Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. Joseph Priestley

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      In order to draw air out of a vessel which has its mouth immersed in water, and thereby to raise the water to whatever height may be necessary, it is very convenient to make use of a glass syphon, fig. 13, putting one of the legs up into the vessel, and drawing the air out at the other end by the mouth. If the air be of a noxious quality, it may be necessary to have a syringe fastened to the syphon, the manner of which needs no explanation. I have not thought it safe to depend upon a valve at the top of the vessel, which Dr. Hales sometimes made use of.

      If, however, a very small hole be made at the top of a glass vessel, it may be filled to any height by holding it under water, while the air is issuing out at the hole, which may then be closed with wax or cement.

      If the generated air will neither be absorbed by water, nor diminish common air, it may be convenient to put part of the materials into a cup, supported by a stand, and the other part into a small glass vessel, placed on the edge of it, as at f, fig. 1. Then having, by means of a syphon, drawn the air to at convenient height, the small glass vessel may be easily pushed into the cup, by a wire introduced through the water; or it may be contrived, in a variety of ways, only to discharge the contents of the small vessel into the larger. The distance between the boundary of air and water, before and after the operation, will shew the quantity of the generated air. The effect of processes that diminish air may also be tried by the same apparatus.

      When I want to admit a particular kind of air to any thing that will not bear wetting, and yet cannot be conveniently put into a phial, and especially if it be in the form of a powder, and must be placed upon a stand (as in those experiments in which the focus of a burning mirror is to be thrown upon it) I first exhaust a receiver, in which it is previously placed; and having a glass tube, bended for the purpose, as in fig. 14, I screw it to the stem of a transfer of the air pump on which the receiver had been exhausted, and introducing it through the water into a jar of that kind of air with which I would fill the receiver, I only turn the cock, and I gain my purpose. In this method, however, unless the pump be very good, and several contrivances, too minute to be particularly described, be made use of a good deal of common air will get into the receiver.

      When I want to measure the goodness of any kind of air, I put two measures of it into a jar standing in water; and when I have marked upon the glass the exact place of the boundary of air and water, I put to it one measure of nitrous air; and after waiting a proper time, note the quantity of its diminution. If I be comparing two kinds of air that are nearly alike, after mixing them in a large jar, I transfer the mixture into a long glass tube, by which I can lengthen my scale to what degree I please.

      If the quantity of the air, the goodness of which I want to ascertain, be exceedingly small, so as to be contained in a part of a glass tube, out of which water will not run spontaneously, as a fig. 15; I first measure with a pair of compasses the length of the column of air in the tube, the remaining part being filled with water, and lay it down upon a scale; and then, thrusting a wire of a proper thickness, b, into the tube, I contrive, by means of a thin plate of iron, bent to a sharp angle c, to draw it out again, when the whole of this little apparatus has been introduced through the water into a jar of nitrous air; and the wire being drawn out, the air from the jar must supply its place. I then measure the length of this column of nitrous air which I have got into the tube, and lay it also down upon the scale, so as to know the exact length of both the columns. After this, holding the tube under water, with a small wire I force the two separate columns of air into contact, and when they have been a sufficient time together, I measure the length of the whole, and compare it with the length of both the columns taken before. A little experience will teach the operator how far to thrust the wire into the tube, in order to admit as much air as he wants and no more.

      In order to take the electric spark in a quantity of any kind of air, which must be very small, to produce a sensible effect upon it, in a short time, by means of a common machine, I put a piece of wire into the end of a small tube, and fasten it with hot cement, as in fig. 16; and having got the air I want into the tube by means of the apparatus fig. 15, I place it inverted in a bason containing either quicksilver, or any other fluid substance by which I chuse to have the air confined. I then, by the help of the air pump, drive out as much of the air as I think convenient, admitting the quicksilver, &c. to it, as at a, and putting a brass ball on the end of the wire, I take the sparks or shocks upon it, and thereby transmit them through the air to the liquor in the tube.

      To take the electric sparks in any kind of fluid, as oil, &c. I use the same apparatus described above, and having poured into the tube as much of the fluid as I conjecture I can make the electric spark pass through, I fill the rest with quicksilver; and placing it inverted in a bason of quicksilver, I take the sparks as before.

      If air be generated very fast by this process, I use a tube that is narrow at the top, and grows wider below, as fig. 17, that the quicksilver may not recede too soon beyond the striking distance.

      Sometimes I have used a different apparatus for this purpose, represented fig. 18. Taking a pretty wide glass tube, hermetically sealed at the upper-end, and open below, at about an inch, or at what distance I think convenient from the top, I get two holes made in it, opposite to each other. Through these I put two wires, and fastening them with warm cement, I fix them at what distance I please from each other. Between these wires I take the sparks, and the bubbles of air rise, as they are formed, to the top of the tube.

PART I.

       Table of Contents

Experiments and Observations made in, and before the year 1772.

       Table of Contents

      In writing upon the subject of different kinds of air, I find myself at a loss for proper terms, by which to distinguish them, those which have hitherto obtained being by no means sufficiently characteristic, or distinct. The only terms in common use are, fixed air, mephitic, and inflammable. The last, indeed, sufficiently characterizes and distinguishes that kind of air which takes fire, and explodes on the approach of flame; but it might have been termed fixed with as much propriety as that to which Dr. Black and others have given that denomination, since it is originally part of some solid substance, and exists in an unelastic state.

      All these newly discovered kinds of air may also be called factitious; and if, with others, we use the term fixable, it is still obvious to remark, that it is applicable to them all; since they are all capable of being imbibed by some substance or other, and consequently of being fixed in them, after they have been in an elastic state.

      The term mephitic is equally applicable to what is called fixed air, to that which is inflammable, and to many other kinds; since they are equally noxious, when breathed by animals. Rather, however, than either introduce new terms, or change the signification of old ones, I shall use the term fixed air, in the sense in which it is now commonly used, and distinguish the other kinds by their properties, or some other periphrasis. I shall be under a necessity, however, of giving names to those kinds of air, to which no names had been given by others, as nitrous, acid, and alkaline.

SECTION I.

       Table of Contents

Of Fixed Air.

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