Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of AirPriestley, Joseph
History
Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
Priestley, Joseph
Air -- Early works to 1800; Chemistry -- Early works to 1800
Oil of turpentine absorbed this air very fast, turning brown, and almost
black. No inflammable air was formed, till I raised more of the acid
air than the oil was able to absorb, and let it stand a considerable
time; and still the air was but weakly inflammable. The same was the
case with the oil of olives, in the last mentioned experiment; and it
seems to be probable, that, the longer this acid air had continued in
contact with the oil, the more phlogiston it would have extracted from
it. It is not wholly improbable, but that, in the intermediate state,
before it becomes inflammable air, it may be nearly of the nature of
common air.
Bees-wax absorbed this air very slowly. About the bigness of a hazel-nut
of the wax being put to three ounce measures of the acid air, the air
was diminished one half in two days, and, upon the admission of water,
half of the remainder also disappeared. This air was strongly
inflammable.
Charcoal absorbed this air very fast. About one fourth of it was
rendered immiscible in water, and was but weakly inflammable.
A small bit of _phosphorus_, perhaps about half a grain, smoked, and
gave light in the acid air, just as it would have done in common air
confined. It was not sensibly wasted after continuing about twelve
hours in that state, and the bulk of the air was very little diminished.
Water being admitted to it absorbed it as before, except about one fifth
of the whole. It was but weakly inflammable.
Putting several pieces of _sulphur_ to this air, it was absorbed but
slowly. In about twenty-four hours about one fifth of the quantity had
disappeared; and water being admitted to the remainder, very little more
was absorbed. The remainder was inflammable, and burned with a blue
flame.
Notwithstanding the affinity which this acid air appears to have with
phlogiston, it is not capable of depriving all bodies of it. I found
that dry wood, crusts of bread, and raw flesh, very readily imbibed this
air, but did not part with any of their phlogiston to it. All these
substances turned very brown, after they had been some time exposed to
this air, and tasted very strongly of the acid when they were taken out;
but the flesh, when washed in water, became very white, and the fibres
easily separated from one another, even more than they would have done
if it had been boiled or roasted[9].
When I put a piece of _saltpetre_ to this air it was presently
surrounded with a white fume, which soon filled the whole vessel,
exactly like the fume which bursts from the bubbles of nitrous air, when
it is generated by a vigorous fermentation, and such as is seen when
nitrous air is mixed with this acid air. In about a minute, the whole
quantity of air was absorbed, except a very little, which might be the
common air that had lodged upon the surface of the spirit of salt within
the phial.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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