e., caloric is occluded in
phosphorus by smelting in a blast furnace, and unlocked in the
converter, for the purpose of securing the fluidity of the metal
during treatment. The difference being, that one is done by
non-luminous, while the other is by luminous combustion.
If we consider the phenomenon of light, we find that it is due to the
same force. As before stated, when we oxidize carbon, or hydrogen, as
in the rapid combustion of wood, oil, or coal, the escaping caloric
flies off with such great speed as to cause the molecules in the
circumambient medium to assume a velocity which exhibits luminosity.
Thus the light produced by burning candles, oil, gas, wood, and coal,
is caused by the same prime factor, dynamic caloric.
The force of caloric is imponderable and invisible, and is only known
by its effects. We do know that it is occluded in metals and other
material, because we can unlock it and set it free, or we can transfer
it from one body to another, and by measuring its effects, we can
determine its quantity. We know that it prefers to travel over one
vehicle more than another, and by this knowledge we are able to
insulate it, and thus conduct it in any direction desired. The
materials through which it passes with the greatest freedom are called
conductors, and the materials which most retard its passage,
non-conductors; but these terms must be taken in a comparative sense
only, as in fact there are no absolute non-conductors of dynamic
caloric, or of what we call electricity.
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