The Gases of the Atmosphere: The History of Their DiscoveryMacmillan and Company, Limited, 1896 - 240 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
absorbed aerial acid alkali ammonia amount animal appears argon atmospheric air atmospheric nitrogen atomic weight atoms of hydrogen attraction Black bodies Boyle bromine burning calces calcination calx candle carbon dioxide caustic Cavendish centimetre chemical chlorine combination common air compound conclusion consists contains copper cubic centimetres density dephlogisticated air discovery dissolved distillation earth effervescence elasticity elastick electric spark elements experiments fermentation fire fire-air particles fixed air flame gases gram Hales helium inflammable JOHN MAYOW kind of air Lavoisier Lavoisier's lime lime-water litre Lord Rayleigh magnesia magnesium mass matter Mayow metals mixed mixture molecules monatomic nature nitrate nitre nitric acid nitrogen nitrous obtained ordinary air oxide oxygen phlogistic theory phlogisticated phlogiston phosphorus potassium pressure Priestley Priestley's produced properties proportion pure quantity ratio red-hot regarded residue respiration salt Scheele Scheele's specific heat substances sulphuric acid supporting combustion supposed temperature tion tube vapour vegetable volume yielded
Popular passages
Page 142 - I let up some solution of liver of sulphur to absorb the dephlogisticated air, after which only a small bubble of air remained unabsorbed, which certainly was not more than -j-^ of the bulk of the phlogisticated air let up into the tube ; so that if there is any part of the phlogisticated air of our atmosphere which differs from the rest and cannot be reduced to nitrous acid, we may safely conclude that it is not more than T^ part of the whole.
Page 69 - For my own part, I will frankly acknowledge that at the commencement of the experiments recited in this section I was so far from having formed any hypothesis that led to the discoveries I made in pursuing them that they would have appeared very improbable to me had I been told of them ; and when the decisive facts did at length obtrude themselves upon my notice it was very slowly, and with great hesitation, that I yielded to the evidence of my senses.
Page 104 - ... much better than in common air, but I had not then given it any name. At this all the company, and Mr. and Mrs. Lavoisier as much as any, expressed great surprise. I told them I had gotten it from precipitate per se, and also from red lead. Speaking French very imperfectly, and being little acquainted with the terms of chemistry, I said plombe rouge, which was not understood till Mr. Macquer said I must mean minium. M. Scheele's discovery was certainly independent of mine, though, I believe,...
Page 189 - The numbers in the table given at p. 87 refer to the relative weights required to replace 1 part by weight of hydrogen, or to the replacement of the weight of oxygen which, in water, is combined with 1 part of hydrogen. Water contains 8 parts by weight of oxygen, to 1 part by weight of hydrogen. Upon the supposition, then, that water consists of a single atom of oxygen, combined with a single atom of hydrogen, — and...
Page 126 - Air,' and it commences with stating, not that those experiments were undertaken with any view to the water formed by burning inflammable air, but that they were made " with a view to find out the cause of the diminution which common air is well known to suffer by all the various ways in which it is phlogisticated...
Page 127 - From the fourth experiment it appears, that 423 measures of inflammable air are nearly sufficient to completely phlogisticate 1000 of common air; and that the bulk of the air remaining after the explosion is then very little more than four-fifths of the common air employed; so that as common air cannot be reduced to a much less bulk than that by any method of phlogistication, we may safely conclude, that when they are mixed in this proportion, and exploded, almost all the inflammable air, and about...
Page 141 - I therefore made an experiment to determine whether the whole of a given portion of the phlogisticated air of the atmosphere could be reduced to nitrous acid, or whether there was not a part of a different nature to the rest which would refuse to undergo that change.
Page 103 - ... that is fixed during the combustion and combines with the vapours. "This discovery, which I have established by experiments that I regard as decisive, has led me to think that what is observed in the combustion of sulphur and phosphorus may well take place in the case of all substances that gain in weight by combustion and calcination: and I am persuaded that the increase in weight of metallic calces is due to the same cause.
Page 123 - The specific gravity of this air was found to differ very little from that of common air : of the two, it seemed rather lighter. It extinguished flame, and rendered common air unfit for making bodies burn, in the same...