Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopaedia of Sports and Amusements Part 57

2. Subst.i.tute for the chlorine of the last experiment a bottle of carbonic or hydrochloric acid gas; in either case the gases disappear, and a light white powder settles on the sides of the bottles, being the carbonate or hydrochlorate of ammonia, according to the acid used.

Carbonate of ammonia is the substance sold for "smelling salts;" and the hydrochlorate, or muriate of ammonia, is the salt called "sal ammoniac,"

whence the alkaline gas was first obtained, and from which it got its name of ammonia. The salt itself was so called, because it was formerly brought from the deserts near the ruins of the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

This salt is, as has been shown, a compound of muriatic acid gas and ammoniacal gas, containing therefore only _three_ simple elements--hydrogen, chlorine, and nitrogen, all gases, and known only in the gaseous state, its symbol being NH4Cl; yet they by union form a solid body, resembling in all essential qualities the salts of potash and soda, which are oxides of known metals. Moreover, if some mercury be placed in a solution of this salt, and subjected to the action of galvanism, the _negative_ pole being applied to the mercury, and the positive to the sal ammoniac, the mercury presently loses its fluidity, increases greatly in size, and in fact presents the same appearance as when it is mixed with some metal, forming what is called an "amalgam."

When the battery ceases to act, a succession of white films forms on the surface of the amalgam, and the mercury soon returns to its original state. How is this to be explained? Some chemists have supposed that there must be a _base_ united to the mercury, and have named this hypothetical substance "ammonium," to correspond to pota.s.sium and sodium, the bases of potash and soda, which resemble ammonia in so many properties. But what is this ammonium? and how is it formed? for hydrogen and nitrogen are simple elementary bodies. Are _all_ metals compounds of gases? and are there but a few elements instead of the 64 now enumerated? This, however, is a difficult question, not fitted for discussion here.

Carbonate of ammonia may be obtained by mixing together powdered chalk (which is a carbonate of lime) and muriate of ammonia, and heating the mixture in close vessels, when the salt in question will rise in fumes, and be condensed in a ma.s.s in the upper part of the vessel. It is, however, so largely produced in other manufactures, particularly in gas-works, that there is no necessity to resort to the more expensive and direct method. It is the well-known "smelling salts."

The only other salt of ammonia worth our notice here is the nitrate, from the destructive distillation of which is obtained the nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, already mentioned.

IODINE.

On the coasts of certain islands belonging to the Duke of Argyll, vast quant.i.ties of sea-weed are occasionally torn up from their ocean beds and deposited on the sh.o.r.es. This weed, after being partially dried by exposure to the sun and air, is burnt in a shallow pit; the ashes are then collected, and form the commercial raw material called kelp, from which iodine is procured by a gradual series of processes.

EXPERIMENTS.

Iodine has a beautiful metallic l.u.s.tre, with a bluish black colour, and should be kept in a well-stoppered bottle. A small quant.i.ty placed in a clear flask and heated, affords a magnificent violet vapour, which may be poured from the flask into another gla.s.s vessel, when it condenses again into crystalline plates. The colour of the vapour originates the name of this element, so called from the Greek ??d??, violet-coloured.

If a little iodine be placed in contact with a thin slice of phosphorus, the latter takes fire almost immediately.

BROMINE.

So called from the Greek ????, a bad odour, is most intimately allied with chlorine and iodine; like these elements it belongs to the sea, and is a const.i.tuent of sea-water. Bromine is a very heavy fluid, and should be preserved by keeping it covered with water in a stoppered-bottle.

Experiments with liquid bromine are not recommended, as all the most interesting ones can be performed with the vapour, which is easily procured by letting fall a few drops of bromine into a warm dry bottle.

EXPERIMENTS.

Pounded antimony sprinkled into the vapour takes fire immediately.

A thin slice of phosphorus placed in a deflagrating ladle and placed into the vapour of bromine ignites very quickly.

A solution of sulphate of indigo, or an infusion of red cabbage, are easily bleached by being shaken violently with the vapour of bromine.

FLUORINE.

In many parts of England, especially in Devonshire, Cornwall, and above all in Derbyshire, is found a very beautiful mineral, known by the name of Fluor Spar, Derbyshire Spar, and called by the miners Blue John, to distinguish it from another mineral found, in the same locality, called _Black Jack_. It occurs in very regular and frequently large crystals in the form of cubes, and occasionally in octoedra. It is a compound of calcium with fluorine, and is very abundant in certain fossil bones.

This element, in combination with hydrogen and called hydrofluoric acid, acts so energetically upon all substances containing silica, that it cannot be preserved in vessels of gla.s.s or porcelain--very few of the metals are capable of resisting its action, lead being nearly the only common metal possessed of this power. Gutta percha may also be employed for vessels to hold it.

This property of dissolving silica, has caused this acid to be used for engraving on gla.s.s.

EXPERIMENT.

Mix one part of powdered fluor-spar, quite pure, with two parts of oil of vitriol, in a saucer, and apply a gentle heat, when the acid will be disengaged in the form of vapour. Prepare a piece of gla.s.s after the manner of engraving on copper, by coating it with a thin covering of wax, placing a paper over the wax, and then drawing any design with a sharp-pointed instrument, when, on removing the paper, the wax-coating will be found to be removed wherever the instrument has pa.s.sed over it.

Now invert, this gla.s.s over the fumes of the acid for half an hour or so, and then heat the gla.s.s so as to soften the coating, and wipe it off; the design will then appear "bitten in" as the term is, that is, the acid will have dissolved the gla.s.s wherever it was not protected by the wax, and will exhibit the design indelibly fixed on the gla.s.s.

This acid requires the greatest care in handling, for it is extremely corrosive, producing very troublesome ulcers if it comes in contact with the skin; even the fumes will produce smarting if the skin is long exposed to them.

CARBON.

The next substance in our list of elementary bodies is named carbon.

The purest form of carbon is the precious stone called diamond, which consists entirely of carbon in a crystallized form. The French chemist Lavoisier was the first who proved the combustibility of the diamond; and Sir H. Davy found that when once set on fire it would continue to burn in oxygen gas air, and that the product of the combustion was carbonic acid gas, exactly equal in quant.i.ty to the gas produced by burning an equal weight of pure charcoal, the most common form of carbon.

Plumbago, or "black-lead," as it is very improperly called, is also nearly pure carbon, a very small quant.i.ty of iron being united with it.

By far the greater part of all vegetable, and a very large portion of animal bodies consists of carbon; and in the state of carbonic acid in combination with lime and some other earths, it forms nearly the half of all the chalk, marble, and limestone of our hills; so that it is, in one shape or other, one of the most widely diffused bodies in nature.

Carbon forms two gaseous compounds with oxygen; the first, called carbonic oxide, is easily obtained by boiling oxalic acid with its own bulk of sulphuric acid, in a flask to which a cork and bent tube is attached. The gas comes over in large quant.i.ties, and must be collected in a gas jar, or the pneumatic trough. It is inflammable, and burns with a lambent blue flame.

The other compound, carbonic acid, is transparent, colourless, much heavier than atmospheric air, has an agreeable taste, has the power of irritating the mucous membrane of the nose, (as any one can tell who has drunk soda-water), without possessing any particular odour, is absorbed by water, does not support respiration, and extinguishes flame.

Carbonic acid gas may be obtained with the greatest facility by pouring some muriatic or sulphuric acid, diluted with about six parts of water, upon some pieces of marble or limestone in a bottle with a tube attached, when the gas comes over in torrents. It may be collected over water.

EXPERIMENTS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STOPPERED BOTTLE FOR HOLDING GAS.]

1. To show the great comparative weight of this gas, place a lighted taper at the bottom of a tall gla.s.s jar, then take a jar full of carbonic acid gas, and pour it as you would pour water into the jar containing the lighted taper; you will soon find the taper will be extinguished as effectually as if you had poured water on it, and the smoke of the taper will float on the surface of the gas in very beautiful wavy forms.

2. Heat a piece of the metal pota.s.sium in a metal spoon (platinum is best), and if introduced in a state of ignition into the gas, it will continue burning brilliantly, producing a quant.i.ty of dense smoke, which is the carbon from the carbonic acid, the pota.s.sium having seized the oxygen and being converted by it into potash.

3. If a mouse, bird, or other small animal, be placed in a jar of this gas, it becomes insensible almost immediately, but if speedily removed it will occasionally recover.

4. Shake up some water with some of this gas in a bottle; the greater part of the gas will be absorbed by the water, which acquires a sparkling appearance and a pleasant sharp taste; with the addition of a little soda this becomes the well-known beverage called soda-water, so famous for removing the morning headaches caused by "_that salmon_"

having disagreed at yesterday's dinner.

It is the presence of this gas which renders it so dangerous to descend into deep wells, for by its great weight it collects at the bottom, and instantly suffocates any unfortunate person who incautiously subjects himself to it. Hence it is prudent always to let down a lighted candle before any one descends into a well, or other deep excavation, and if the candle is extinguished, it is necessary to throw down several pails of water, lime-water if possible, and again to try the candle, which must burn freely before it is safe for any one to descend.

It is this same gas under the name of "choke-damp," which proves so dangerous to miners, particularly after an explosion of "fire-damp," for it is the princ.i.p.al product of the explosion, and it is by no means an easy matter to dislodge it.

Carbonic acid gas has been condensed into the fluid form by causing it to be disengaged under great pressure; the fluid acid has the appearance of water. When the pressure is removed, as by allowing some of the fluid acid to escape from the vessel in which it has been condensed, it instantly rea.s.sumes the gaseous form, and in so doing absorbs so much latent caloric that a portion of the acid is actually solidified, and appears in the shape of _snow_, which may be collected and preserved for a short time. After a lecture by Mr. Addams before the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, I carried a kind of _s...o...b..ll_ of carbonic acid for a distance of 500 or 600 yards, and placed it in a saucer in a room. It evaporated very rapidly, and left no residue, not even a mark where it had lain. It was too _cold_ to be touched by the naked hand without pain.

Carbonic acid and lime are mutually tests for each other. If a jar containing a little lime-water be put into a jar of this gas, it speedily becomes turbid, the gas uniting with the lime, and producing chalk (the carbonate of lime), which is insoluble in water.

This gas is produced in large quant.i.ties by the respiration of animals, as may be proved by respiring through a tube immersed in lime-water, when the water will be instantly rendered turbid from the formation of chalk.

CARBON AND HYDROGEN.

To the combination of these elements in various proportions, and with the occasional addition of other substances, we are indebted for all, or nearly all, our means of obtaining light and heat. Coal, wood, spirit, oil, and all the varieties of fats, are composed princ.i.p.ally of carbon and hydrogen, and may easily be converted into the gas with which our houses and streets are lighted, which is nearly pure carburetted hydrogen.