Abstract
IN NATURE of April 21 a review appeared of Profs. Marks and Davis's excellent new tables of steam properties, in which it is stated, without qualification, that the new calculations of the total heat of saturated steam are based upon a second-degree equation H = a + bt + ct2. Both in the explanatory notes to the tables, and still more emphatically and repeatedly in a paper printed in the Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, March, 1910, the authors state that this equation does not apply outside the limits 200°–400° F. Simple numerical tests also prove that the tabular figures do not agree with this formula outside these limits, and the formula would give H its maximum value at 721/2° F. higher temperature, and four heat units more in quantity, than the tables make it. Mr. Davis says that no formula yet discovered will apply throughout the full range, and above about 450° F. the figures given are not credited with a high degree of accuracy or certainty.
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SMITH, R. Steam Tables. Nature 83, 339 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083339b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083339b0