The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and artAbbott, John Loraine
Science
The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and art
Abbott, John Loraine
Curiosities and wonders
Thirdly. He repeated for his own satisfaction, the usual experiments
made by naturalists, with the tincture of turnsole, lime-water, the
crystallizations of alkalies, the absorption of water, and the acidulous
taste communicated to it; which prove, beyond all doubt, the existence
of fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, in the vapor of the grotto. He
ascertained that it was not formed of fixed air alone, as might have
been conjectured; but that the relative quantities of the different
gases which compose its mephitic air, are as follows: in one hundred
parts there are ten of vital air, or oxygen gas; forty of fixed air, or
carbonic acid gas; and fifty of phlogisticated air, or azotic gas.
Fourthly. The phenomena of magnetism and electricity were investigated
by the abbe in this grotto. With respect to the former, there was not
any new appearance: the magnetic needle, being placed on the ground, and
consequently immersed in the mephitis, rested in the direction of its
meridian, and, at the approach of a magnetized bar, exhibited the usual
effects of attraction and repulsion, in proportion as either pole was
presented. As to the latter, electricity, it was impossible to make the
experiments within the mephitis, not because this kind of air is a
conductor of the electric fluid, as has been imagined, but because the
humidity by which it is constantly accompanied, disperses the electric
matter; and this, not being collected in a conductor, can not be
rendered sensible. He attempted several times to fire inflammable gas,
with electric sparks, in the mephitic vapor, by means of the conductor
of the electrophus; but, notwithstanding his utmost endeavors to animate
the electricity, he could never obtain a single spark, the non-conductor
becoming a conductor the moment it entered into the mephitis, on account
of the humidity which adhered to its surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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