Account of a series of experiments, undertaken with the view of decomposing the muriatic acid / [William Henry].

  • William Henry
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a series of experiments, undertaken with the view of decomposing the muriatic acid / [William Henry]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    only in disuniting the elements of water, but in promoting the union of the evolved oxygen with muriatic acid. Exper. 5. A mixture of common air and muriatic acid gas, in the proportion of 143 of the former to 116 of the latter, was rapidly diminished by electrical shocks ; 30 of which reduced the whole to 111.* The remainder consisted of muriatic acid and azotic gases, with a small proportion of oxygenous gas. The deposit formed on the tube was of the same kind as before, but much more abundant. Exper. 6. The same appearances were occasioned, much more remarkably, by electrifying muriatic acid with oxygenous gas; and the contraction continued, till the mercury rose so as to touch the extremity of the platina conductor. At each ex¬ plosion, a dense white cloud was seen in the tube, which soon settled on its inner surface, and was of exactly the same che¬ mical composition as the one already described. Nitrous gas and muriatic gas, when electrified together, underwent a similar change. In order to ascertain whether the mercury by which tlie gases were confined, in the above experiments, had any influ¬ ence on their results, they were repeated in an instrument made, purposely for the occasion, by Mr. Cuthbertson, of London. It consisted of a glass tube, ground at each end, with the view of receiving two stoppers, each perforated with platina wire, which projected into the cavity of the tube. When the stoppers were in their places, the extremities of the wires were • This experiment suggests an additional reason, to that already given, for the greater diminution of the first, than of the subsequent portions of muriatic acid gas; for the former may be presumed to have been much more adulterated than the latter, with the atmospherical air of the vessels.
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