Classics of modern science : $b (Copernicus to Pasteur)
History
Classics of modern science : $b (Copernicus to Pasteur)
Science; Science -- History
From the foregoing experiments it appears, that when a mixture of
inflammable and dephlogisticated air is exploded in such proportion
that the burnt air is not much phlogisticated, the condensed liquor
contains a little acid, which is always of the nitrous kind,
whatever substance the dephlogisticated air is procured from; but
if the proportion be such that the burnt air is almost entirely
phlogisticated, the condensed liquor is not at all acid, but seems
pure water, without any addition whatever; and as, when they are mixed
in that proportion, very little air remains after the explosion,
almost the whole being condensed, it follows that almost the whole
of the inflammable and dephlogisticated air is converted into pure
water. It is not easy, indeed, to determine from these experiments
what proportion the burnt air, remaining after the explosions, bore to
the dephlogisticated air employed, as neither the small nor the large
globe could be perfectly exhausted of air, and there was no saying
with exactness what quantity was left in them; but in most of them,
after allowing for this uncertainty, the true quantity of burnt air
seemed not more than 1-17 of the dephlogisticated air employed, or
1-50 of the mixture. It seems, however, unnecessary to determine this
point exactly, as the quantity is so small, that there can be little
doubt but that it proceeds only from the impurities mixed with the
dephlogisticated and inflammable air, and consequently that, if those
airs could be obtained perfectly pure, the whole would be condensed.
With respect to common air, and dephlogisticated air reduced by the
addition of phlogisticated air to the standard of common air, the
case is different; as the liquor condensed in exploding them with
inflammable air, I believe I may say in any proportion, is not at all
acid; perhaps because if they are mixed in such a proportion as that
the burnt air is not much phlogisticated, the explosion is too weak,
and not accompanied with sufficient heat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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