Chapter X: Chemistry (1)

There is hardly any kind of knowledge which has been so slowly acquired as that of chemistry, and perhaps no other science has offered such fascinating rewards to the labour of its votaries as the _philosopher's stone_, which was to produce an unfailing supply of gold; or _the elixir of life_, that was to give the discoverer of the gold-making art the time, the prolonged life, in which he might spend and enjoy it.

Hundreds of years ago Egypt was the great depository of all learning, art, and science, and it was to this ancient country that the most celebrated sages of antiquity travelled.

Hermes, or Mercurius Trismegistus, the favourite minister of the Egyptian king Osiris, has been celebrated as the inventor of the art of alchemy, and the first treatise upon it has been attributed to Zosymus, of Chemnis or Panopolis. The Moors who conquered Spain were remarkable [Page 82] for their learning, and the taste and elegance with which they designed and carried out a new style of architecture, with its lovely Arabesque ornamentation. They were likewise great followers of the art of alchemy, when they ceased to be conquerors, and became more reconciled to the arts of peace. Strange that such a people, thirsting as they did in after years for all kinds of knowledge, should have destroyed, in the persons of their ancestors, the most numerous collection of books that the world had ever seen: the magnificent library of Alexandria, collected by the Ptolemies with great diligence and at an enormous expense, was burned by the orders of Caliph Omar; whilst it is stated that the alchemical works had been previously destroyed by Diocletian in the fourth century, lest the Egyptians should acquire by such means sufficient wealth to withstand the Roman power, for gold was then, as it is now, "the sinews of war."

Eastern historians relate the trouble and expense incurred by the succeeding Caliphs, who, resigning the Saracenic barbarism of their ancestors, were glad to collect from all parts the books which were to furnish forth a princely library at Bagdad. How the learned scholar sighs when he reads of seven hundred thousand books being consigned to the ignominious office of heating forty thousand baths in the capital of Egypt, and of the magnificent Alexandrian Library, a mental fuel for the lamp of learning in all ages, consumed in bath furnaces, and affording six months' fuel for that purpose. The Arabians, however, made amends for these barbarous deeds in succeeding centuries, and when all Europe was laid waste under the iron rule of the Goths, they became the protectors of philosophy and the promoters of its pursuits; and thus we come to the seventh century, in which Geber, an Arabian prince lived, and is stated to be the earliest of the true alchemists whose name has reached posterity.

Without attempting to fill up the alchemical history of the intervening centuries, we leap forward six hundred years, and now find ourselves in imagination in England, with the learned friar, Roger Bacon, a native of Somersetshire, who lived about the middle of the thirteenth century; and although the continual study of alchemy had not yet produced the "stone," it bore fruit in other discoveries, and Roger Bacon is said, with great appearance of truth, to have discovered gunpowder, for he says in one of his works:--"From saltpetre and _other_ ingredients we are able to form a fire which will burn to any distance;" and again alluding to its effects, "a small portion of matter, about the size of the thumb, _properly disposed_, will make a tremendous sound and coruscation, by which cities and armies might be destroyed." The exaggerated style seems to have been a favourite one with all philosophers, from the time of Roger Bacon to that of Muschenbroek of the University of Leyden, who accidentally discovered the Leyden jar in the year 1746, and receiving the first shock, from a vial containing a little water, into which a cork and nail had been fitted, states that "he felt himself struck in his arms, shoulders, and breast, so that he lost his breath, and was _two days_ before he recovered from the effects of the blow and the terror;" [Page 83] adding, that "he would not take a _second_ shock for the kingdom of France." Disregarding the numerous alchemical events occurring from the time of Roger Bacon, we again advance four hundred years--viz., to the year 1662, when, on the 15th of July, King Charles II. granted a royal charter to the Philosophical Society of Oxford, who had removed to London, under the name of the Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural Knowledge, and in the year 1665 was published the first number of the _Philosophical Transactions_; this work contains the successive discoveries of Mayow, Hales, Black, Leslie, Cavendish, Lavoisier, Priestley, Davy, Faraday; and since the year 1762 has been regularly published at the rate of one volume per annum. With this preface proceed we now to discuss some of the varied phenomena of chemical attraction, or what is more correctly termed

CHEMICAL AFFINITY.

The above title refers to an endless series of changes brought about by chemical combinations, all of which can be reduced to certain fixed laws, and admit of a simple classification and arrangement. A mechanical aggregation, however well arranged, can be always distinguished from a chemical one. Thus, a grain of gunpowder consists of _nitre_, which can be washed away with boiling water, of _sulphur_, which can be sublimed and made to pass away as vapour, of _charcoal_, which remains behind after the previous processes are complete; this mixture has been perfected by a careful proportion of the respective ingredients, it has been wetted, and ground, and pressed, granulated, and finally dried; all these mechanical processes have been so well carried out that each grain, if analysed, would be similar to the other; and yet it is, after all, only a mechanical aggregation, because the sulphur, the charcoal, and the nitre are unchanged. A grain of gunpowder moistened, crushed, and examined by a high microscopic power, would indicate the yellow particles of sulphur, the black parts of charcoal, whilst the water filtered from the grain of powder and dried, would show the nitre by the form of the crystal. On the other hand, if some nitre is fused at a dull red heat in a little crucible, and two or three grains of sulphur are added, they are rapidly oxidized, and combine with the potash, forming sulphate of potash; and after this change a few grains of charcoal may be added in a similar manner, when they burn brightly, and are oxidized and converted into carbonic acid, which also unites in like manner with the potash, forming carbonate of potash; so that when the fused nitre is cooled and a few particles examined by the microscope, the charcoal and sulphur are no longer distinguishable, they have undergone a chemical combination with portions of the nitre, and have produced two new salts, perfectly different in taste, gravity, and appearance from the original substances employed to produce them. Hence chemical combination is defined to be "_that property which is possessed by one or more substances, of uniting together and producing a third or other body perfectly different [Page 84] in its nature from either of the two or more generating the new compound_".

To return to our first experiment with the gunpowder: take sulphur, place some in an iron ladle, heat it over a gas flame till it catches fire, then ascend a ladder, and pour it gently, from the greatest height you can reach, into a pail of warm water: if this experiment is performed in a darkened room a magnificent and continuous stream of fire is obtained, of a blue colour, without a single break in its whole length, provided the ladle is gradually inclined and emptied. The substance that drops into the warm water is no longer yellow and hard, but is red, soft, and plastic; it is still sulphur, though it has taken a new form, because that element is dimorphous ([Greek: _dis_] twice, and [Greek: _morphê_] a form), and, Proteus-like, can assume two forms. Take another ladle, and melt some nitre in it at a dull red heat, then add a small quantity of sulphur, which will burn as before; and now, after waiting a few minutes, repeat the same experiment by pouring the liquid from the steps through the air into water; observe it no longer flames, and the substance received into the water is not red and soft and plastic, but is white, or nearly so, and rapidly dissolves away in the water. The sulphur has united with the oxygen of the nitre and formed sulphuric acid, which combines with the potash and forms sulphate of potash; here, then, oxygen, sulphur, and potassium, have united and formed a salt in which the separate properties of the three bodies have completely disappeared; to prove this, it is only necessary to dissolve the sulphate of potash in water, and after filtering the solution, or allowing it to settle, till it becomes quite clear and bright, some solution of baryta may now be added, when a white precipitate is thrown down, consisting of sulphate of baryta, which is insoluble in nitric or other strong acids. The behaviour of a solution of sulphate of potash with a nitrate of baryta may now be contrasted with that of the elements it contains; on the addition of sulphur to a solution of nitrate of baryta no change whatever takes place, because the sulphur is perfectly insoluble. If a stream of oxygen gas is passed from a bladder and jet through the same test, no effect is produced; the nitrate of baryta has already acquired its full proportion of oxygen, and no further addition has any power to change its nature; finally, if a bit of the metal potassium is placed in the solution of nitrate of baryta it does not sink, being lighter than water, and it takes fire; but this is not in any way connected with the presence of the test, as the same thing will happen if another bit of the metal is placed in water--it is the oxygen of the latter which unites rapidly with the potassium, and causes it to become so hot that the hydrogen, escaping around the little red-hot globules, takes fire; moreover, the fact of the combustion of the potassium under such circumstances is another striking proof of the opposite qualities of the three elements--sulphur, oxygen, and potassium--as compared with the three chemically combined and forming sulphate of potash. The same kind of experiment may be repeated with charcoal; if some powdered charcoal is made red-hot, and then puffed into the air with a blowing machine, numbers of sparks are produced, and the [Page 85] charcoal burns away and forms carbonic acid gas, a little ash being left behind; but if some more nitre be heated in a ladle, and charcoal added, a brilliant deflagration (_deflagro_, to burn) occurs, and the charcoal, instead of passing away in the air as carbonic acid, is now retained in the same shape, but firmly and chemically united with the potash of the nitre, forming carbonate of potash, or pearl-ash, which is not black and insoluble in water and acids like charcoal, but is white, and not only soluble in water, but is most rapidly attacked by acids with effervescence, and the carbon escapes in the form of carbonic acid gas. Thus we have traced out the distinction between mechanical aggregation and chemical affinity, taking for an example the difference between gunpowder as a whole (in which the ingredients are so nicely balanced that it is almost a chemical combination), and its constituents, sulphur, charcoal, and nitre, when they are chemically combined; or, in briefer language, we have noticed the difference between the mechanical mixture, and some of the chemical combinations, of three important elements. Our very slight and partial examination of three simple bodies does not, however, afford us any deep insight into the principles of chemistry; we have, as it were, only mastered the signification of a few words in a language; we might know that _chien_ was the French for dog, or _cheval_ horse, or _homme_ man; but that knowledge would not be the acquisition of the French language, because we must first know the alphabet, and then the combination of these letters into words; we must also acquire a knowledge of the proper arrangement of these words into sentences, or grammar, both syntax and prosody, before we can claim to be a French scholar: so it is with chemistry--any number of isolated experiments with various chemical substances would be comparatively useless, and therefore the "alphabet of chemistry," or "table of simple elements," must first be acquired. These bodies are understood to be solids, fluids, and gases, which have hitherto defied the most elaborate means employed to reduce them into more than one kind of matter. Even pure light is separable into seven parts--viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet; but the elements we shall now enumerate are not of a compound, but, so far as we know, of an absolutely simple or single nature; they represent the boundaries, not the finality, of the knowledge that may be acquired respecting them.

The elements are sixty-four in number, of which about forty are tolerably plentiful, and therefore common; whilst the remainder, twenty-four, are rare, and for that reason of a lesser utility: whenever Nature employs an element on a grand scale it may certainly be called common, but it generally works for the common good of all, and fulfils the most important offices.

[Page 86]

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ALPHABET OF CHEMISTRY.

13 _Non-Metallic Bodies._

Name. Symbol. Combining
proportion
or atomic
weight.

1. Oxygen O = 8
2. Hydrogen H = 1
3. Nitrogen N = 14
4. Chlorine Cl = 35.5
5. Iodine I = 127.1
6. Bromine Br = 80.
7. Fluorine F = 18.9
8. Carbon C = 6
9. Boron B = 10.9
10. Sulphur S = 16
11. Phosphorus P = 32
12. Silicon Si = 21.3
13. _Selenium_ Se = 39.5

51 _Metals._

1. Aluminum Al = 13.7
2. Antimony Sb = 129
3. Arsenic As = 75
4. Barium Ba = 68.5
5. Bismuth Bi = 213
6. Cadmium Cd = 56
7. Calcium Ca = 20
8. _Cerium_ Ce = 47
9. Chromium Cr = 26.7
10. Cobalt Co = 29.5
11. Copper Cu = 31.7
12. _Donarium_
13. _Didymium_ D
14. _Erbium_ E
15. Gold Au = 197
16. _Glucinum_ Gl
17. Iron Fe = 28
18. _Ilmenium_ Il
19. _Iridium_ Ir = 99
20. Lead Pb = 103.7
21. _Lanthanium_ La
22. _Lithium_ Li = 6.5
23. Magnesium Mg = 12.2
24. Manganese Mn = 27.6
25. Mercury Hg = 100
26. _Molybdenum_ Mo = 46
27. Nickel Ni = 29.6
28. _Norium_
29. _Niobium_ Nb
30. _Osmium_ Os = 99.6
31. Platinum Pt = 98.7
32. Potassium K = 39.2
33. Palladium Pd = 53.3
34. _Pelopium_ Pe
35. Rhodium R = 52.2
36. _Rhuthenium_ Ru = 52.2
37. Silver Ag = 108.1
38. Sodium Na = 23
39. Strontium Sr = 43.8
40. Tin Sn = 59
41. _Tantalum_ Ta = 184
42. _Tellurium_ Te = 64.2
43. _Terbium_ Tb
44. _Thorium_ Th = 59.6
45. _Titanium_ Ti = 25
46. Tungsten W[A]= 95
47. Uranium U = 60
48. _Vanadium_ V = 68.6
49. _Yttrium_ Y
50. Zinc Zn = 32.6
51. _Zirconium_ Zr = 22.4

(N.B. The elements printed in italics are at present unimportant.)

[Footnote A: From the mineral Wolfram, and now exceedingly valuable, as when alloyed with iron it is harder than, and will bore through steel.]

A few words will suffice to explain the meaning of the terms which head the names, letters, and numbers of the Table of Elements. [Page 87] The names of the elements have very interesting derivations, which it is not the object of this work to go into; the symbols are abbreviations, ciphers of the simplest kind, to save time and trouble in the frequent repetition of long words, just as the signs + plus, and - minus, are used in algebraic formulæ. For instance--the constant recurrence of water in chemical combinations must be named, and would involve the most tedious repetition; water consists of oxygen and hydrogen, and by taking the first letter of each word we have an instructive symbol, which not only gives us an abbreviated term for water, but also imparts at once a knowledge of its composition by the use of the letters, HO.

Again, to take a more complex example, such as would occur in the study of organic chemistry--a sentence such as _the hydrated oxide of acetule_, is written at once by C_{4}H_{4}O_{2}, the figures referring to the number of equivalents of each element--viz., 4 equivalents of C, the symbol for carbon, 4 of H (hydrogen), and 2 of O (oxygen).

The long word paranaphthaline, a substance contained in coal tar, is disposed of at once with the symbols and figures C_{30}H_{12}.

The figures in the third column are, however, the most interesting to the precise and mathematically exact chemist. They represent the united labours of the most painstaking and learned chemists, and are the exact quantities in which the various elements unite. To quote one example: if 8 parts by weight of oxygen--viz., the combining proportions of that element--are united with 1 part by weight of hydrogen, also its combining number, the result will be 9 parts by weight of water; but if 8 parts of oxygen and 2 parts of hydrogen were used, one only of the latter could unite with the former, and the result would be the formation again of 9 parts of water, with an overplus of 1 equivalent of hydrogen.

It is useless to multiply examples, and it is sufficient to know that with this table of numbers the figures of analysis are obtained. Supposing a substance contained 27 parts of water, and the oxygen in this had to be determined, the rule of proportion would give it at once, 9: 27:: 8: 24. 9 parts of water are to 27 parts as 8 of oxygen (the quantity contained in 9 parts of water) are to the answer required--viz., 24 of oxygen. The names, symbols, and combining proportions being understood, we may now proceed with the performance of many interesting

CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS.

As the permanent gases head the list, they will first engage our attention, beginning with the element oxygen--Symbol O, combining proportion 8. There is nothing can give a better idea of the enormous quantity of oxygen present in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, than the statement that it represents _one-third_ of the weight of the whole crust of the globe. Silica, or flint, contains about half its weight of oxygen; lime contains forty per cent.; alumina about thirty-three per cent. In these substances the element oxygen remains inactive and powerless, chained by the strong fetters of chemical affinity to [Page 88] the silicium of the flint, the calcium of the lime, and the aluminum of the alumina. If these substances are heated by themselves they will not yield up the large quantity of oxygen they contain.

Nature, however, is prodigal in her creation, and hence we have but to pursue our search diligently to find a substance or mineral containing an abundance of oxygen, and part of which it will relinquish by what used to be called by the "old alchemists" the _torture_ of heat. Such a mineral is the black oxide of manganese, or more correctly the binoxide of manganese, which consists of one combining proportion of the metal manganese--viz., 27.6, and two of oxygen--viz., 8 × 2 = 16. If three proportions of the binoxide of manganese are heated to redness in an iron retort, they yield one proportion (equal to 8) of oxygen, and all that has just been explained by so many words is comprehended in the symbols and figures below:--

3 MnO_{2} = Mn_{3}O_{4} + _O_.

Thus the 3 MnO_{2} represent the three proportions of the binoxide of manganese before heat is applied, whilst the sign =, the sign of equation (equal to), is intended to show that the elements or compounds placed _before_ it produce those which _follow_ it; hence the sequel Mn_{3}O_{4} + _O_ shows that another compound of the metal and oxygen is produced, whilst the + _O_ indicates the liberated oxygen gas. The iron retort employed to hold the mineral should be made of cast iron in preference to wrought iron, as the latter is very soon worn out by contact with oxygen at a red heat. A gun-barrel will answer the purpose for an experiment on the small scale, to which must be adapted a cock and piece of pewter tubing. Such a make-shift arrangement may do very well when nothing better offers; but as a question of expense, it is probably cheaper in the end to order of Messrs. Simpson and Maule, or of Messrs. Griffin, or of Messrs. Bolton, a cast-iron bottle, or cast-iron retort, as it is termed, of a size sufficient to prepare two gallons of oxygen from the binoxide of manganese, which, with four feet of iron conducting-pipe, and connected to the bottle with a screw, does not [Page 89] cost more than six shillings--an enormous dip, perhaps, in the juvenile pocket, and therefore we shall indicate presently a still cheaper apparatus for the same purpose. (Fig. 93.)

The oxygen is conveyed to a square tin box provided with a shelf at one end, perforated with several holes at least one inch in diameter, called the pneumatic trough; any wooden trough, butter or wash-tub, foot-pan or bath, provided with a shelf, may be raised by the same title to the dignity of a piece of chemical apparatus. The gas jar must be filled with water by withdrawing the stopper and pressing it down into the trough, and when the neck is below the level of the water, the stopper is again inserted, and the jar with the water therein contained lifted steadily on to the shelf, the entry of atmospheric air being prevented by keeping the lower part of the gas jar, called the welt, under the water. Sometimes the pneumatic trough contains so small a quantity of water that on raising the gas jar to the shelf the liquid does not cover the bottom, and the air rushes up in large bubbles. Under these circumstances it is better to provide a gallon stone jug full of water, so that when the jar is being raised to the shelf it may be thrust into the trough (on the same principle as the crow and the pitcher in the fable), and thus by its bulk (as the stones in the pitcher) raise the water to the proper level. When the gas jar is about half filled with gas the jug may be withdrawn. This arrangement saves the trouble of constantly adding and baling out water from the pneumatic trough. (Fig. 94.)

There are other solid oxygenized bodies in which the affinities are less powerful, and hence a lower degree of heat suffices to liberate the oxygen gas, and one of the most useful in this respect is the salt termed chlorate of potash. If the substance is heated by itself, the temperature required to expel the oxygen is almost as high as that demanded for the black oxide of manganese; but, strange to say, if the two substances are reduced to powder, and mixed in equal quantities by weight, then a very moderate increase of heat is sufficient to cause the chlorate of [Page 90] potash to give up its oxygen, whilst the oxide of manganese undergoes no change whatever. It seems to fulfil only a mechanical office--possibly that of separating each particle of chlorate of potash from the other, so that the heat attacks the substance in detail, just as a solid square of infantry might repel almost any attack, whilst the same body dispersed over a large space might be of little use; so with the chlorate of potash, which undergoes rapid decomposition when mixed with and divided amongst the particles of the oxide of manganese; less so with the red oxide of iron, and still less with sand or brick-dust. (Fig. 95.)

KO.ClO_{5} = { O_{6}
{ KCl.

]

This curious fact is explained usually by reference to what is called catalytic action, or _decomposition by contact_ ([Greek: _kata_], downwards, and [Greek: _luô_], I unloosen), _being a power possessed by a body of resolving another into a new compound without undergoing any change itself_. To make this term still clearer, we may notice another example in linen rags, which may be exposed for any length of time to the action of water without fear of conversion into sugar; if, however, oil of vitriol is first added to the linen rags, and they are subsequently digested at a proper temperature with water, then the rags are converted into sugar (the author has seen a specimen made of an "old shirt"); but, curious to relate, the oil of vitriol is unchanged in the process, and if the process be commenced with a pound of acid, the same quantity is discoverable at the end of the chemical decomposition of the linen rags, and their conversion into sugar.

If a mixture of equal parts of oxide of manganese and chlorate of potash is placed in a clean Florence flask, with a cork, and pewter, or glass tube attached, great quantities of oxygen are quickly liberated, on the application of the heat of a spirit lamp. Such a retort would cost about fourpence, and if the flask is broken in the operation it can be easily replaced by another, value one penny, as the same cork and tube will generally suit a number of these cheap glass vessels. Corks may always [Page 91] be softened by using either a proper cork squeezer, or by placing them under a piece of board or a flat surface, and rolling and pressing the cork till quite elastic.

Whilst fitting the latter into the neck of a flask, it is perhaps safer to hold the thin and fragile vessel in a cloth, so that if the flask breaks the chemical experiment may not be arrested for many days by the severe cutting and wounding of the fingers. After the cork is fitted, it is to be removed from the flask and bored with a cork borer. This useful tool is sold in complete sets to suit all sizes of glass tubes, and the pewter or glass being inserted, the flask and tube will be ready for use, provided the tube is bent to the proper curve. This is easy enough to perform with the pewter, but not quite so easy with the glass tube, which must be held over the flame of a spirit lamp till soft, and then bent very gradually to the proper curve. If a short length of the glass tube is heated, it bends too sharply, and the convexity of the glass is flattened, whilst the internal diameter of the tube is lessened, so that at least three inches in length should be warmed, and the heat must not be continued in one place only, but should be maintained in the direction of the bend, the whole manipulation being conducted without any hurry. (Fig. 96.)

Having filled a gas jar with oxygen, it may be removed from the pneumatic trough by sliding it into a plate under the surface of the water, and to prevent the stopper being thrust out accidentally from the jar by the upward pressure of the gas, whilst a little compressed, during the act of passing it into the plate, it is advisable to hold the stopper of the jar firmly but gently, so that it cannot slip out of its place. A number of jars of oxygen may be prepared and arranged in plates, all of which of course must contain a little water, and enough to cover the welt of the jar.

[Page 92]

EXPERIMENTS WITH OXYGEN GAS.

This gas was originally discovered by Priestley, in August, 1774, and was first obtained by heating red precipitate--_i.e._, the red oxide of mercury.

HgO = Hg + O.

We leave these symbols and figures to be deciphered by the youthful philosopher with the aid of the table of elements, &c., and return to the experiments.

There are certain thin wax tapers like waxed cord, called bougies, which can be bent to any shape, and are very convenient for experiments with the gases. If one of these tapers is bent as in Fig. 97, then lighted and allowed to burn for some minutes, a long snuff is gradually formed, which remains in a state of ignition when the flame of the taper is blown out. On plunging this into a jar of oxygen, it instantly re-lights with a sort of report, and burns with greatly-increased brilliancy, as described by Dr. Priestley in his first experiment with this gas, and so elegantly repeated by Professor Brande in his refined dissertation on the progress of chemical science.

"The 1st of August, 1774, is a _red-letter day_ in the annals of chemical philosophy, for it was then that Dr. Priestley discovered dephlogisticated air. Some, sporting in the sunshine of rhetoric, have called this the birthday of pneumatic chemistry; but it was even a more marked and memorable period; it was then (to pursue the metaphor) that this branch of science, having eked out a sickly and infirm infancy in the ill-managed nursery of the early chemists, began to display symptoms of an improving constitution, and to exhibit the most hopeful and unexpected marks of future importance. The first experiment, which led to a very satisfactory result, was concluded as follows:--A glass jar was filled with quicksilver, and inserted in a basin of the same; some red precipitate of quicksilver was then introduced, and floated upon the quicksilver in the jar; heat was applied to it in this situation with a burning-lens, and to use Priestley's own words, _I presently found that air was expelled from it very readily. Having got about three or four times as much as the bulk of my materials, I admitted water into it, and found that it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised me more than I can well express was, that a candle burned in this air with a remarkably vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged flame with which a candle burns in nitrous air exposed to iron or lime of sulphur_ (_i.e._, laughing gas); _but as I had got nothing like this remarkable appearance from any kind of air besides this peculiar [Page 93] modification of nitrous air, and I knew no nitrous acid was used in the preparation of mercurius calcinatus, I was utterly at a loss how to account for it._" (Fig. 98.)

_Second Experiment._

The term oxygen is derived from the Greek ([Greek: _ozus_], acid, and [Greek: _gennaô_], I give rise to), and was originally given to this element by Lavoisier, who also claimed its discovery; and if this honour is denied him, surely he has deserved equal scientific glory in his masterly experiments, through which he discovered that the mixture of forty-two parts by measure of azote, with eight parts by measure of oxygen, produced a compound precisely resembling our atmosphere. The name given to oxygen was founded on a series of experiments, one of which will now be mentioned.

Place some sulphur in a little copper ladle attached to a wire, and called a deflagrating spoon, passed through a round piece of zinc or brass plate and cork, so that the latter acts as an adjusting arrangement to fix the wire at any point required. The combustion of the sulphur, previously feeble, now assumes a remarkable intensity, and a peculiar coloured light is generated, whilst the sulphur unites with the oxygen, and forms sulphurous acid gas. It produces, in fact, the same gas which is formed by burning an ordinary sulphur match. This compound is valuable as a disinfectant, and is a very important bleaching agent, being most extensively employed in the whitening of straw employed in the manufacture of straw bonnets. It is an acid gas, as Lavoisier found, and this property may be detected by pouring a little tincture of litmus into the bottom of the plate in which the gas jar stands. The blue colour of the litmus is rapidly changed to red, and it might be thought that no further argument could possibly be required to prove that oxygen was _the_ acidifying agent, the more particularly as the result is the same in the next illustration.

[Page 94]

_Third Experiment._

Cut a small piece from an ordinary stick of phosphorus under water, take care to dry it properly with a cloth, and after placing it in a deflagrating spoon, remove the stopper from the gas-jar, as there is no fear of the oxygen rushing away, because it is somewhat heavier than atmospheric air; and then, after placing the spoon with the phosphorus in the neck of the jar, apply a heated wire and pass the spoon at once into the middle of the oxygen; in a few seconds a most brilliant light is obtained, and the jar is filled with a white smoke; as this subsides, being phosphoric acid, and perfectly soluble in water, the same litmus test may be applied, when it is in like manner changed to red. The acid obtained is one of the most important constituents of bone.

_Fourth Experiment._

A bit of bark-charcoal bound round with wire is set on fire either by holding it in the flame of a spirit-lamp, or by attaching a small piece of waxed cotton to the lower part, and igniting this; the charcoal may then be inserted into a bottle of oxygen, when the most brilliant scintillations occur. After the combustion has ceased and the whole is cool, a little tincture of litmus may also be poured in and shaken about, when it likewise turns red, proving for the third time the generation of an acid body, called carbonic acid--an acid, like the others already mentioned, of great value, and one which Nature employs on a stupendous scale as a means of providing plants, &c., with solid charcoal. Carbonic acid, a virulent poison to animal life, is, when properly diluted, and as contained in atmospheric air, one of the chief alimentary bodies required by growing and healthy plants.

In three experiments acid bodies have been obtained; can we speculate on the result of the next?

_Fifth Experiment._

Into a deflagrating spoon place a bit of potassium, set this on fire by holding it in the spoon in the flame of a spirit-lamp, and then rapidly plunge the burning metal into a bottle of oxygen. A brilliant ignition occurs in the deflagrating spoon for a few seconds, and there is little or no smoke in the jar. The product this time is a solid, called potash, and if this be dissolved in water and filtered, it is found to be clear and bright, and now on the addition of a little tincture of litmus to one half of the solution, it is wholly unaffected, and remains blue; but if with the other half a small quantity of tincture of turmeric is mixed, it immediately changes from a bright yellow solution to a reddish-brown, because turmeric is one of the tests for an alkali; and thus is ascertained by the help of this and other tests that the result of the combustion is not an _acid_, but an _alkali_. The experiment is made still more satisfactory by burning another bit of potassium in oxygen and dissolving the product in water, and if any portion of [Page 95] the reddened liquid derived from the sulphurous, phosphoric, and carbonic acids taken from the previous experiments, be added to separate portions of the alkaline solution, they are all restored to their original blue colour, because an acid is neutralized by an alkali; and the experiment is made quite conclusive by the restoration of the reddened turmeric to a bright yellow on the addition of a solution of either of the three acids already named. Moreover, an acid need not contain a fraction of oxygen, as there is a numerous class of _hy_dracids, in which the acidifying principle is hydrogen instead of oxygen, such as the hydrochloric, hydriodic, hydro-bromic, and hydrofluoric acids.

_Sixth Experiment._

A piece of watch-spring is softened at one end, by holding it in the flame of a spirit-lamp, and allowing it to cool. A bit of waxed cotton is then bound round the softened end, and after being set on fire, is plunged into a gas jar containing oxygen; the cotton first burns away, and then the heat communicates to the steel, which gradually takes fire, and being once well ignited, continues to burn with amazing rapidity, forming drops of liquid dross, which fall to the bottom of the plate--and also a reddish smoke, which condenses on the sides of the jar; neither the dross which has dropped into the plate, nor the reddish matter condensed on the jar, will affect either tincture of litmus or turmeric; they are neither acid nor alkaline, but _neutral_ compounds of iron, called the sesquioxide of iron (Fe_{2}O_{3}), and the magnetic oxide (Fe_{3}O_{4}=FeO.Fe_{2}O_{3}).

_Seventh Experiment._

Some oxygen gas contained in a bladder provided with a proper jet may be squeezed out, and upon, some liquid phosphorus contained in a cup at the bottom of a finger glass full of boiling water, when a most brilliant combustion occurs, proving that so long as the principle is complied with--viz., that of furnishing oxygen to a combustible substance--it will burn under water, provided it is insoluble, and possesses the remarkable affinity for oxygen which belongs to phosphorus. The experiment should be performed with boiling water, to keep the phosphorus in the liquid state; and it is quite as well to hold a [Page 96] square foot of wire gauze over the finger glass whilst the experiment is being performed. (Fig. 100.)

_Eighth Experiment._

Oxygen is available from many substances when they are mixed with combustible substances, and hence the brilliant effects produced by burning a mixture of nitre, meal powder, sulphur, and iron or steel filings; the metal burns with great brilliancy, and is projected from the case in most beautiful sparks, which are long and needle-shaped with steel, and in the form of miniature rosettes with iron filings; it is the oxygen from the nitre that causes the combustion of the metal, the other ingredients only accelerate the heat and rate of ignition of the brilliant iron, which is usually termed a gerb.

_Ninth Experiment._

A mixture of nitrate of potash, powdered charcoal, sulphur, and nitrate of strontium, driven into a strong paper case about two inches long, and well closed at the end with varnish, being quite waterproof, may be set on fire, and will continue to burn under water until the whole is consumed; the only precaution necessary being to burn the composition from the case with the mouth downward, and if the experiment is tried in a deep glass jar it has a very pleasing effect. (Fig. 101.)

The red-fire composition is made by mixing nitrate of strontia 40 parts by weight, flowers of sulphur 13 parts, chlorate of potash 5 parts, sulphuret of antimony 4 parts. These ingredients must first be well powdered separately, and then mixed carefully on a sheet of paper with a paper-knife. They are liable to explode if rubbed _together_ in a mortar, on account of the presence of sulphur and chlorate of potash, and the composition, if kept for any time, is liable to take fire spontaneously.

_Tenth Experiment._

Some zinc is melted in an iron ladle, and made quite red hot; if a little dry nitre is thrown upon the surface, and gently stirred into the metal, it takes fire with the production of an intense white light, whilst large quantities of white flakes ascend, and again descend when cold, being the oxide of zinc, and called by the alchemists the "Philosopher's Wool" (ZnO). In this experiment the oxygen from the nitre effects the oxidation of the metal zinc.

[Page 97]

_Eleventh Experiment._

A mixture of four pounds of nitre with two of sulphur and one and a half of lamp black produces a most beautiful and curious fire, continually projected into the air as sparks having the shape of the rowel of a spur, and one that may be burnt with perfect safety in a room, as the sparks consume away so rapidly, in consequence of the finely divided condition of the charcoal, that they may be received on a handkerchief or the hand without burning them. The difficulty consists in effecting the complete mixture of the charcoal. The other two ingredients must first be thoroughly powdered separately, and again triturated when mixed, and finally the charcoal must be rubbed in carefully, till the whole is of a uniform tint of grey and very nearly black, and as the mixture proceeds portions must be rammed into a paper case, and set on fire; if the stars or pinks come out in clusters, and spread well without other and duller sparks, it is a sign that the whole is well mixed; but if the sparks are accompanied with dross, and are projected out sluggishly, and take some time to burn, the mixture and rubbing in the mortar must be continued; and even that must not be carried too far, or the sparks will be too small. N.B.--If the lamp-black was heated red hot in a close vessel, it would probably answer better when cold and powdered.

_Twelfth Experiment._

Into a tall gas jar with a wide neck project some red-hot lamp-black through a tin funnel, when a most brilliant flame-like fire is obtained, showing that finely divided charcoal with pure oxygen would be sufficient to afford light; but as the atmosphere consists of oxygen diluted with nitrogen, compounds of charcoal with hydrogen, are the proper bodies to burn, to produce artificial light.

_Thirteenth Experiment. The Bude Light._

This pretty light is obtained by passing a steady current of oxygen gas (escaping at a very low pressure) through and up the centre pipe of an argand oil lamp, which must be supplied with a highly carbonized oil and a very thick wick, as the oxygen has a tendency to burn away the cotton unless the oil is well supplied, and allowed to overflow the wick, as it does in the lamps of the lighthouses. The best whale oil is usually employed, though it would be worth while to test the value of Price's "Belmontine Oil" for the same purpose. (Fig. 102.)

[Page 98]

_Fourteenth Experiment. A Red Light._

Clear out the oil thoroughly from the Bude light apparatus; or, what is better, have two lamps, one for oil, and the other for spirit; fill the apparatus with a solution of nitrate of strontia and chloride of calcium in spirits of wine, and let it burn from the cotton in the same way as the oil, and supply it with oxygen gas.

_Fifteenth Experiment. A Green Light._

Dissolve boracic acid and nitrate of baryta in spirits of wine, and supply the Bude lamp with this solution.

_Sixteenth Experiment. A Yellow Light._

Dissolve common salt in spirits of wine, and burn it as already described in the Bude light apparatus.

_Seventeenth Experiment. The Oxy-calcium Light._

No. 2. D. Oxygen jet. E. Gas (jet connected with the gas-pipe in the rear by flexible pipe) projected on to ball of lime, F.]

This very convenient light is obtained in a simple manner, either by using a jet of oxygen as a blowpipe to project the flame of a spirit lamp on to a ball of lime; or common coal-gas is employed instead of the spirit lamp, being likewise urged against a ball of lime. By this plan one bag containing oxygen suffices for the production of a brilliant light, not equal, however, to the oxy-hydrogen light, which will be explained in the article on hydrogen. (Fig. 103.)

_Eighteenth Experiment._

To show the weight of oxygen gas, and that it is heavier than air, the stoppers from two bottles containing it may be removed, one bottle may be left open for some time and then tested by a lighted taper, when it [Page 99] will still indicate the presence of the gas, whilst the other may be suddenly inverted over a little cup in which some ether, mixed with a few drops of turpentine, may be burning--the flame burns with much greater brilliancy at the moment when the oxygen comes in contact with it.

_Nineteenth Experiment._

The theory of the effect of oxygen upon the system when inhaled would be an increase in the work of the respiratory organs; and it is stated that after inhaling a gallon or so of this gas, the pulse is raised forty or fifty beats per minute: the gas is easily inhaled from a large india-rubber bag through an amber mouthpiece; it must of course be quite pure, and if made from the mixture of chlorate of potash and oxide of manganese, should be purified by being passed through lime and water, or cream of lime.

_Twentieth Experiment._

There are certain colouring matters that are weakened or destroyed by the action of light and other causes, which deprive them of oxygen gas or deoxidize them. A weak tincture of litmus, if long kept, often becomes colourless, but if this colourless fluid is shaken in a bottle with oxygen gas it is gradually restored; and if either litmus, turmeric, indigo, orchil, or madder, paper, or certain ribbons dyed with the same colouring matters, have become faded, they may be partially restored by damping and placing them in a bottle of oxygen gas. The effect of the oxygen is to reverse the _de_oxidizing process, _and_ to impart oxygen to the colouring matters. By a peculiar process indigo may be obtained quite white, and again restored to its usual blue colour, either by exposure to the air or by passing a stream of oxygen through it.

_Twenty-first Experiment._

Messrs. Matheson, of Torrington-street, Russell-square, prepare in the form of wire some of the rarest metals, such as magnesium, lithium, &c. A wire of the metal magnesium burns magnificently in oxygen gas, and forms the alkaline earth magnesia. The metal lithium, to which such a very low combining proportion belongs--viz., 6.5, can also be procured in the state of wire, and burns in oxygen gas with an intense white light into the alkaline lithia, which dissolved in alcohol with a little acetic acid, and burnt, affords a red flame, making a curious contrast between the effects of colour produced by the metallic and oxidized state of lithium.

THE ALLOTROPIC CONDITION OF OXYGEN GAS.

The term allotropy (from [Greek: _allotropos_], of a different nature) was first used by the renowned chemist Berzelius. Dimorphism, or diversity in crystalline form, is therefore a special case of allotropy, and is most amusingly illustrated with the iodide of mercury (HgI), which is made either by rubbing together equal combining proportions [Page 100]of mercury and iodine (both of which are to be found in the Table of Elements, page 86), or by carefully precipitating a solution of corrosive sublimate (chloride of mercury (HgCl)) with one of iodide of potassium, just enough and no more of the latter being added to precipitate the metal, or else the iodide of mercury is redissolved by the excess of the precipitant. It is first of a dirty yellow, and then gradually changes when stirred to a scarlet; if this be collected on a filter, and washed and drained, it is a beautiful scarlet, and when some of this substance is rubbed across a sheet of paper, a bright scarlet is apparent, which may be rapidly changed to a lemon-yellow by heating the paper over the flame of a spirit lamp; and the iodide of mercury is again brought back to a scarlet colour by rubbing down the yellow crystals with the fingers. This experiment may be repeated over and over again with the like results. If some of the scarlet iodide of mercury is sublimed from one bit of glass to another, it forms crystals, derived from the right rhombic prism; when these are scratched with a pin they change again to the scarlet state, the latter when crystallized being in the form of the square-based octohedron.

Other cases of dimorphism may be mentioned--viz., with sulphur, carbonate of lime, and lead, and many others, whilst allotropy is curiously illustrated in the various conditions of charcoal, which, in the more numerous examples, is black and opaque, and in another instance transparent like water. Lamp-black is soft, but the diamond is the hardest natural substance. The allotropic state of sulphur has been already alluded to; phosphorus, again, exists in three modifications: 1st, Common phosphorus, which shines in the dark and emits a white smoke. 2nd, White phosphorus. 3rd, Red or amorphous phosphorus, which does not shine or emit white smoke when exposed to the air, and is so altered in its properties that it may be safely carried in the pocket.

Enough evidence has therefore been offered to show that the allotropic property is not confined to one element or compound, but is discoverable in many bodies, and in no one more so than in the allotropic state of the element oxygen called

OZONE.

The Greek language has again been selected by the discoverer, Schönbein, of Basle, for the title or name of this curious modification of oxygen, and it is so termed from [Greek: _oxein_], to smell. The name at once suggests a marked difference between ozone and oxygen, because the latter is perfectly free from odour, whilst the former has that peculiar smell which is called electric, and is distinguishable whenever an electrical machine is at work, or if a Leyden jar is charged by the powerful Rhumkoff, or Hearder coil; it is also apparent when water is decomposed by a current of electricity and resolved into its elements, oxygen and hydrogen. When highly concentrated it smells like chlorine; and the author recollects seeing the first experiments by Schönbein, in England, at Mr. Cooper's laboratory in the Blackfriars-road. Ozone is prepared by taking a clean empty bottle, and pouring therein a very [Page 101] little distilled water, into which a piece of clean scraped phosphorus is introduced, so as to expose about one-half of its diameter to the air in the bottle, whilst the other is in contact with the water. (Fig. 104.)

For the sake of precaution, the bottle may stand in a basin or soup plate, so that if the phosphorus should take fire, it may be instantly extinguished by pouring cold water into the bottle, and should this crack and break, the phosphorus is received into the plate.

When the ozone is formed the phosphorus can be withdrawn, and the phosphorous-acid smoke washed out by shaking the bottle; it is distinguishable by its smell, and also by its action on test paper, prepared by painting with starch containing iodide of potassium on some Bath post paper; when this is placed in the bottle containing ozone, it changes the test blue, or rather a purplish blue.

Ozone is a most energetic body, and a powerful bleaching agent; if a point is attached to the prime conductor of an electrical machine, and the electrified air is received into a bottle, it will be found to smell, and has the power of bleaching a _very_ dilute solution of indigo. Ozone [Page 102] is not a mere creation of fancy, as it can not only be produced by certain methods, but may be destroyed by a red heat. If a point is prepared with a loop of platinum wire, and this latter, after being connected with a voltaic battery, made red hot, and the whole placed on an insulating stool, and connected with the prime conductor of an electrical machine, it is found that the electrified air no longer smells, the ozone is destroyed; on the other hand, if the voltaic battery is disconnected, and the electrified air again allowed to pass from the cold platinum wire, the smell is again apparent, the air will bleach, and if caused to impinge at once upon the iodide of starch test, changes it in the manner already described. (Fig. 105.)

Ozone is insoluble in water, and oxidizes silver and lead leaf, finely powdered arsenic and antimony; it is a poison when inhaled in a concentrated state, whilst diluted, and generated by natural processes, it is a beneficent and beautiful provision against those numerous smells originating from the decay of animal and vegetable matter, which might produce disease or death: ozone is therefore a powerful disinfectant. The test for ozone is made by boiling together ten parts by weight of starch, one of iodide of potassium, and two hundred of water; it may either be painted on Bath post paper, and used at once, or blotting paper may be saturated with the test and dried, and when required for use it must be damped, either before or after testing for ozone, as it remains colourless when _dry_, but becomes blue after being moistened with water.

Paper prepared with sulphate of manganese is an excellent test for ozone, and changes brown rapidly by the oxidation of the proto-salt of manganese, and its conversion into the binoxide of the metal.