XIX. On the specific heat and other physical characters of mixtures of ethylic alcohol and water

Abstract

The authors, having recently had occasion to estimate carefully the specific heat of mixtures of alcohol and water, came in the course of these experiments to the unexpected result that the specific heat of such mixtures, up to an alcoholic strength of about 36 per cent., is sensibly higher than the specific heat of water itself. These experiments, to the best of their knowledge, furnish the first example of a liquid having a higher specific heat than water, which has always been considered to possess the highest specific heat of any substance solid or liquid. They therefore beg leave to lay their results before the Royal Society. Two methods were employed for the estimation of the specific heat. The first method, and the one chiefly used, consisted in heating a metallic weight to a certain temperature, and then plunging it into the liquid whose specific heat was to be estimated; the rise in temperature thus produced in different liquids will, after the necessary corrections, be inversely proportional to the specific heat of these liquids.