surface-particles

Updated: February 14, 2026

So, when bodies are rubbed together, their surface-particles are brought into collision, mechanical force is destroyed, and heat appears, the heat of friction. The conversion of heat into mechanical motion, and of that motion back again into heat, may be familiarly illustrated in the case of a railway-train. The heat generated by combustion in the locomotive is converted into motion of the cars.

Various - The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 78, April, 1864