Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/119

104 comes a clear liquid, and this point is close upon that which corresponds to a vaporous pressure of one atmosphere. The acid dissolves the cap cement and the bitumen of the gauge graduation; and appears also to dissolve and act on fat, for it leaked by the plug of the stopcock with remarkable facility. It acts on the brass of the apparatus, and also on the mercury in the gauge. Hence the following results as to pressures and temperatures are not to be considered more than approximations:—

Hydro bromic Acid.—This acid was prepared by adding to perbromide of phosphorus about one-third of its bulk of water in a proper distillatory apparatus formed of glass tube, and then applying beat to distil off the gaseous acid. This being sent into a very cold receiver, was condensed into a liquid, which being rectified by a second distillation, was then experimented with.

Hydro bromic acid condenses into a clear colourless liquid at 100° below 0°, or lower, and has not the pressure of one atmosphere at the temperature of the carbonic acid bath in air. It soon obstructs and renders the motion of the mercury in the air-gauge irregular, so that I did not obtain a measure of its elastic force; but it is less than that of muriatic acid. At and below the temperature of -124° Fahr. it is a solid, transparent, crystalline body. It does not freeze until reduced much lower than this temperature; but being frozen by the carbonic acid bath in vacuo, it remains a solid until the temperature in rising attains to - 124°.

'Fluosilicon.—I found that this substance in the gaseous state might be brought in contact with the oil and metal of the pumps, without causing injury to them, for a time sufficiently