Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/140

1824.] Dissatisfied both with the deductions drawn, and the means used previously, that philosopher proceeded to fire gunpowder in cylinders of a known diameter and capacity, and closed by a valve loaded with a weight that could be varied at pleasure. By making the vessel strong enough and the weight sufficiently heavy, he succeeded in confining the products within the space previously occupied by the powder. The Count's object induced him to vary the quantity of gunpowder in different experiments, and to estimate the force exerted only at the moment of ignition, when it was at its maximum. This force, which he found to be prodigious, he attributes to aqueous vapour intensely heated, and makes no reference to the force of the gaseous bodies evolved. Without considering the phenomena which it is the Count's object to investigate, it may be remarked, that in many of the experiments made by him, some of the gases, and especially carbonic acid gas, were probably reduced to the liquid state. The Count says, —

"When the force of the generated elastic vapour was sufficient to raise the weight, the explosion was attended by a very sharp and surprisingly loud report; but when the weight was not raised, as also when it was only a little moved, but not sufficiently to permit the leather stopper to be driven quite out of the bore, and the elastic fluid to make its escape, the report was scarcely audible at a distance of a few paces, and did not at all resemble the report which commonly attends the explosion of gunpowder. It was more like the noise which attends the breaking of a small glass tube, than anything else to which it could be compared. In many of the experiments, in which the elastic vapour was confined, this feeble report attending the explosion of the powder was immediately followed by another noise totally different from it, which appeared to be occasioned by the falling back of the weight upon the end of the barrel, after it had been a little raised, but not sufficiently to permit the leather stopper to he driven quite out of the bore. In some of these experiments a very small part only of the generated elastic fluid made its escape; in these cases the report was of a peculiar kind, and though perfectly audible at some considerable distance, yet not at all resembling the report of a musket. It was rather a very strong sudden hissing, than a clear, distinct and sharp report."