Johann Beckmann - A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume II (of 2)

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 511. [M. Boutigny’s beautiful experiment of making ice in a red-hot crucible is a striking phænomenon of this kind. It is thus performed: – A deep crucible of platinum is heated to a glowing red heat; liquid sulphurous acid, which has been preserved in the fluid state by a freezing mixture, and some water are then at the same instant poured into the crucible. The rapid evaporation of the volatile sulphurous acid, which boils below the freezing-point of water, produces such an intense degree of cold as to freeze the water, which is then thrown out of the crucible as a solid lump.]

Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 252: the process of making ice in the East Indies; by Robert Barker.

[There is no question that this refrigeration is caused by the evaporation of a portion of the water, whereby a very large quantity of heat becomes latent in the vapour. A clear serene sky being necessary for the success of the production of the ice, would tend to show that the further loss of heat by radiation, which always ensues to a great extent at nights, when the sky is clear, is necessary.]

… a number of small, shallow, earthen pans. These are unglazed, scarce a quarter of an inch thick, about an inch and a quarter in depth, and made of an earth so porous, that it was visible from the exterior part of the pans, the water had penetrated the whole substance. [Our ordinary wine-coolers, which consist of extremely porous vessels, act from evaporation. A portion of the water, which is placed in the interior of the cooler, evaporates through its pores, and produces cold by rendering a considerable amount of heat latent.]

See the account of Lloyd Williams, in the Universal Magazine, June 1793, p. 410. Thin unglazed vessels are employed at present in Egypt also for cooling water, as we are told in several books of travels.

Sympos. vi. 5, p. 690.

The word however may be found in Dictionnaire par Richelet, Genève 1680, 4to.

J. B. Campegii Libri xxii. de re cibaria, xvi. 9, p. 669.

Most vessels of this kind in Portugal are made at Estremos, in the province of Alentejo. The description given of them by Brantome is as follows: – “Cette terre étoit tannée, si subtile et si fine qu’on diroit proprement que c’est une terre sigillée; et porte telle vertu, que quelque eau froide que vous y mettiez dedans, vous la verrez bouillis et faire de petits bouillons, comme si elle estoit sur le feu; et si pourtant elle n’en perd sa froideur, mais l’entretient, et jamais l’eau ne fait mal à qui la boit, quelque chaud qu’il fasse, ou quelque exercice violent qu’il fasse.” This clay seems to be the same as that which the ladies in Spain and Portugal chew for the sake of its pleasant taste, though to the prejudice of their health. They are so fond of it that their confessors make them abstain from the use of it some days by way of penance for their transgressions. See Madame D’Aunoi, Voy. en Espagne, ii. pp. 92, 109. Mémoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur. A vessel of the above kind is called bucaro and barro . See Diccion. de la Lengua Castellana, Madrid, 1783, fol.

This curious work contains so much valuable information respecting the French manners in the sixteenth century, that some account of it may not prove unacceptable to my readers. The title is, Déscription de L’Isle des Hermaphrodites, nouvellement découverte … pour servir de Supplement au Journal de Henri III. The preface, to which there is no signature, says that the book was printed for the first time in 1605. In the first editions neither date nor place is mentioned; but one edition is dated 1612. It appears to have been written in the reign of Henry IV., after the peace of Vervins, concluded in 1598, which the author mentions in the beginning. Henry IV. would not suffer any inquiry to be made respecting the author that he might be punished, because, he said, though he had taken great liberty in his writing, he had written truth. He is not therefore known. Some have conjectured that it was the production of cardinal Perron, and others of sieur d’Emery, Thomas Artus. But the former would not have chosen to lash vices such as those mentioned in this satire, with so much wit and severity; and the latter could not have done it. The one was too vicious, and the other too vehement. The cardinal must have delineated his own picture; and Artus have exceeded what he was capable of. The same opinion respecting Artus is entertained by Marchand, in his Dict. Historique. The frontispiece, which in many editions is wanting, represents an effeminate voluptuary with a womanish face, dressed half in men’s and half in women’s clothing. Marchand says the inscription is Les Hermaphrodites. In some editions however it is much more cutting: “Pars est una patris; cætera matris habet.” This pentameter is taken from Martial, lib. xiv. ep. 174. The whole work is inserted also in Journal de Henri III., par Pierre de l’Estoiles, à la Haye 1744, 8vo, iv. p. 1. For further information on this subject see Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique de la France, ii. p. 326, n. 19128.

In the Contes de Gaillard, printed in 1620, it is said, “Il alla un jour d’esté souper chez un voluptueux, qui lui fit mettre de la glace en son vin.”

Problema 102. These Problemata are often printed with the Problemata Aristotelis, Alexandri Aphrodis. and others. The collection which I have was printed at Amsterdam, 1685, 12mo.

De Miraculis, libri iv. Colon. 1581, 8vo, p. 288.

Centuriæ ix Memorabilium. Francof. 1599, 12mo, p. 67.

De Nive, p. 38.

J. B. Du Hamel, Opera Philosophica, Norimb. 1681, 4to.

L. Tancredi de Fame et Siti libri tres. Ven. 1607, 4to, lib. iii.

When snow or ice is mixed with salt, both begin to be liquid. This process is employed in Russia to clean windows covered with frost. They are rubbed with a sponge dipped in salt, and by these means they become immediately transparent. [The rationale of this appears to consist in the salt absorbing water and deliquescing, and in this fluid the snow subsequently dissolves, the mixture requiring a much lower temperature for its assuming the solid state.]

Historia Vitæ et Mortis, § 44. – De Augmentis Scient. v. 2. – Silva Silvarum, cent. i.

History of Cold, title i. 17; title v. 3; title xv. 7. [The method of making one or two freezing or cooling mixtures will not perhaps be without interest here. Where snow is not at hand, a mixture of 5 parts of powdered nitre and 5 of powdered sal-ammoniac may be mixed with 16 parts of water. This reduces the thermometer from +50° to about +10° F., or, 9 parts of phosphate of soda, 6 of nitrate of ammonia, and 4 of dilute nitric acid, reduce the thermometer from +50° to -21°; 5 parts of common salt, 5 of nitrate of ammonia and 12 of snow, reduce it from the ordinary temperature to -28°. The most intense degree of cold, probably known, has been produced by Dr. Faraday in his experiments upon the liquefaction of gases. This was effected by placing solid carbonic acid mixed with æther, under the air-pump, and exhausting.]