Experiments and observations relating to the analysis of atmospherical air; also, farther experiments relating to the generation of air from water. Read before the American Philosophical Society, Feb. 5 and 19, 1796 ... To which are added, considerations on the doctrine of phlogiston, and the decomposition of water / [Joseph Priestley].

  • Joseph Priestley
Date:
1796
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations relating to the analysis of atmospherical air; also, farther experiments relating to the generation of air from water. Read before the American Philosophical Society, Feb. 5 and 19, 1796 ... To which are added, considerations on the doctrine of phlogiston, and the decomposition of water / [Joseph Priestley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    u pofed of vitriolic acid and fixed alkali, or fal <c ammoniac of the marine acid and volatile al- “ kali, &c. &c. For the proofs that we have fC of the compofition of thefe falts are of the €s fame kind, and not more rigorous, than thofe which eftablifh the compofition of water. No- “ thing, perhaps, more clearly proves the weak- £C nefs of the old theory, than the forced ex- <c planations that have been attempted to be “ given of thefe experiments/' Notwithstanding the confidence thus ftrong- ]y expreffed by thefe able and experienced chemifts, I muft take the liberty to fay, that the experiments to which they allude appear to me to be very liable to exception, and that the do&rine of phlogifton eafily accounts for al] that they obferved. Their proof that water is decompofed, and refolved into two kinds of air, is that when fleam is made to pafs over red-hot iron inflam¬ mable air is produced, and the iron acquires an addition of weight, becoming what is called finery cinder; but what they call oxide of iron% fuppofing that there is lodged in it the oxygeft which was one of the conftituent parts of the water expended in the procefs, while the other part, or the hydrogen, with the addition of heat, affumed the form of inflammable air. But in order to prove that this addition of weight to the iron is really oxygen, they ought to be