The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-10-14
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Water! .l!H
: BY 'rRo,33..' : &c t: :. COOLEY.

.II Dld you ever LheaE;of Non HamDnt .
III not l mUstitelL you that he lived more
than two hundred years, ago, being at thai
time. q very noted man. He took plehs
pre IN trying all sorts of curious expert;
ments, ana by them he learned, a greai
many thlngsl that people had never known
nor even dreamed Of before But he dld
not always understand the experiments
he tried, and he, Sometimes 'took' from
them curious notions which people have
since learned to Be false. He!tho1ght, tfol
example, that there 'hiust be s6tne way tc
turn copper, aoF any lother cheap metal
:Into gold or silver, and he Thought that il
he could only find 1t out, he could fill the
world with precious. metals, and then ev-
erYbQdY. would be rich iat once. PEOPLE
know better than that now-....,.I .....-l =,
D.. AnpthRr curious notion of. Yop Helmont
which no one now believes, was. that wa
ter could be changed into earth or stone
He thought that he had actually dbhe
this, himself, a great many times. lHe
talked about It IN this Way :s'.'s .-.. ''
7 @WheneverI boil water, .-itssloW3v dis
aappears, and no matter how pure it Seems
to be; it always feaves some solid natte1
at the bottom Of the vessel! in 'which il
is heated Now, where cam this solid mat
ter have come from? Surely it is The wa
ter ,changea into stone bN-t fire"
ds Qte9urse, Eon Helmopt, was not right
about this, for we all know that. the sbid
left on the bOttomiof his vessel was inlthe
water, to begin with, and that the reason
he could not see 1t is, that it was all diVi-
ded up into such very httlelpieces. Tie
wisest men made great mistakes two hun
dred years ago. Phey did not know as
much about things as children may k low
now, II they will try to learn. And Der.
haps children. two hundred years to come
will have 4 chance to- know some things
which are not known TO the wisest men
to day. Butzlet US see how people G. ame
to know hat water could MT be, changed
into stone. =
About one hIndred years ago there liv--
ed a Frenchhiau by the name of ,LaEois-
ier. He knew that most people believed
Just as Won Helmont had taught them,
but after all, he did not quite believe that
water.could be boiled. into stone, and he
Determined if possible. to. find out the
truth. =. he. went to work in this way. =
He, took a kind of boiler made. of glass,
and in SUCH q. shape that while one part
was. being, heated another would remain
cold, He. weighed out some clear water,
put. it into this boiler, shut it up air tight,
and then. set it to boiling. The steam
from the boiling water would go over into
the cold part of the boiler. change bac8''to
wafer and then run down into the heated
part to be boiled over again No steam
could get out, and nothing could get in
And now, said LaVoisier, if any of this
wateris changed into stone there will moi
b>ias much left as put In and! byi and
by2I4l weight 1T and find out All the
time during one hundred days and nights
he kept that water boiling You see, he
gave tie fire a good chance to make some
stone out Of the water if it could, but Of
ter all this time he found Just exactly as
much water in the boiler as he put In at
first, SO that not a particle could have
been changed into stone or anythihglelse
Since that experiment was tried, every
body has, learned to think it Just as I'M
possible to, change water into stone las ii
is to. change stone into wood, In the
clearest and most sparkling water that
can be found IN springs or wells, thereIare
often many kinds of impurity. ThelonIy
way to get them out is to boil the water.
They will be left on the.bottonr of the yes
sci when the water is all boiled awav-
But why should we want them out r.
What is more refreshing than a draught
of cool fresh water The same water
without its impurities is the most insipid
thing that one can taste Impurities are
not, as we are apt TO think, always up-
wholesome. Some kinds are, to be- sure,
but water without any, impurity would
not be tit to drink. <, -
The chemist must often have pure va,
ter, but he can not find it IN any Spring OF
well or lake He might better use rain
water lhan what he findsip them, because
it is purer than either. But even ram
water is not pure enough for his purpose
and so, taking what he can find, he makes
it pure for himself This he can do by
boiling it, for, curiously y enough, when wa
ter is boiled II quickly its load of solid par
ticles, Which it has held so closely that
you. could not see them, and hurries away
in the form of steam. The chemist catch
es this. steam in a cold vessel, where, no
longer taEmeRted= the heat, it soon
oalms itself down into water again, but
having been frightened away from its i'm
purtIes it Is now pure enough.
But how came all these impurities in
the water at ffst2 You may try an easy
experiment that VIII tell you Something
about that. Take piece Of White blot
! ting paper, and fold it so as to make it; fl
inside Of a funnel as well as you can. Put
q little powdered cochineal upon the: pa.
per, and then place the tube Of the funnel
| through the neck Of bottle. After this
get some of the clearest water YOU car
| find and pour slowly upon the cochinesl
t'The water win run through tie papsr-and
lsbe caught in the bottle: But oil, how rec
it becomes + Sd red as to be almost black
What can have happened7 We'll; moth
ing more than that the water has dissolv.
/ ed the e6ehineat; that is to say it has
broken the particles of the cochineal all
up inte~pieees se-sE4aA+hat they will moi
sink aaa'se -theys must sef course be scat.