Melting and Regelation of Ice

Abstract

AN observation made yesterday caused me to present,to my class, in a lecture on Heat this morning, the following experiment. A piece of wire gauze was laid on a convenient horizontal ring, and on this a lump of ice. A flat board was placed on the ice, and pressure was applied by means of weights put upon the board. I put 12 lbs. upon a piece of ice as large as an apple. This was done at the commencement of the lecture, and before the conclusion I found a considerable quantity of ice on the lower side of the gauze, apparently squeezed through the meshes. The temperature of the class-room was about 15° C. (59° Fah.). The experiment was continued for eight or ten hours, fresh ice being supplied when necessary to the upper side of the gauze, and, in spite of the continual surface melting and dripping away of water, a very large quantity of ice was formed below the gauze. The ice below the gauze was firmly united to that above. I tried with my hands to break away the upper from the lower, and to break either of them off at the place where the wire gauze separated them; but I was not able to do so. The ice that has passed through the meshes has a kind of texture corresponding to that of the network, and the small air bubbles appeared to be arranged in columns.