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Light and Its Phenomena: Water

Water 9 Aq.

Lithium 6 L.

Yttrium 36 Y.

Manganese. 28 Mn. Zinc. 26 Zn.

Mercury 100 Hg. Zirconium 22 Z.

Molybdenum 48 Mo. 100 parts of pure Water contain 88.9 of oxygen to 11.1 of hydrogen, or 8 to 1. A cubic inch of Water, ther. 60 deg. weighs 252.52 grains, and contains 28.06 grains of hydrogen and 224.46 oxygen. The maximum density of Water is at 39° 39′, and it expands as cooled to 32º, the freezing point. In freezing, it further expands, so that a cubic inch of water has displayed a force of 27,000 pounds. If Water is saturated with a third of its weight of salt, it will still dissolve sugar; saturated with carbonic acid it dissolves iron. The air which rises from pure water, under an air-pump, contains 34.8 per cent. of oxygen, and, by boiling, 32 per cent. Fish breathe this air. Atmospheric air is to water as 1 to 828. Gas, standing over water at 42° Fah. imbibes 0.01 aqueous vapor, at 53° it is 0.015, at 60 it is 0.0186, at 70° it is 0.0256, and 80 it is 0.0353- 100 measures of oxygen gas, at 1.111, and 200 of hydrogen, at 0.0694, form water. Water boils in the vacuum of a good pump at 70º of heat; with the barometer at 29 at 2109.19; at 30, 212°, and at 31, 213°.76. At 212º, its steam has 1000º of heat.

Metallic oxides are formed by one, two, or three equal doses of oxygen. The oxygen in the acid of a neutral salt is a multiple of the oxygen in the base by 2, 3, 4, etc. 100 cubic inches of oxygen, combined with burning charcoal, is 100 of carbonic acid gas, weighing 46.313 grains, of which the carbon weight 12.641, and the original oxygen 33.672. 100 cubic inches of carburetted hydrogen weigh 29.6 grains, the carbon is 25.4. 100 cubic inches of hydrogen weigh 2,117 grains; and the same combined with 33.773 sulphur, make 100 of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, weighing 35.89. 100 measures of nitrogen and 300 of hydrogen, make 200 of ammoniacal gas. And so for other gases, in the exact proportion to their equivalents. 33.5 or 67 of chlorine form chlorides. 50.5 or 101 nitrid acid form nitrates. 37.5 or 75 sulphuric form sulphates: 20.7 of carbonic form carbonates. 25 of phosphoric form phosphates. 15 or 30 sulphur form sulphurets.

On mixing oxygen and hydrogen, no condensation takes place. The bulk is equal to the bulk of the two, and the specific gravity is the mean of both. But when 100 measures of carbonic oxide and 50 measures of oxygen gas are united, the compound is only 103 measures; and when 100 measures of azote are mixed with 300 measures of hydrogen, they form only 200 measures of ammoniacal gas. In mixed gases, the particles of the same only act on each other. A division of all substances into electro-negative and electro-positive arises from the position they take when acted on by the poles of a voltaic battery. Those which go to the negative pole are called electro-positive, and those to the positive pole electronegative. Oxygen and chlorine are electro-negative, and hydrogen and nitrogen are electro-positive. Davy considered the non-metallic elements, oxygen, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, as electro-negative; and hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, selenium, carbon, silicon, and boron, as electro-positive.. Their acid binary compounds are electro negative and the rest neutral, except ammonia, which alone is an alkaline base, or electro-positive. Then their unions with salifiable bases of the 22 acids are salts.

The natural metals afford 9 acids, all from 2 arsenic, 2 molybdenum, 2 antimony, I columbium, I tungsten, and I chromium. 22 alkaline binary compounds, and 26 neutral. Their compounds, being reduced at the negative or alkaline side of the voltaic battery, are electro-negative, The oxides of mercury, silver, gold, platinum, rhodium, iridium, osmium, nickel, paladium, and their binary compounds, are reduced by heat alone, and are called electro-positive. Lead, cobalt, copper, bismuth, arsenic, antimony, and eight others, retain and absorb oxygen at high temperatures. Tin, iron, zinc, cadmium, manganese, and their binary compounds, retain oxygen, and decompose water, at high temperatures. Potassium, sodium, and other alkaline metals, decompose water at the common temperature, and absorb oxygen at all temperatures. These terms, electro-positive and electro-negative, are equivalent to acids and alkaline. Dry alkalies, touched by metals, are positive, and dry acids negative; and dry acids and alkalies similarly affect each other. Davy, therefore, ascribed chemical affinity to opposite electrical states.

Oxygen, the supporter of vitality and fire, was first discriminated as a distinct gas by Priestley, in 1774. Its existence was known to Scheele as empyrial air; but as the antagonist of combustible gas, or Stahl's phlogiston, he called it dephlogisticated air. Oxygen gas is procured by heating to redness the per-oxide of manganese, which is 28 M + 16 O. One ounce yields 128 cubic inches, and the per-oxide becomes a prot-oxide, or 28 M + 80. It is also obtained from chlorate of potash, 124 grains of which yield 48 grains, and 141 cub. in of oxygen. Also from nitre.

Hydrogen, the phlogiston of Scheele and Priestley, is that gas which, when excited, immediately combines with oxygen, and produces flame, by which the oxygen disappears, and a new concentrated substance is produced. From this connection with flame, Cavendish called it inflammable air, but it is now called hydrogen, because in bulk it is the chief constituent of water. It is in all bodies which burn with flame.

Hydrogen gas is made by putting iron or zinc into sulphuric acid, diluted with four parts of water. The smell arises from carburetted hydrogen. An oxide possesses no acid properties, and oxygen gas has neither acid nor alkaline properties; and hydrogen has neither color, nor taste, nor odor. Neither oxygen, nor hydrogen, change vegetable colors. Hydrogen is exploded by a burning body, when two parts are mixed with 10 or 12 of air, or with one of oxygen. Phosphuretted hydrogen is generated by the decomposition of animal bodies, and, hence, has produced phenomena in churchyards favorable to superstition. Hydrogen and oxygen do not combine at ordinary temperatures, but hydrogen burns, and combines with oxygen, when excited into more motion, or set on fire. A jet of it on spongy platinum takes fire. One lb. in burning, melts 320 lbs. of ice. Sulphuretted hydrogen is poisonous, and the 250th part of it in the atmosphere has killed a horse. It tarnishes metals; and it gives the flavor of rotten eggs to water. Sulphuretted hydrogen, 70.857 and 29.143 hydrogen, changes litmus and radish infusions to red, is soluble in water, and decomposes soap. It is in all respects like an acid, but it changes the syrup of violets green. Hydrogen gas may be taken into the lungs, but cannot be respired for more than a minute. Small animals die in it much sooner. Sounds in it become acute. Hydrogen gas may be obtained in marshes or stagnant waters, in hot weather. If a bottle be filled with water, and a funnel put in, and both held downward in a ditch, and the mud stirred at the bottom, the gas rises into the bottle, and displaces the water; lighted, it burns with a fine blue flame.