Page:The Liquefaction of Gases.djvu/18

14 mercury placed in the broad end; and in this state they were placed in the tubes, so that none of the substances used, or produced, could get to the mercury, or pass by it to the inside of the gage. In estimating the number of atmospheres, one has always been subtracted for the air left in the tube.

The specific gravity of sulphuretted hydrogen appeared to be 0.9.

The materials used in the production of carbonic acid, were carbonate of ammonia and concentrated sulphuric acid; the manipulation was like that described for sulphuretted hydrogen. Much stronger tubes are however required for carbonic acid than for any of the former substances, and there is none which has produced so many or more powerful explosions. Tubes which have held fluid carbonic acid well for two or three weeks together, have, upon some increase in the warmth of the weather, spontaneously exploded with great violence; and the precautions of glass masks, goggles, &c. which are at all times necessary in pursuing these experiments, are particularly so with carbonic acid.

Carbonic acid is a limpid colourless body, extremely fluid, and floating upon the other contents of the tube. It distils readily and rapidly at the difference of temperature between 32° and 0°. Its refractive power is much less than that of water. No diminution of temperature to which I have been able to submit it, has altered its appearance. In endeavouring to open the tubes at one end, they have uniformly burst into fragments, with powerful explosions. By inclosing a gage in a tube in which fluid carbonic acid was afterwards produced, it was found that its vapour exerted a pressure of 36 atmospheres at a temperature of 32°.