Page:The Liquefaction of Gases.djvu/74

70 alteration by the influence of condensation; and the success attending the violent method adopted by the French chemists, which violence did not appear to me requisite, afforded additional encouragement to my undertaking some experiments upon the subject.

I communicated this to the late chemical operator in the Royal Institution, a gentleman eminently conversant in the science, and with whom I was then engaged in a series of experiments: he not only approved of my design, but seemed to think it not improbable that an extensive field might thus be opened to future discoveries. Whether these opinions are justly founded, is now left for you, Sir, and the public to judge.

In entering upon a field entirely new, obstacles were of course to be expected: nor without reason; for though I had applied to one of the most eminent philosophical instrument-makers in London, Mr. Cuthbertson, yet I began to fear, even at the outset, that his skill would be set at defiance. The first instruments which he made for the present purpose were, a brass condensing-pump, with a lateral spring for the admission of the gas by means of stop-cock and bladder; two pear-shaped receivers, one of metal of the capacity of seven cubic inches, and another of glass of about three and a half: these were connected by a brass stop-cock, having a screw at each end. The metallic receiver was soon found to be of little or no utility, as well on account of its liability to be acted upon by the generated acids; its being too capacious, and thus consuming too large a quantity of gas: as because, though the result of an experiment might thus be known, yet the changes which the subjects might undergo would necessarily escape observation. The glass receiver obviated all these difficulties, and one or two imperfect experiments were performed with it: but the stop-cock speedily failed in its effect. For the power of