Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/271

256 glass, which seemed very good in other respects, were frequently so discoloured by dark smoky clouds as to be useless. These could not be referred to any impurity which had been left in the materials or had entered accidentally, and, as the platinum was in all such cases altered and injured, was at first supposed to be occasioned by some particular action exerted between it and glass at high temperatures. But upon every fair trial to verify such chemical action, the proofs failed, however high the temperature used, or however minutely the metal was divided. At last the cause was discovered. To understand it, it must be known that the platinum tray, with the glass in it, was either placed directly upon the bottom of the iron pan, or, for greater security, with only a plate of platinum intervening; and that the whole was covered by an evaporating basin turned upside down, forming a sort of inner chamber within the large one. In this confined state the oxygen of the portion of air present was soon abstracted by the heated metal, an oxide of iron being formed in consequence, and at the same time also a portion of carbonic oxide from the carbon in the cast iron. At the high temperature to which the experiment was raised, this carbonic oxide was competent to reduce a portion of the oxide of lead in the glass to the metallic state, itself becoming carbonic acid; but as soon as the carbonic acid so produced came in contact with the heated iron, it was again converted, according to the well-known condition of the chemical affinities at these temperatures, into carbonic oxide, and went back to the glass to repeat its evil operation and produce more metallic lead. In this way it was that the glass became sullied by smoky clouds consisting of metallic lead. It was the lead thus evolved, also, that, by alloying with the platinum, had produced the appearance of chemical action always visible in these cases; and now I knew how to account for the failure of many experiments in consequence of the formation of holes in the trays in a manner before quite inexplicable: for in the experiments purposely made to investigate this point, sometimes the glass was darkened only at the surface, the lower part being quite clear and good; and then, though the platinum tray was frequently cut through as with a knife all round level with the surface of the glass, it was quite unaltered below. At other times the superficial stain was in a greater quantity, and had