The elementary nature of chlorine : papers / by Humphry Davy.

  • Davy Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elementary nature of chlorine : papers / by Humphry Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    37/86 (page 37)
    is decomposed by water, the oxide or acid or alkali or oxidated body formed must be in the same proportion as the muriatic acid gas, as the oxygene and hydrogene must bear the same relation to each other; and experi- ments upon these compounds will probably afford simple modes of ascertaining the proportions of the elements, in the different oxides, acids, and alkaline earths. If, according to the ingenious idea of Mr. Dalton, hydrogene be considered as i in weight, in the proportion it exists in water, then oxygene will be nearly 7.5 ; and assuming that potash is composed of i proportion of oxygene, and i of potassium, then potash will be 48, and potassium* about 40.5 ; and from an experiment which I have detailed in the last Bakerian lecture, on the combustion of potassium in muriatic acid gas, oxy- muriatic acid will be represented by 32.9, and muriatic acid gas, of course, by 33.9 ; and this estimation agrees with the specific gravity of oxymuriatic acid gas, and muriatic acid gas. From my experiments, 100 cubical inches of oxymuriatic acid gas weigh, the reductions being made for the mean temperature and pressure, 74.5 grains; whereas by estimation they should weigh 74.6. Muriatic acid gas I find weighs, under like circumstances, in the quantity of 100 cubic inches, 39 grains; by estimation it should weigh 38.4 grains. It is easy from these data, knowing the composition of any dry muriate, to ascertain the quantity of oxide or of acid it would furnish by the action of water, and con- sequently the quantity of oxygene with which the in- flammable matter will com bine, f In considering the dry muriates, as compounds of oxymuriatic acid and inflammable bodies; the argu- ment that I have used in the last Bakerian lecture, to * Supposing potash to contain nearly 15.6 per cent, of oxygene. t [Note not reprinted.]