WATER. A t fluid without colour, smell, or taste, andcomprerlde only in a very Alight ; when pure, not liable to sponteneous change ; at the common temperature of our atmosphere, assuming a solid form at Fahr. and &gaseous state at 2120•Fahr., but unaltered to its liquid state on resuming any degree of heat between these points. Water is capable d dissolving a greater number of natural bodies than any other fluid whatever, and nwmally those known by the name of the saline • performing the moat im portant ft, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and entering largely onto their compositions as • constituent part; water exists therefore in three different states : in the send state or state of ice, in the liquid, and in the state of vapour or steam. It assumes the solid as observed above, when coded down to the temperature of in which state it increases in bulk, and hence exerts &prodigious force, owing to the new arrangement of its parti cle., which assume a crystalline form, the crystals crossing each other at an wigle of 600 or 1200. The specific gravity of ice is therefore less than that of water. When ice is exposed to a temperature above 320, it absorbs caloric, which then becomes latent, and is converted into a liquid state, or that of water. At the temperature of 420 5' water is at its maximum of density ; and according to some accurate experiments upon water in this date, a French cubic foot of it weighs 70 pounds 223 grains French, which h equal to 529452.9492 troy grains.
An Raga& cubic foot, at the same temperature, weighs 437102.4946 Frain. troy. By professor Robinson's experiments, it is ascertained that a cubic foot of water, at the temperature of 550, weighs 998.74 avoirdupois ounces, et 437.5 grains troy each, or about 1# ounce less than 1000 ounces avoirdupois, which latter, however, is the usual estimate. When water is exposed to the temperature of 2120, it boils ; and if this temperature be continued, the whole is converted into elastic vapour or steam. In this state it expands to about 1600 times its bulk when in the state of water, which shows what an astonishing expansive force it must exert when it is confined ; and hence its• to the steam engine, of which it is the moving power. Water was form considered as a simple elementary substance, and the contrary was not satisilictonly ascertained till towards the end of the eighteenth century, when it was found that 100 parts, by weight, of water is composed of 85 parts of oxygen gem, and 15 of hydrogen gas. In the common tables of specific gravities, that of water is armed as 1.000, or the unit of measurement, because, as has been already observed, s cubic foot of water weighs very nearly 1000 ounces ; it follows, thweore, tint the number expressed m the table as the specific gravity of say other substance, gives also the real weight of a cubic foot of such substance.
See BOILING ran EARTH.