In every machine, therefore, there are three objects demanding attention:--first, The power which imparts motion to it, this is called the _prime mover_; secondly, The nature of the _machine_ itself; and thirdly, The object to which the motion is to be conveyed. In the steam engine the first mover arises from certain phenomena which are exhibited when heat is applied to liquids; but in the details of the machine and in its application there are several physical effects brought into play, which it is necessary perfectly to understand before the nature of the machine or its mode of operation can be rendered intelligible. We propose therefore to devote the present chapter to the explanation and illustration of these phenomena.
(2.) The physical effects most intimately connected with the operations of steam engines are some of the mechanical properties of atmospheric air. The atmosphere is the thin transparent fluid in which we live and move, and which, by respiration, supports animal life. This fluid is apparently so light and attenuated, that it might be at first doubted whether it be really a body at all. It may therefore excite some surprise when we assert, not only that it is a body, but also that it is one of considerable _weight_. We shall be able to prove that it presses on every _square inch_[1] of surface with a weight of about 15lb. avoirdupois.
[Footnote 1: As we shall have frequent occasion to mention this magnitude, it would be well that the reader should be familiar with it. It is a _square_, each side of which is an inch. Such as A B C D, Fig. 1.]
(3.) Take a glass tube A B (fig. 2.) more than 32 inches long, open at one end A, and closed at the other end B, and let it be filled with mercury (quicksilver.) Let a glass vessel or cistern C, containing a quantity of mercury, be also provided. Applying the finger at A so as to prevent the mercury in the tube from falling out, let the tube be inverted, and the end, stopped by the finger, plunged into the mercury in _C_. When the end of the tube is below the surface of the mercury in C (fig. 3.) let the finger be removed. It will be found that the mercury in the tube will not, as might be expected, fall to the level of the mercury in the cistern C, which it would do were the end B open so as to admit the air into the upper part of the tube. On the other hand, the level D of the mercury in the tube will be about 30 inches above the level C of the mercury in the cistern.