mperfecton of actual engines the greater is the
scope left for future improvements, with view to utilize
more completely the motive power Of fire. Is it not more
agreeable to learn that the very best engines do utilize
more than four five hundred of the motive principle
emitted from the furnace than to remain in the false be-
lief that there only few ptfu hundredths yet to be
ganedy We know not if Capt Ericsson has been guided
by the considerations just announced but certainly
think that his engine must be examined from this
point Of view and that in other way arrive at
comprehension of the immense advantages which the in
ventor hppssto obtain from ii"
The writer proceeds describe the Ericsson en-
CINE speaks terms of high admiration of the rgenato
invention that would almost lead to the convic
tion that perpetual motion at last discovered He
dees any to resist this conclusion except by the ad
mission true of the theory of NJ Regnau viz that in
every engine worked by fire the development of motive
power comedies with disappearance absolute loss of
heat
The question discussing apropos Of the beau
tful creation Of the Ericsson is not idle 1t is
vast and serious than it would be from the
manner in which have treated it. 1t touches nothing
less than the theory of latent heat How is it possible
for instance to avoid being struck with the extreme
logy between these two phenomena Air heated in
cylinder raises and maintains above its point of departure
weighty piston at the time forced, upon
OF being conducted to perpetual notion to admit that
certain quantity of heat has been sacrificed to the
compshment OF this work. and become unseizable by
the thermometer. In the place of this heat we have
weight raised to certain height On the other hand
expose TO heata piece of ice at The heat peneraes
the ice breaks the bands which unite the molecules
each other, and at the time disappears, that
cannot be seized by the thermometer Thus whether il
be the piston leaving the bottom of the cylinder the
watery molecules separating from each other deficit Of
heat is the consequence in both The resemblance
in the two experiments is manifest In both the
of heat the latent state to be the constant index
Of the work effected Hence to the equivalent of heat
expressed in rs the distance short and vc prsa
This number has doubtless unchangeabe value value
included between two limits, yet very from each
other but which the unceasing efforts of physicians will
be perpetuay approxmatng to the true number. When
one seeks to transform heat into pUa it is found that
much heat is required to give small Of force.
There is the imperfecon Of actual energies when
onshe contrary it is sought to transform into
heat, much force is spent to obtain little heat Be-
tween those two proportions different from each other
lies the true number, the equivalent, which known
will reveal the theorec power Of lump Of coal If this
number is yet vaguely wandering between such uncertain
extremes the fault sin the fact that Of trans
formation are yet very imperfect Nevertheless,
have reason to believe that the Transformation Of ppd
into heat succeeds better than the inverse operation
Thus at least has thought NJ. JoULE who has been
making the earliest Of all experiments in his direction
He hos ventured to state the probable value Of the
chanca equivalent Of calorc According to this pbysi
can 480 klogrammes 94s 457 lbs ayoirdupos) raised
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