Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Steam Tables

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

SMITH, R. Steam Tables. Nature 83, 339 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083339b0

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083339b0

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing