Experiments on air / [Henry Cavendish].

  • Henry Cavendish
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments on air / [Henry Cavendish]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/32 page 13
    yet, ns fome remained unabforbed, it did not appear for certain whether that was of the fame nature as the reft or not. For this purpofe 1 diminifhed a ii mi la r mixture of dephlogifticated and common air, in the fame manner as before, till it was reduced to a fmall part of its original bulk. I then, in order to decompound as much as I could of the phldgrfticated air which remained in the tube, added fome dephlogifticated air to it, and continued the fpark till no further diminution took place* Having by thefe means condenfed as much as I could of the phlogifticated air, I let up tome folution of liver of fulphur to abforb the dephlo- gifticated air; after which only a fmall bubble of air remained unabforbed, which certainly was not more than of the bulk of the phlogifticated air let up into the tube; fo that if there is any part of the phlogifticated air of our atmofphere which differs from the reft, and cannot be reduced to nitrous acid, we may fafely conclude, that it is not more than -4^ part of the whole. The foregoing experiments (hew, that the chief caufe of the diminution which common air, or a mixture of common and dephlogifticated air, fuifers by the define fpark, is the converfton of the air into nitrons acid ; but yet it leemed not unlikely, that when any liquor, containing inflammable mat- ter, was in contact with the air in the tube, fome of this matter might be burnt by the fpark, and thereby diminish the air, as I fuppofed in the above-mentioned Paper to be the cafe. The heft way which occurred to me of difeovering whether this happened or not, was to- pafstrhe fpark through dephlogi'fti-' eated air> included between different liquors: for then, if the diminution proceeded folely from the converfion of air into nitrous acid, it is plain that, when the dephlogifticated air was perfectly pure, no diminution would take place; but when it contained
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