Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-05-04
Facts about Ice.

Ice has its peculiarities. While chem
ically it Ia only crystalized water, we find,
in investigating the circumstances of its
congelation, some things which surprise
US, or would, if we gave them thought.
The freezing point Of fresh water is said
to be 32o Fair; yet, if the water is
kept perfectly still, and nothing is thrust
into it, the temperature may fall to 14o
or as some chemists assert, to Sc before it
congeals; the moral to be drawn from
which is, Keep still if you do not want
to get into fix" Another of its peculiari-
ties is that, while most liquids contract on
assuming the solid form, water expands.
1t does this, however, only within certain
limits. Till it reaches the temperature of
39o, water, in giving up portions of its
latent heat, contracts, though very
moderately ; between 80 and 81 (the point
of soliditication), it expands about eleven
per cent, or one-ninth of its previous
bulk; and this expansion is so irresistible
as to form an explosive force nearly equal
to that of gunpowder, calculated by ply
sicists at twenty seven hundred and
twenty pounds to the cubic inch.
The reason for this departure from
the general law in the case of the solidifi-
cation of water is obvious, though it has
never, so far as we know, been adduced as
among the evidences of design on the part
of the Creator If water, like the oils and
the mineral salts, became heavier when it
it became solid, it would sink to the bot
tom of the lake, pond, or stream, on which
it formed In a cold season, sinking as
they CONCEALED, the body or stream of
water would be wholly solidified,
and would only become liquid again
after a long season of excessive
heat This would lead to the de-
struction of the finny tribes which inhabit
the waters, to the diminution of the evapo-
ration from their surface, and the conse-
quent diminishing of the rainfall; to a
lower mean of animal temperature, back
ward seasons and small and imperfect
crops. The regions where the ice sunk as
it froze would soon become bleak and
barren desert. Under the existing natural
law the water beneath the ice retains a
temperature not below gee.
Another popularity of ice is its greatly
increased density and tenacity under the
protracted and severe cold. Most liquids,
on assuming the solid form, retain that
form without material change, so long as
the temperature remains below the point
Oh llQuCIdCbiOu, luIiucl OCCICdoC VI tSLn
perature effecting no perceptible difference
in their destiny; but the ice, formed at a
temperature of 25o to 800 Fair. is as diff
ferent from that which is found when the
temperature has ranged for some time be-
tween 100 and 1o Fair, as chalk is
from granite. The ice at the lower tenn
perature is dense and hard as flint; it
strikes fire with the pick of the skate,
and, as in st. Petersburg, in TAO, when
masses of it were turned and bored for
cannon, though but four inches thick,
they were loaded with iron cannon balls
and charge of quarter of pound OF
powder, and fired without explosion.
Still another popularity of ice is that in
the process of freezing the impurities
(salts, etc. held in solution in the water
are eliminated, and only the pure water
takes on the crystalizing form. This is q
very important fact, and is often made use
of by practical chemists in concentrating
tinctures, vinegar, alcoholic preparations,
etc, by freezing out the water which they
contain.-Appleton's Journal.