Experiments on the analysis of the heavy inflammable air / by William Austin.

  • William Austin
Date:
[1790]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments on the analysis of the heavy inflammable air / by William Austin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    •the compound forms of vegetable, animal, and bituminous jfubftanceS;, all of which yield phlogifticated air and volatile alkali in great abundance ; yet when the more fmiple modifica- tions of the heavy inflammable air, as charcoal, vinegar, and, if Dr. Priestley is not millaken, fixed air, give out phlo- gifUcated air, when decompofed in clofe vefiels, 1 cannot but infer, that phlogifticated air is an effential part of that peculiar fubftance which exifts in all thefe ftates, whether that fub- fiance be called charcoal, or the gravitating matter of heavy- inflammable air. Hence it appears, that the phlogifticated and heavy inflam- mable airs combined, conftitute charcoal; and that the mere application of heat always refolves charcoal into thefe two fub- ftances. But the heavy inflammable air is itfelf a compound of the lighter inflamfaable and phlogifticated airs. If phlo- gifticated air be combined with the heavy inflammable, or, which is the fame thing, if light inflammable air be taken from it, charcoal is re-produced; therefore, when fulphur is melted in the heavy inflammable air, and hepatic air formed in it, the remaining parts of the heavy inflammable air return to the ftate of charcoal. And laftly, when fulphur is melted in contact with charcoal, the decompofition is complete ; and the charcoal is refolved into its ultimate particles, the phlogifti- cated and light inflammable airs, with a fmall admixture of volatile alkali. Thus far I have proceeded in the decompofition of the heavy inflammable air. I'he formation of this air, on many occa- fions, confirms what has been faid concerning its analyfis. In the refolution of compound bodies into their conftituent parts, it may always be fufpe&ed, that the whole is not accounted for, that fome part may have eluded obfervation, till the very parts
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