Experiments on carbonated hydrogenous gas; with a view to determine whether carbon be a simple or a compound substance ... / [William Henry].

  • Henry, William, 1774-1836
Date:
[1797]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments on carbonated hydrogenous gas; with a view to determine whether carbon be a simple or a compound substance ... / [William Henry]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/18 (page 14)
    1. Carbonated hydrogenous gas, in its ordinary state, is permanently dilated by the electric shock to more than twice its original volume; and as light inflammable air is the only substance we are acquainted with, that is capable of occasioning so great an expansion, and of exhibiting the phenomena that appear on firing the electrified gas with oxygen, we may ascribe the dilatation to the production of hydrogenous gas. 2. The hydrogenous gas evolved by this process does not arise from the decomposition of charcoal; because the same quantity of that substance is contained in the gas after, as before electrization. 3. The hydrogenous gas proceeds from decomposed water; because when this fluid is abstracted as far as possible from the carbonated hydrogenous gas, before submitting it to the action of electricity, the dilatation cannot be extended beyond one-sixth its usual amount. 4. The decomponent of the water is not a metallic sub¬ stance, because carbonated hydrogenous gas is expanded when in contact only with a glass tube and gold, a metal which has no power of separating water into its formative principles. 5. The oxygen of the water (when the electric fluid is passed through carbonated hydrogenous gas, that holds this substance in solution), combines with the carbon, and forms carbonic acid. This production of carbonic acid, therefore, adds to the dilatation occasioned by the evolution of hydro¬ genous gas. 6. There is not, by the action of the electric matter on car¬ bonated hydrogenous gas, any generation of azotic gas.