Abstract
DURING the present age, which may be called that of Electricity, the sister science of Heat is not receiving so much attention at the hands of the natural philosopher as it did formerly. But still there remain some scientific men who are giving a life-long attention to it—MM. Hirn and Berthelot in France, Herren Clausius, Helm-holtz, and Frederick Siemens in Germany, Mr. Joule and Sir William Thomson in this country. During the late Sir William Siemens's lifetime, the one brother, worked here in the science of Heat, the other in Germany, and the work of both was applied everywhere; now Mr. Frederick Siemens works alone, and, from the recent evidence of that work, it promises to play an important part in the economical application of fuel. Mr. F. Siemens has recently had an opportunity given him of bringing his views forward in this country, having read a paper at the Chester meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute on a new method of heating in the regenerative gas furnace, in which he treated the practical side of the question, whilst in the discussion of the same paper he gave his views on the theory of the subject. Mr. F. Siemens's investigations have led him to the conclusion that combustion can only be perfect, and be maintained perfect, if the space in which it takes place is sufficiently large to allow the gases to combine out of contact with solid materials. Having proved by actual experiment that solid substances interfere with the formation of flame and that flame injures solid substances with which it comes in contact, he brings forward an hypothesis to account for the phenomena. According to the electrical hypothesis, which Mr. Siemens prefers, flame is the result of an infinite number of exceedingly minute electrical flashes, the flashes being due to the exceedingly swift motion of gaseous particles, and a solid body which opposes itself to these flashes is cut by them, whilst, the motion being more or less arrested by the solid body, the flame is damped.
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A New Method of Heating in the Regenerative Gas Furnace . Nature 31, 7 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031007b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031007b0