He said: "What is the use of heating the air
put into a furnace? If you take a cubic foot of air, it contains just
so many atoms of oxygen, neither more nor less. If the air be heated,
you cause it to assume double its volume, but you have not added a
single atom of oxygen, and you will require twice the space for its
passage between the grate bars, and twice the space in the furnace,
which is a nuisance; but if the air could be frozen, it would be
condensed, and more atoms of oxygen could be crowded into the cubic
foot, and the fire would receive a corresponding advantage." Mr.
Williams proceeded upon this theory, and died without solving the
perplexing mystery of as frequent failure as success which attended
his experiments with steamship boilers. The only successes which he
obtained were misleading, because they were made with boilers so badly
proportioned for their work that almost any change would produce
benefit.
Successful combustion requires something more than the necessary
chemical elements of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, for it requires
something to cook the elements, so to speak, and that is heat, and for
this reason: When the coal is volatilized in the furnace, what would
be a cubic foot of gas, if cold, is itself heated and its volume
increased to double its normal proportion.
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