The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-03
THE BOILING POINT.
Strangers on Pixies Peak are Puzzled
by it.
From the Indianapolis Ne,ss.


From the Indianapolis Meas
An Indianapolis man who recently re-
turned from trip to the Rocky mountains
tells OF bit of scientific information " hich
he picked up in an ex experimental way dur
ing visit to the top OF Pixies peak.
ION the peak Is an old stone house, built
years ago for the use of signal service OBJ
servers, but which is now utilized as a de-
pot for the Pixies peak railroad, and a lunch
ROOM" said the returned tourist "On July
l went to the top OF the mountain, which
Is IA, l47 feet high, and, as a cold wind and
snow storm was in progress, spent some
time inside the building. The man in charge
Of the lunch room was Tuning around and
complaining bitterly that he could not get a
big pot of coffee which sat on the stove hot
enough to make 1t fik to drink. l noticed
that the stove was red hot and that e furi-
GUS fire was raging inside its furnace, and
remarked that it oughunt to take long to
make coffee with such a fire as that.
The trouble amt with the FIRE; it's with
the water the man replied. You see the
fire don't heat the water. The water bolts
away before it gets hot
81 smiled at this. and the man at the
stove, little metted at my skepticism,
said somewhat sharply that il didn't be.
heve him might step around to the stove
and see for myself whether the water on the
stove was hot enough to make good coffee
took him at his word and went around to
the stove and looked into the teakettIs. The
water in 1t was boiling furiously and called
his attention to the fact with an I-told-you-
so air.
1.-the waters boiling all right enough, )
he retortsd, but it's not hot
II laughed In his face bit this, and with
out saying another word he took of the lid
OF the teakettlasand put bis hand into the
seething water. 1 started forward to pro-
test against the foolhardiness, bat he only
smiled and held his hand still. When It had
boiled awhile he took it out aud held Il be-
fore my eyes. II was not only not scalded,
it was not even redd from heat. After
some more talk was persuaded to put the
tip OF a finger into the water and to my
surprise, 1t was not in the least sealded.
The water WIS uncomfortable warm, that
was all. Hooked as the fluid, still boiling
furiously, and then at the nasn in amaze
mont.
"'Dont un6erstand 1t, chr be chuckled,
Well, l can explain it. You know water
boils az q temperature of 2l29 at sea level
The higher above the sea you get the lower
the temperature at which water will boil
Up here on the top Of Pixies peak water
boils at a be mperature of 1899. When it
gets up to 1859 il goes Off In steam and will
not get any hotter. A hotter fire simply
turns 1t into steam faster. 1t is not only
hard to make coffee up here but it is impos-
sible to cook many kinds OF food at all
This brought ny school learning back
as fresh as new, and remembered that l
had once knc wn about water boiling as diff
ferent Temperatures at different levels. but
it made little impression on me then. 1t re-
quires q pra ctical demonstration to fix
thing in the mind clearly. l afterward In
quired and lesTned that women who move
to Denver and other towns Of high altitude,
from the east. are annoyed and puzzled by
the necessity of boiling beans all day to
make them tender and soft, whereas, back
east, two hours Of boiling was all that was
needed ~