Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1865-03-01
Nliseellaneous.
Facts about Water.

From All the Year Jund.
Water is paradoxical and contradictory
in its outward and apparent qualities. 1t
gives way, when permitted to do SO, with
marvellous facility. The slightest and
lighte>t substance dropped upon it is ad-
mitted 20 lis embrace, in strict accordance
and Ill proportion To its deserts and den
si!y. 30 small substance as a grain Of
sand Is allowed 10 find It's natural place at
the bottom. \ hydrostatic or watcr-bed
is the easiest of couchcs, SO easy, that
some invalids cannot bear its excessive
pli;ncy and complete adoption to the form
OF the sleeper. Hence the notion of Des-
crates and others that to explain the phe-
nomcna of water, its ultimate particles
must be obiong, smooth and flexible, lying
one upon another, like eels in tub.
But water OF given temperature, con-
fined, is Of astounding hardness it is as
good as iucOmprcssible at that tempera-
ture for what is reduction of from
forty-tour TO fifty y-eight nillioneth parts OF
It's volume under a pressure equal 10 that
of the atmosphere? Many solid matters
wood for instaucc--can he squeezed
into a much smaller than their original
bulk the-packeIs' art has attained Won
drrtul pcriectios. in inclosing much in little
space bat all the Queens horses and all
thr Queens men cannot put a quart Of
water into Il plat bottle the clcyeresl
packer in London (Which Is saying great
j ;I) caunCt ccouoinise the room Of
tablespoonful. You could sooner drive
nail into a sold cGbe of steel than you
could drive one into a cube Of water in
closed in perfectly unyiclding box. Il
( is the un-qrtcz ,hii'y Of water which "ivcs
is e.ormuus strength to the hydraulic
press. The hardness ut water may be felt
by striking lis surface smarlly with the
open haal ; the quality is also known to
unfortunate swimmers, who, intending to
pitch into the water hradtoremost, fall fat
on their stomachs instead.
Pure water Is at its greatest density. or
heaviest and most contracted, at four de-
grccs. centigrade Uo avoid tractionS,) or
exactly thirry-niuc degrees of Fahrenheit.
that is al seven degrees above the freezing
point but If the temperature changes,
either way, the water expands. From
the maximum density up 10 the boiling
point, tie expansion amounts to the four
hundredth part OF its volume--a mere
nothing. If it cool below its maximum
density, it still expands up to the freezing
point Consequently water which is near
the point of freezing is lighter than water
that is only just a trifle warmer. Ii,
therefore, rises and floats on the surface,
allowing the warmer stratum of water to
sink.
Rivers and lakes, therefore, freeze from
the top downward (Which would not nap
/ pen were the density of water to continue
/ to increase with increasing cold, and the
/ fish and water weeds remain uninjured
| Were the case otherwise than it is-if our
streams and pools froze from the bottom
| iii long continued trosts, they would be-
come solid blocks of ice; aquatic plants
and animals would perish and, even in
cases or partial freezing, the thaw and the
return to a normal state of things would
be much more tardy than under existing
! circumstances. Water still further ex-
pands at It's conversion into ice. but with
that we have nothing to do Ice is not
wafer, and with water alone we are deal
ing ut present.
Colder than the freezing point water is
ice hotter than the boiling point water
is steam. But not long since the Count
Henri Russell, after encountering fifty de-
grees of cold in Asiatic Siberia-and
mercury freezes at forty-eight degrees
had to bear fifty degrees of heat in Aus
tralia. When we remember that water
evaporates rapidly at temperature fal