Introductory Note
Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith, and was born at Newington Butts, near
London, September 22, 1791. He began life as an errand boy to a bookbinder and stationer,
to whom he was later bound apprentice. After eight years in this business, he was engaged
by Sir Humphry Davy as his laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution, and in 1813-15
he traveled extensively on the Continent with his master, and saw some of the most famous
scientists of Europe. Shortly after his return to the Royal Institution, he began to make
contributions of his own to science, his first paper appearing in 1816. He became director
of the laboratory in 1825, and professor of chemistry in 1833; rising rapidly, through the
number and importance of his discoveries, to a most distinguished position. But he was
working at too great pressure, and in 1841 his health gave way, so that for some three
years he could not work at all. He recovered, however, and made some of his most important
discoveries after this interruption; and was offered, but declined, the presidency of both
the Royal Society and the Royal Institution. He died August 25, 1867.
It was characteristic of Faraday's devotion to the enlargement of the bounds of
human knowledge that on his discovery of magneto-electricity he abandoned the commercial
work by which he had added to his small salary, in order to reserve all his energies for
research. This financial loss was in part made up later by a pension of 300 pounds a year
from the British Government.
Faraday's parents were members of the obscure religious denomination of the
Sandemanians, and Faraday himself, shortly after his marriage, at the age of thirty,
joined the same sect, to which he adhered till his death. Religion and science he kept
strictly apart, believing that the data of science were of an entirely different nature
from the direct communications between God and the soul on which his religious faith was
based.
The discoveries made by Faraday were so numerous, and often demand so detailed a
knowledge of chemistry and physics before they can be understood, that it is impossible to
attempt to describe or even enumerate them here. Among the most important are the
discovery of magneto-electric induction, of the law of electro-chemical decomposition, of
the magnetization of light, and of diamagnetism. Round each of these are grouped numbers
of derivative but still highly important additions to scientific knowledge, and together
they form so vast an achievement as to lead his successor, Tyndall, to say, "Taking
him for all and all, I think it will be conceded that Michael Faraday was the greatest
experimental philosopher the world has ever seen; and I will add the opinion, that the
progress of future research will tend, not to dim or to diminish, but to enhance and
glorify the labours of this mighty investigator."
In spite of the highly technical nature of his work in research, Faraday was
remarkably gifted as an expounder of science to popular audiences; and his lectures at the
Royal Institution, especially those to younger audiences, were justly famous. The
following example is a classic in the department of clear and fascinating scientific
exposition.
Lecture I: A Candle: The Flame - Its Sources
- Structure Mobility - Brightness
I purpose, in return for the honor you do us by coming to see what are our proceedings
here, to bring before you, in the course of these lectures, the Chemical History of a
Candle. I have taken this subject on a former occasion, and, were it left to my own will,
I should prefer to repeat it almost every year, so abundant is the interest that attaches
itself to the subject, so wonderful are the varieties of outlet which it offers into the
various departments of philosophy. There is not a law under which any part of this
universe is governed which does not come into play and is touched upon in these phenomena.
There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of
natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle. I trust,
therefore, I shall not disappoint you in choosing this for my subject rather than any
newer topic, which could not be better, were it even so good.
And, before proceeding, let me say this also: that, though our subject be so great, and
our intention that of treating it honestly, seriously, and philosophically, yet I mean to
pass away from all those who are seniors among us. I claim the privilege of speaking to
juveniles as a juvenile myself. I have done so on former occasions, and, if you please, I
shall do so again. And, though I stand here with the knowledge of having the words I utter
given to the world, yet that shall not deter me from speaking in the same familiar way to
those whom I esteem nearest to me on this occasion.
And now, my boys and girls, I must first tell you of what candles are made. Some are
great curiosities. I have here some bits of timber, branches of trees particularly famous
for their burning. And here you see a piece of that very curious substance, taken out of
some of the bogs in Ireland, called candle-wood; a hard, strong, excellent wood, evidently
fitted for good work as a register of force, and yet, withal, burning so well that where
it is found they make splinters of it, and torches, since it burns like a candle, and
gives a very good light indeed. And in this wood we have one of the most beautiful
illustrations of the general nature of a candle that I can possibly give. The fuel
provided, the means of bringing that fuel to the place of chemical action, the regular and
gradual supply of air to that place of action - heat and light - all produced by a little
piece of wood of this kind, forming, in fact, a natural candle.
But we must speak of candles as they are in commerce. Here are a couple of candles
commonly called dips. They are made of lengths of cotton cut off, hung up by a loop,
dipped into melted tallow, taken out again and cooled, then redipped, until there is an
accumulation of tallow round the cotton. In order that you may have an idea of the various
characters of these candles, you see these which I hold in my hand - they are very small
and very curious. They are, or were, the candles used by the miners in coal mines. In
olden times the miner had to find his own candles, and it was supposed that a small candle
would not so soon set fire to the fire-damp in the coal mines as a large one; and for that
reason, as well as for economy's sake, he had candles made of this sort - 20, 30, 40, or
60 to the pound. They have been replaced since then by the steel-mill, and then by the
Davy lamp, and other safety lamps of various kinds. I have here a candle that was taken
out of the Royal George 1, it is said, by Colonel Pasley. It has been sunk in
the sea for many years, subject to the action of salt water. It shows you how well candles
may be preserved; for, though it is cracked about and broken a great deal, yet when
lighted it goes on burning regularly, and the tallow resumes its natural condition as soon
as it is fused.
[Footnote 1: The Royal George sunk at Spithead on the 29th of August, 1782. Colonel
Pasley commenced operations for the removal of the wreck by the explosion of gunpowder, in
August 1839. The candle which Professor Faraday exhibited must therefore have been exposed
to the action of salt water for upward of fifty-seven years.]
Mr. Field, of Lambeth, has supplied me abundantly with beautiful illustrations of the
candle and its materials; I shall therefore now refer to them. And, first, there is the
suet - the fat of the ox - Russian tallow, I believe, employed in the manufacture of these
dips, which Gay-Lussac, or some one who intrusted him with his knowledge, converted into
that beautiful substance, stearin, which you see lying beside it. A candle, you know, is
not now a greasy thing like an ordinary tallow candle, but a clean thing, and you may
almost scrape off and pulverize the drops which fall from it without soiling any thing.
This is the process he adopted 2: The fat or tallow is first boiled with
quick-lime, and made into a soap, and then the soap is decomposed by sulphuric acid, which
takes away the lime, and leaves the fat rearranged as stearic acid, while a quantity of
glycerin is produced at the same time. Glycerin - absolutely a sugar, or a substance
similar to sugar comes out of the tallow in this chemical change. The oil is then pressed
out of it; and you see here this series of pressed cakes, showing how beautifully the
impurities are carried out by the oily part as the pressure goes on increasing, and at
last you have left that substance, which is melted, and cast into candles as here
represented. The candle I have in my hand is a stearin candle, made of stearin from tallow
in the way I have told you. Then here is a sperm candle, which comes from the purified oil
of the spermaceti whale. Here, also, are yellow beeswax and refined beeswax, from which
candles are made. Here, too, is that curious substance called paraffine, and some
paraffine candles, made of paraffine obtained from the bogs of Ireland. I have here also a
substance brought from Japan since we have forced an entrance into that out-of-the-way
place - a sort of wax which a kind friend has sent me, and which forms a new material for
the manufacture of candles.
[Footnote 2: The fat or tallow consists of a chemical combination of fatty acids with
glycerin. The lime unites with the palmitic, oleic, and stearic acids, and separates the
glycerin. After washing, the insoluble lime soap is decomposed with hot dilute sulphuric
acid. The melted fatty acids thus rise as an oil to the surface, when they are decanted.
They are again washed and cast into thin plates, which, when cold, are placed between
layers of cocoanut matting and submitted to intense hydraulic pressure. In this way the
soft oleic acid is squeezed out, while the hard palmitic and stearic acids remain. These
are farther purified by pressure at a higher temperature and washing in warm dilute
sulphuric acid, when they are ready to be made into candles. These acids are harder and
whiter than the fats from which they were obtained, while at the same time they are
cleaner and more combustible.]
And how are these candles made? I have told you about dips, and I will show you how
moulds are made. Let us imagine any of these candles to be made of materials which can be
cast. "Cast!" you say. "Why, a candle is a thing that melts, and surely if
you can melt it you can cast it." Not so. It is wonderful, in the progress of
manufacture, and in the consideration of the means best fitted to produce the required
result, how things turn up which one would not expect beforehand. Candles can not always
be cast. A wax candle can never be cast. It is made by a particular process which I can
illustrate in a minute or two, but I must not spend much time on it. Wax is a thing which,
burning so well, and melting so easily in a candle, can not be cast. However, let us take
a material that can be cast. Here is a frame, with a number of moulds fastened in it. The
first thing to be done is to put a wick through them. Here is one - a plaited wick, which
does not require snuffing 3 supported by a little wire. It goes to the bottom,
where it is pegged in - the little peg holding the cotton tight, and stopping the aperture
so that nothing fluid shall run out. At the upper part there is a little bar placed
across, which stretches the cotton and holds it in the mould. The tallow is then melted,
and the moulds are filled. After a certain time, when the moulds are cool, the excess of
tallow is poured off at one corner, and then cleaned off altogether, and the ends of the
wick cut away. The candles alone then remain in the mould, and you have only to upset
them, as I am doing, when out they tumble, for the candles are made in the form of cones,
being narrower at the top than at the bottom: so that, what with their form and their own
shrinking, they only need a little shaking, and out they fall. In the same way are made
these candles of stearin and of paraffine. It is a curious thing to see how wax candles
are made. A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you see here, and covered with metal
tags at the ends to keep the wax from covering the cotton in those places. These are
carried to a heater, where the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; and,
as they turn, a man takes a vessel of wax and pours it first down one, and then the next,
and the next, and so on. When he has gone once round, if it is sufficiently cool, he gives
the first a second coat, and so on until they are all of the required thickness. When they
have been thus clothed, or fed, or made up to that thickness, they are taken off and
placed elsewhere. I have here, by the kindness of Mr. Field, several specimens of these
candles. Here is one only half-finished. They are then taken down and well rolled upon a
fine stone slab, and the conical top is moulded by properly shaped tubes, and the bottoms
cut off and trimmed. This is done so beautifully that they can make candles in this way
weighing exactly four or six to the pound, or any number they please.
[Footnote 3: A little borax or phosphorus salt is sometime added in order to make the
ash fusible.]
We must not, however, take up more time about the mere manufacture, but go a little
farther into the matter. I have not yet referred you to luxuries in candles (for there is
such a thing as luxury in candles). See how beautifully these are colored; you see here
mauve, magenta, and all the chemical colors recently introduced, applied to candles. You
observe, also, different forms employed. Here is a fluted pillar most beautifully shaped;
and I have also here some candles sent me by Mr. Pearsall, which are ornamented with
designs upon them, so that, as they burn, you have, as it were, a glowing sun above, and
bouquet of flowers beneath. All, however, that is fine and beautiful is not useful. These
fluted candles, pretty as they are, are bad candles; they are bad because of their
external shape. Nevertheless, I show you these specimens, sent to me from kind friends on
all sides, that you may see what is done and what may be done in this or that direction;
although, as I have said, when we come to these refinements, we are obliged to sacrifice a
little in utility.
Now as to the light of the candle. We will light one or two, and set them at work in
the performance of their proper functions. You observe a candle is a very different thing
from a lamp. With a lamp you take a little oil, fill your vessel, put in a little moss or
some cotton prepared by artificial means, and then light the top of the wick. When the
flame runs down the cotton to the oil, it gets extinguished, but it goes on burning in the
part above. Now I have no doubt you will ask how it is that the oil which will not burn of
itself gets up to the top of the cotton, where it will burn. We shall presently examine
that; but there is a much more wonderful thing about the burning of a candle than this.
You have here a solid substance with no vessel to contain it; and how is it that this
solid substance can get up to the place where the flame is? How is it that this solid gets
there, it not being a fluid? or, when it is made a fluid, then how is it that it keeps
together? This is a wonderful thing about a candle.
We have here a good deal of wind, which will help us in some of our illustrations, but
tease us in others; for the sake, therefore, of a little regularity, and to simplify the
matter, I shall make a quiet flame, for who can study a subject when there are
difficulties in the way not belonging to it? Here is a clever invention of some
costermonger or street-stander in the market-place for the shading of their candles on
Saturday nights, when they are selling their greens, or potatoes, or fish. I have very
often admired it. They put a lamp-glass round the candle, supported on a kind of gallery,
which clasps it, and it can be slipped up and down as required. By the use of this
lamp-glass, employed in the same way, you have a steady flame, which you can look at, and
carefully examine, as I hope you will do, at home.
You see, then, in the first instance, that a beautiful cup is formed. As the air comes
to the candle, it moves upward by the force of the current which the heat of the candle
produces, and it so cools all the sides of the wax, tallow, or fuel as to keep the edge
much cooler than the part within; the part within melts by the flame that runs down the
wick as far as it can go before it is extinguished, but the part on the outside does not
melt. If I made a current in one direction, my cup would be lop-sided, and the fluid would
consequently run over; for the same force of gravity which holds worlds together holds
this fluid in a horizontal position, and if the cup be not horizontal, of course the fluid
will run away in guttering. You see, therefore, that the cup is formed by this beautifully
regular ascending current of air playing upon all sides, which keeps the exterior of the
candle cool. No fuel would serve for a candle which has not the property of giving this
cup, except such fuel as the Irish bogwood, where the material itself is like a sponge and
holds its own fuel. You see now why you would have had such a bad result if you were to
burn these beautiful candles that I have shown you, which are irregular, intermittent in
their shape, and can not, therefore, have that nicely-formed edge to the cup which is the
great beauty in a candle. I hope you will now see that the perfection of a process - that
is, its utility - is the better point of beauty about it. It is not the gest looking
thing, but the best acting thing, which is the most advantageous to us. This good-looking
candle is a bad-burning one. There will be a guttering round about it because of the
irregularity of the stream of air and the badness of the cup which is formed thereby. You
may see some pretty examples (and I trust you will notice these instances) of the action
of the ascending current when you have a little gutter run down the side of a candle,
making it thicker there than it is elsewhere. As the candle goes on burning, that keeps
its place and forms a little pillar sticking up by the side, because, as it rises higher
above the rest of the wax or fuel, the air gets better round it, and it is more cooled and
better able to resist the action of the heat at a little distance. Now the greatest
mistakes and faults with regard to candles, as in many other things, often bring with them
instruction which we should not receive if they had not occurred. We come here to be
philosophers, and I hope you will always remember that whenever a result happens,
especially if it be new, you should say, "What is the cause? Why does it occur?"
and you will, in the course of time, find out the reason.
Then there is another point about these candles which will answer a question - that is,
as to the way in which this fluid gets out of the cup, up the wick, and into the place of
combustion. You know that the flames on these burning wicks in candles made of beeswax,
stearin, or spermaceti, do not run down to the wax or other matter, and melt it all away,
but keep to their own right place. They are fenced off from the fluid below, and do not
encroach on the cup at the sides. I can not imagine a more beautiful example than the
condition of adjustment under which a candle makes one part subserve to the other to the
very end of its action. A combustible thing like that, burning away gradually, never being
intruded upon by the flame, is a very beautiful sight, especially when you come to learn
what a vigorous thing flame is - what power it has of destroying the wax itself when it
gets hold of it, and of disturbing its proper form if it come only too near.
But how does the flame get hold of the fuel? There is a beautiful point about that -
capillary attraction. 4 "Capillary attraction!" you say - "the
attraction of hairs." Well, never mind the name; it was given in old times, before we
had a good understanding of what the real power was. It is by what is called capillary
attraction that the fuel is conveyed to the part where combustion goes on, and is
deposited there, not in a careless way, but very beautifully in the very midst of the
centre of action, which takes place around it. Now I am going to give you one or two
instances of capillary attraction. It is that kind of action or attraction which makes two
things that do not dissolve in each other still hold together. When you wash your hands,
you wet them thoroughly; you take a little soap to make the adhesion better, and you find
your hands remain wet. This is by that kind of attraction of which I am about to speak.
And, what is more, if your hands are not soiled (as they almost always are by the usages
of life), if you put your finger into a little warm water, the water will creep a little
way up the finger, though you may not stop to examine it. I have here a substance which is
rather porous - a column of salt - and I will pour into the plate at the bottom, not
water, as it appears, but a saturated solution of salt which can not absorb more, so that
the action which you see will not be due to its dissolving any thing. We may consider the
plate to be the candle, and the salt the wick, and this solution the melted tallow. (I
have colored the fluid, that you may see the action better.) You observe that, now I pour
in the fluid, it rises and gradually creeps up the salt higher and higher; and provided
the column does not tumble over, it will go to the top. If this blue solution were
combustible, and we were to place a wick at the top of the salt, it would burn as it
entered into the wick. It is a most curious thing to see this kind of action taking place,
and to observe how singular some of the circumstances are about it. When you wash your
hands, you take a towel to wipe off the water; and it is by that kind of wetting, or that
kind of attraction which makes the towel become wet with water, that the wick is made wet
with the tallow. I have known some careless boys and girls (indeed, I have known it happen
to careful people as well) who, having washed their hands and wiped them with a towel,
have thrown the towel over the side of the basin, and before long it has drawn all the
water out of the basin and conveyed it to the floor, because it happened to be thrown over
the side in such a way as to serve the purpose of a siphon. 5 That you may the
better see the way in which the substances act one upon another, I have here a vessel made
of wire gauze filled with water, and you may compare it in its action to the cotton in one
respect, or to a piece of calico in the other. In fact, wicks are sometimes made of a kind
of wire gauze. You will observe that this vessel is a porous thing; for if I pour a little
water on to the top, it will run out at the bottom. You would be puzzled for a good while
if I asked you what the state of this vessel is, what is inside it, and why it is there?
The vessels is full of water, and yet you see the water goes in and runs out as if it were
empty. In order to prove this to you, I have only to empty it. The reason is this: the
wire, being once wetted, remains wet; the meshes are so small that the fluid is attracted
so strongly from the one side to the other, as to remain in the vessel, although it is
porous. In like manner, the particles of melted tallow ascend the cotton and get to the
top: other particles then follow by their mutual attraction for each other, and as they
reach the flame they are gradually burned.
[Footnote 4: Capillary attraction or repulsion is the cause which determines the ascent
or descent of a fluid in a capillary tube. If a piece of thermometer tubing, open at each
end, be plunged into water, the latter will instantly rise in the tube considerably above
its external level. If, on the other hand, the tube be plunged into mercury, a repulsion
instead of attraction will be exhibited, and the level of the mercury will be lower in the
tube than it is outside.]
[Footnote 5: The late Duke of Sussex was, we believe, the first to show that a prawn
might be washed upon this principle. If the tail, after pulling off the fan part, be
placed in a tumbler of water, and the head be allowed to hang over the outside, the water
will be sucked up the tail by capillary attraction, and will continue to run out through
the head until the water in the glass has sunk so low the tail ceases to dip into it.]
Here is another application of the same principle. You see this bit of cane. I have
seen boys about the streets, who are very anxious to appear like men, take a piece of
cane, and light it, and smoke it, as an imitation of a cigar. They are enable to do so by
the permeability of the cane in one direction, and by its capillarity. If I place this
piece of cane on a plate containing some camphene (which is very much like paraffine in
its general character), exactly in the same manner as the blue fluid rose through the salt
will this fluid rise through the piece of cane. There being no pores at the side, the
fluid can not go in that direction, but must pass through its length. Already the fluid is
at the top of the cane; now I can light it and make it serve as a candle. The fluid has
risen by the capillary attraction of the piece of cane, just as it does through the cotton
in the candle.
Now the only reason why the candle does not burn all down the side of the wick is that
the melted tallow extinguishes the flame. You know that a candle, if turned upside down,
so as to allow the fuel to run upon the wick, will be put out. The reason is, that the
flame has not had time to make the fuel hot enough to burn, as it does above, where it is
carried in small quantities into the wick, and has all the effect of the heat exercised
upon it.
There is another condition which you must learn as regards the candle, without which
you would not be able fully to understand the philosophy of it, and that is the vaporous
condition of the fuel. In order that you may understand that, let me show you a very
pretty but very commonplace experiment. If you blow a candle out cleverly, you will see
the vapor rise from it. You have, I know, often smelt the vapor of a blown-out candle, and
a very bad smell it is; but if you blow it out cleverly you will be able to see pretty
well the vapor into which this solid matter is transformed. I will blow out one of these
candles in such a way as not to disturb the air around it by the continuing action of my
breath; and now, if I hold a lighted taper two or three inches from the wick, you will
observe a train of fire going through the air till it reaches the candle. I am obliged to
be quick and ready, because if I allow the vapor time to cool, it becomes condensed into a
liquid or solid, or the stream of combustible matter gets disturbed.
Now as to the shape or form of the flame. It concerns us much to know about the
condition which the matter of the candle finally assumes at the top of the wick, where you
have such beauty and brightness as nothing but combustion or flame can produce. You have
the glittering beauty of gold and silver, and the still higher lustre of jewels like the
ruby and diamond; but none of these rival the brilliancy and beauty of flame. What diamond
can shine like flame? It owes its lustre at nighttime to the very flame shining upon it.
The flame shines in darkness, but the light which the diamond has is as nothing until the
flame shines upon it, when it is brilliant again. The candle alone shines by itself and
for itself, or for those who have arranged the materials. Now let us look a little at the
form of the flame as you see it under the glass shade. It is steady and equal, and its
general form is that which is represented in the diagram, varying with atmospheric
disturbances, and also varying according to the size of the candle. It is a bright oblong,
brighter at the top than toward the bottom, with the wick in the middle, and, besides the
wick in the middle, certain darker parts towards the bottom, where the ignition is not so
perfect as in the part above. I have a drawing here, sketched many years ago by Hooker,
when he made his investigations. It is the drawing of the flame of a lamp, but it will
apply to the flame of a candle. The cup of the candle is the vessel or lamp; the melted
spermaceti is the oil; and the wick is common to both. Upon that he sets this little
flame, and then he represents what is true, a certain quantity of matter rising about it
which you do not see, and which, if you have not been here before, or are not familiar
with the subject, you will not know of. He has here represented the parts of the
surrounding atmosphere that are very essential to the flame, and that are always present
with it. There is a current formed, which draws the flame out; for the flame which you see
is really drawn out by the current, and drawn upward to a great height, just as Hooker has
here shown you by that prolongation of the current in the diagram. You may see this by
taking a lighted candle, and putting it in the sun so as to get its shadow thrown on a
piece of paper. How remarkable it is that that thing which is light enough to produce
shadows of other objects can be made to throw its own shadow on a piece of white paper or
card, so that you can actually see streaming round the flame something which is not part
of the flame, but is ascending and drawing the flame upward. Now I am going to imitate the
sunlight by applying the voltaic battery to the electric lamp. You now see our sun and its
great luminosity; and by placing a candle between it and the screen, we get the shadow of
the flame. You observe the shadow of the candle and of the wick; then there is a darkish
part, as represented in the diagram, and then a part which is more distinct. Curiously
enough, however, what we see in the shadow as the darkest part of the flame is, in
reality, the brightest part; and here you see streaming upward the ascending current of
hot air, as shown by Hooker, which draws out the flame, supplies it with air, and cools
the sides of the cup of melted fuel.
I can give you here a little farther illustration, for the purpose of showing you how
flame goes up or down according to the current. I have here a flame - it is not a candle
flame - but you can, no doubt, by this time generalize enough to be able to compare one
thing with another. What I am about to do is to change the ascending current that takes
the flame upward into a descending current. This I can easily do by the little apparatus
you see before me. The flame, as I have said, is not a candle flame, but it is produced by
alcohol, so that it shall not smoke too much. I will also color the flame with another
substance 6, so that you may trace its course; for, with the spirit alone, you
could hardly see well enough to have the opportunity of tracing its direction. By lighting
this spirit of wine we have then a flame produced, and you observe that when held in the
air it naturally goes upward. You understand now, easily enough, why flames go up under
ordinary circumstances: it is because of the draught of air by which the combustion is
formed. But now, by blowing the flame down, you see I am enabled to make it go downward
into this little chimney, the direction of the current being changed. Before we have
concluded this course of lectures we shall show you a lamp in which the flame goes up and
the smoke goes down, or the flame goes down and the smoke goes up. You see, then, that we
have the power in this way of varying the flame in different directions.
[Footnote 6: The alcohol had chloride of copper dissolved in it: this produces a
beautiful green flame.]
There are now some other points that I must bring before you. Many of the flames you
see here vary very much in their shape by the currents of air blowing around them in
different directions; but we can, if we like, make flames so that they will look like
fixtures, and we can photograph them indeed, we have to photograph them - so that they
become fixed to us, if we wish to find out every thing concerning them. That, however, is
not the only thing I wish to mention. If I take a flame sufficiently large, it does not
keep that homogeneous, that uniform condition of shape, but it breaks out with a power of
life which is quite wonderful. I am about to use another kind of fuel, but one which is
truly and fairly a representative of the wax or tallow of a candle. I have here a large
ball of cotton, which will serve as a wick. And, now that I have immersed it in spirit and
applied a light to it, in what way does it differ from an ordinary candle? Why, it differs
very much in one respect, that we have a vivacity and power about it, a beauty and a life
entirely different from the light presented by a candle. You see those fine tongues of
flame rising up. You have the same general disposition of the mass of the flame from below
upward; but, in addition to that, you have this remarkable breaking out into tongues which
you do not perceive in the case of a candle. Now, why is this? I must explain it to you,
because, when you understand that perfectly, you will be able to follow me better in what
I have to say hereafter. I suppose some here will have made for themselves the experiment
I am going to show you. Am I right in supposing that any body here has played at
snapdragon? I do not know a more beautiful illustration of the philosophy of flame, as to
a certain part of its history, than the game of snapdragon. First, here is the dish; and
let me say, that when you play snapdragon properly you ought to have the dish well warmed;
you ought also to have warm plums, and warm brandy, which, however, I have not got. When
you have put the spirit into the dish, you have the cup and the fuel; and are not the
raisins acting like the wicks? I now throw the plums into the dish, and light the spirit,
and you see those beautiful tongues of flame that I refer to. You have the air creeping in
over the edge of the dish forming these tongues. Why? Because, through the force of the
current and the irregularity of the action of the flame, it can not flow in one uniform
stream. The air flows in so irregularly that you have what would otherwise be a single
image broken up into a variety of forms, and each of these little tongues has an
independent existence of its own. Indeed, I might say, you have here a multitude of
independent candles. You must not imagine, because you see these tongues all at once, that
the flame is of this particular shape. A flame of that shape is never so at any one time.
Never is a body of flame, like that which you just saw rising from the ball, of the shape
it appears to you. I consists of a multitude of different shapes, succeeding each other so
fast that the eye is only able to take cognizance of them all at once. In former times I
purposely analyzed a flame of that general character, and the diagram shows you the
different parts of which it is composed. They do not occur all at once; it is only because
we see these shapes in such rapid succession that they seem to us to exist all at one
time.
It is too bad that we have not got farther than my game of snapdragon; but we must not,
under any circumstances, keep you beyond your time. It will be a lesson to me in future to
hold you more strictly to the philosophy of the thing than to take up your time so much
with these illustrations.
Lecture II: Brightness Of The Flame - Air
Necessary For Combustion - Production Of Water
We were occupied the last time we met in considering the general character and
arrangement as regards the fluid portion of a candle, and the way in which that fluid got
into the place of combustion. You see, when we have a candle burning fairly in a regular,
steady atmosphere, it will have a shape something like the one shown in the diagram, and
will look pretty uniform, although very curious in its character. And now I have to ask
your attention to the means by which we are enabled to ascertain what happens in any
particular part of the flame; why it happens; what it does in happening; and where, after
all, the whole candle goes to; because, as you know very well, a candle being brought
before us and burned, disappears, if burned properly, without the least trace of dirt in
the candle stick, and this is a very curious circumstance. In order, then, to examine this
candle carefully, I have arranged certain apparatus, the use of which you will see as I go
on. Here is a candle; I am about to put the end of this glass tube into the middle of the
flame - into that part which old Hooker has represented in the diagram as being rather
dark, and which you can see at any time if you will look at a candle carefully, without
blowing it about. We will examine this dark part first.
Now I take this bent glass tube, and introduce one end into that part of the flame, and
you see at once that something is coming from the flame, out at the other end of the tube;
and if I put a flask there, and leave it for a little while, you will see that something
from the middle part of the flame is gradually drawn out, and goes through the tube, and
into that flask, and there behaves very differently from what it does in the open air. It
not only escapes from the end of the tube, but falls down to the bottom of the flask like
a heavy substance, as indeed it is. We find that this is the wax of experiment, if there
is not too much disturbance, there will always be a ring. This is a good experiment for
you to make at home. Take a strip of paper, have the air in the room quiet, and put the
piece of paper right across the middle of the flame - (I must not talk while I make the
experiment) - and you will find that it is burnt in two places, and that it is not burnt,
or very little so, in the middle; and when you have tried the experiment once or twice, so
as to make it nicely, you will be very interested to see where the heat is, and to find
that it is where the air and the fuel come together.
This is most important for us as we proceed with out subject. Air is absolutely
necessary for combustion; and, what is more, I must have you understand that fresh air is
necessary, or else we should be imperfect in our reasoning and our experiments. Here is a
jar of air; I place it over a candle, and it burns very nicely in it at first, showing
that what I have said about it is true; but there will soon be a change. See how the flame
is drawing upward, presently fading, and at last going out. And going out, why? Not
because it wants air merely, for the jar is as full now as it was before; but it wants
pure, fresh air. The jar is full of air, partly changed, partly not changed; but it does
not contain sufficient of the fresh air which is necessary for the combustion of a candle.
These are all points which we, as young chemists, have to gather up; and if we look a
little more closely into this kind of action, we shall find certain steps of reasoning
extremely interesting. For instance, here is the oil-lamp I showed you - an excellent lamp
for our experiments - the old Argand lamp. I now make it like a candle (obstructing the
passage of air into the centre of the flame); there is the cotton; there is the oil rising
up in it, and there is the conical flame. It burns poorly because there is a partial
restraint of air. I have allowed no air to get to it save around the outside of the flame,
and it does not burn well. I can not admit more air from the outside, because the wick is
large; but if, as Argand did so cleverly, I open a passage to the middle of the flame, and
so let air come in there, you will see how much more beautifully it burns. If I shut the
air off, look how it smokes; and why? We have now some very interesting points to study:
we have the case of the combustion of a candle; we have the case of a candle being put out
by the want of air; and we have now the case of imperfect combustion, and this is to us so
interesting that I want you to understand it as thoroughly as you do the case of a candle
burning in its best possible manner. I will now make a great flame, because we need the
largest possible illustrations. Here is a larger wick (burning turpentine on a ball of
cotton). All these things are the same as candles, after all. If we have larger wicks, we
must have a larger supply of air, or we shall have less perfect combustion. Look, now, at
this black substance going up into the atmosphere; there is a regular stream of it. I have
provided means to carry off the imperfectly burned part, lest it should annoy you. Look at
the soots that fly off from the flame; see what an imperfect combustion it is, because it
can not get enough air. What, then, is happening? Why, certain things which are necessary
to the combustion of a candle are absent, and very bad results are accordingly produced;
but we see what happens to a candle when it is burnt in a pure and proper state of air. At
the time when I showed you this charring by the ring of flame on the one side of the
paper, I might have also shown you, by turning to the other side, that the burning of a
candle produces the same kind of soot - charcoal, or carbon.
But, before I show that, let me explain to you, as it is quite necessary for our
purpose, that, though I take a candle, and give you, as the general result, its combustion
in the form of a flame, we must see whether combustion is always in this condition, or
whether there are other conditions of flame; and we shall soon discover that there are,
and that they are most important to us. I think, perhaps, the best illustration of such a
point to us, as juveniles, is to show the result of strong contrast. Here is a little
gunpowder. You know that gunpowder burns with flame; we may fairly call it flame. It
contains carbon and other materials, which altogether cause it to burn with a flame. And
here is some pulverized iron, or iron filings. Now I purpose burning these two things
together. I have a little mortar in which I will mix them. (Before I go into these
experiments, let me hope that none of you, by trying to repeat them for fun's sake, will
do any harm. These things may all be very properly used if you take care, but without that
much mischief will be done.) Well, then here is a little gunpowder, which I put at the
bottom of that little wooden vessel, and mix the iron filings up with it, my object being
to make the gunpowder set fire to the filings and burn them in the air, and thereby show
the difference between substances burning with flame and not with flame. Here is the
mixture; and when I set fire to it you must watch the combustion, and you will see that it
is of two kinds. You will see the gunpowder burning with a flame and the filings thrown
up. You will see them burning, too, but without the production of flame. They will each
burn separately. [The lecturer then ignited the mixture.] There is the gunpowder, which
burns with a flame, and there are the filings: they burn with a different kind of
combustion. You see, then, these two great distinctions; and upon these differences depend
all the utility and all the beauty of flame which we use for the purpose of giving out
light. When we use oil, or gas, or candle for the purpose of illumination, their fitness
all depends upon these different kinds of combustion.
There are such curious conditions of flame that it requires some cleverness and nicety
of discrimination to distinguish the kinds of combustion one from another. For instance,
here is a powder which is very combustible, consisting, as you see, of separate little
particles. It is called lycopodium, 7 and each of these particles can produce a
vapor, and produce its own flame; but, to see them burning, you would imagine it was all
one flame. I will now set fire to a quantity, and you will see the effect. We saw a cloud
of flame, apparently in one body; but that rushing noise [referring to the sound produced
by the burning] was a proof that the combustion was not a continuous or regular one. This
is the lightning of the pantomimes, and a very good imitation. [The experiment was twice
repeated by blowing lycopodium from a glass tube through a spirit flame.] This is not an
example of combustion like that of the filings I have been speaking of, to which we must
now return.
[Footnote 7: Lycopodium is a yellowish powder found in the fruit of the club moss
(Lycopodium clavatum). It is used in fireworks.]
Suppose I take a candle and examine that part of it which appears brightest to our
eyes. Why, there I get these black particles, which already you have seen many times
evolved from the flame, and which I am now about to evolve in a different way. I will take
this candle and clear away the gutterage, which occurs by reason of the currents of air,
and if I now arrange the glass tube so as just to dip into this luminous part, as in our
first experiment, only higher, you see the result. In place of having the same white vapor
that you had before, you will now have a black vapor. There is goes, as black as ink. It
is certainly very different from the white vapor; and when we put a light to it we shall
find that it does not burn, but that it puts the light out. Well, these particles, as I
said before, are just the smoke of the candle; and this brings to mind that old employment
which Dean Swift recommended to servants for their amusement, namely writing on the
ceiling of a room with a candle. But what is that black substance? Why, it is the same
carbon which exists in the candle. How comes it out of the candle? It evidently existed in
the candle, or else we should not have had it here. And now I want you to follow me in
this explanation. You would hardly think that all those substances which fly about London,
in the form of soots and blacks, are the very beauty and life of the flame, and which are
burned in it as those iron filings were burned here. Here is a piece of wire gauze, which
will not let the flame go through it; and I think you will see, almost immediately, that
when I bring it low enough to touch that part of the flame which is otherwise so bright,
it quells and quinches it at once, and allows a volume of smoke to rise up.
I want you now to follow me in this point - that whenever a substance burns, as the
iron filings burnt in the flame of gunpowder, without assuming the vaporous state (whether
it becomes liquid or remains solid), it becomes exceedingly luminous. I have here taken
three or four examples apart from the candle on purpose to illustrate this point to you,
because what I have to say is applicable to all substances, whether they burn or whether
they do not burn - that they are exceedingly bright if they retain their solid state, and
that it is to this presence of solid particles in the candle flame that it owes its
brilliancy.
Here is a platinum wire, a body which does not change by heat. If I heat it in this
flame, see how exceedingly luminous it becomes. I will make the flame dim for the purpose
of giving a little light only, and yet you will see that the heat which it can give to
that platinum wire, though far less than the heat it has itself, is able to raise the
platinum wire to a far higher state of effulgence. This flame has carbon in it; but I will
take one that has no carbon in it. There is a material, a kind of fuel - a vapor, or gas,
whichever you like to call it - in that vessel, and it has no solid particles in it; so I
take that because it is an example of flame itself burning without any solid matter
whatever; and if I now put this solid substance in it, you see what an intense heat it
has, and how brightly it causes the solid body to glow. This is the pipe through which we
convey this particular gas, which we call hydrogen, and which you shall know all about the
next time we meet. And here is a substance called oxygen, by means of which this hydrogen
can burn; and although we produce, by their mixture, far greater heat 8 than
you can obtain from the candle, yet there is very little light. If, however, I take a
solid substance, and put that into it, we produce an intense light. If I take a piece of
lime, a substance which will not burn, and which will not vaporize by the heat (and
because it does not vaporize remains solid, and remains heated), you will soon observe
what happens as to its glowing. I have here a most intense heat produced by the burning of
hydrogen in contact with the oxygen; but there is as yet very little light - not for want
of heat, but for want of particles which can retain their solid state; but when I hold
this piece of lime in the flame of the hydrogen as it burns in the oxygen, see how it
glows! This is glorious lime light, which rivals the voltaic light, and which is almost
equal to sunlight. I have here a piece of carbon or charcoal, which will burn and give us
light exactly in the same manner as if it were burnt as part of a candle. The heat that is
in the flame of a candle decomposes the vapor of the wax, and sets free the carbon
particles; they rise up heated and glowing as this now glows, and then enter into the air.
But the particles, when burnt, never pass off from a candle in the form of carbon. They go
off into the air as a perfectly invisible substance, about which we shall know hereafter.
[Footnote 8: Bunsen has calculated that the temperature of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe is
8061C. Hydrogen burning in air has a temperature of 3259C., and coal gas in air, 2350C]
Is it not beautiful to think that such a process is going on, and that such a dirty
things as charcoal can become so incandescent? You see it comes to this - that all bright
flames contain these solid particles; all things that burn and produce solid particles,
either during the time they are burning, as in the candle, or immediately after being
burnt, as in the case of the gunpowder and iron filings - all these things give us this
glorious and beautiful light.
I will give you a few illustrations. Here is a piece of phosphorus, which burns with a
bright flame. Very well; we may now conclude that phosphorus will produce, either at the
moment that it is burning or afterwards, these solid particles. Here is the phosphorus
lighted, and I cover it over with this glass for the purpose of keeping in what is
produced. What is all that smoke? That smoke consists of those very particles which are
produced by the combustion of the phosphorus. Here, again, are two substances. This is
chlorate of potassa, and this other sulphuret of antimony. I shall mix these together a
little, and then they may be burnt in many ways. I shall touch them with a drop of
sulphuric acid, for the purpose of giving you an illustration of chemical action, and they
will instantly burn. 9 [The lecturer then ignited the mixture by means of
sulphuric acid.] Now, from the appearance of things, you can judge for yourselves whether
they produce solid matter in burning. I have given you the train of reasoning which will
enable you to say whether they do or do not; for what is this bright flame but the solid
particles passing off?
[Footnote 9: The following is the action of the sulphuric in inflaming the mixture of
sulphuret of antimony and chlorate of potassa. A portion of the latter is decomposed by
the sulphuric acid into oxide of chlorine, bisulphate of potassa, and perchlorate of
potassa. The oxide of chlorine inflames the sulphuret of antimony, which is a combustible
body, and the whole mass instantly bursts into flame.]
Mr. Anderson has in the furnace a very hot crucible. I am about to throw into it some
zinc filings, and they will burn with flame like gunpowder. I make this experiment because
you can make it well at home. Now I want you to see what will be the result of the
combustion of this zinc. Here it is burning - burning beautifully like a candle, I may
say. But what is all that smoke, and what are those little clouds of wool which will come
to you if you can not come to them, and make themselves sensible to you in the form of the
old philosophic wool, as it was called? We shall have left in that crucible, also, a
quantity of this woolly matter. But I will take a piece of this same zinc, and make an
experiment a little more closely at home, as it were. You will have here the same thing
happening. Here is the piece of zinc; there [pointing to a jet of hydrogen] is the
furnace, and we will set to work and try and burn the metal. It glows, you see; there is
the combustion; and there is the white substance into which it burns. And so, if I take
that flame of hydrogen as the representative of a candle, and show you a substance like
zinc burning in the flame, you will see that it was merely during the action of combustion
that this substance glowed - while it was kept hot; and if I take a flame of hydrogen and
put this white substance from the zinc into it, look how beautifully it glows, and just
because it is a solid substance.
I will now take such a flame as I had a moment since, and set free from it the
particles of carbon. Here is some camphene, which will burn with a smoke; but if I send
these particles of smoke through this pipe into the hydrogen flame you will see they will
burn and become luminous, because we heat them a second time. There they are. Those are
the particles of carbon reignited a second time. They are those particles which you can
easily see by holding a piece of paper behind them, and which, while they are in the
flame, are ignited by the heat produced, and, when so ignited, produce this brightness.
When the particles are not separated you get no brightness. The flame of coal gas owes its
brightness to the separation, during combustion, of these particles of carbon, which are
equally in that as in a candle. I can very quickly alter that arrangement. Here, for
instance is a bright flame of gas. Supposing I add so much air to the flame as to cause it
all to burn before those particles are set free, I shall not have this brightness; and I
can do that in this way: If I place over the jet this wire-gauze cap, as you see, and then
light the gas over it, it burns with a non-luminous flame, owing to its having plenty of
air mixed with it before it burns; and if I raise the gauze, you see it does not burn
below 10. There is plenty of carbon in the gas; but, because the atmosphere can
get to it, and mix with it before it burns, you see how pale and blue the flame is. And if
I blow upon a bright gas flame, so as to consume all this carbon before it gets heated to
the glowing point, it will also burn blue. [The lecturer illustrated his remarks by
blowing on the gas light.] The only reason why I have not the same bright light when I
thus blow upon the flame is that the carbon meets with sufficient air to burn it before it
gets separated in the flame in a free state. The difference is solely due to the solid
particles not being separated before the gas is burnt.
[Footnote 10: The "air-burner," which is of such value in the laboratory,
owes its advantage to this principle. It consists of a cylindrical metal chimney, covered
at the top with a piece of rather coarse iron wire gauze. This is supported over an Argand
burner in such a manner that the gas may mix in the chimney with an amount of air
sufficient to burn the carbon and hydrogen simultaneously, so that there may be no
separation of carbon in the flame with consequent deposition of soot. The flame, being
unable to pass through the wire gauze, burns in a steady, nearly invisible manner above.]
You observe that there are certain products as the result of the combustion of a
candle, and that of these products one portion may be considered as charcoal, or soot;
that charcoal, when afterward burnt, produces some other product; and it concerns us very
much now to ascertain what that other product is. We showed that something was going away;
and I want you now to understand how much is going up into the air; and for that purpose
we will have combustion on a little larger scale. From that candle ascends heated air, and
two or three experiments will show you the ascending current; but, in order to give you a
notion of the quantity of matter which ascends in this way, I will make an experiment by
which I shall try to imprison some of the products of this combustion. For this purpose I
have here what boys call a fire-balloon; I use this fire-balloon merely as a sort of
measure of the result of the combustion we are considering; and I am about to make a flame
in such an easy and simple manner as shall best serve my present purpose. This plate shall
be the "cup," we will so say, of the candle; this spirit shall be our fuel; and
I am about to place this chimney over it, because it is better for me to do so than to let
things proceed at random. Mr. Anderson will now light the fuel, and here at the top we
shall get the results of the combustion. What we get at the top of that tube is exactly
the same, generally speaking, as you get from the combustion of a candle; but we do not
get a luminous flame here, because we use a substance which is feeble in carbon. I am
about to put this balloon - not into action, because that is not my object - but to show
you the effect which results from the action of those products which arise from the
candle, as they arise here from the furnace. [The balloon was held over the chimney, when
it immediately commenced to fill.] You see how it is disposed to ascend; but we must not
let it up; because it might come in contact with those upper gaslights, and that would be
very inconvenient. [The upper gaslights were turned out at the request of the lecturer,
and the balloon was allowed to ascend.] Does not that show you what a large bulk of matter
is being evolved? Now there is going through this tube [placing a large glass tube over a
candle] all the products of that candle, and you will presently see that the tube will
become quite opaque. Suppose I take another candle, and place it under a jar, and then put
a light on the other side, just to show you what is going on. You see that the sides of
the jar become cloudy, and the light begins to burn feebly. It is the products, you see,
which make the light so dim, and this is the same thing which makes the sides of the jar
so opaque. If you go home, and take a spoon that has been in the cold air, and hold it
over a candle - not so as to soot it - you will find that it becomes dim just as that jar
is dim. If you can get a silver dish, or something of that kind, you will make the
experiment still better; and now, just to carry your thoughts forward to the time we shall
next meet, let me tell you that it is water which causes the dimness, and when we next
meet I will show that we can make it, without difficulty, assume the form of a liquid.
Lecture III: Products: Water From The Combustion -
Nature Of Water - A Compound - Hydrogen
I Dare say you well remember that when we parted we had just mentioned the word
"products" from the candle; for when a candle burns we found we were able, by
nice adjustment, to get various products from it. There was one substance which was not
obtained when the candle was burning properly, which was charcoal or smoke, and there was
some other substance that went upward from the flame which did not appear as smoke, but
took some other form, and made part of that general current which, ascending from the
candle upward, becomes invisible, and escapes. There were also other products to mention.
You remember that in that rising current having its origin at the candle we found that one
part was condensable against a cold spoon, or against a clean plate, or any other cold
thing, and another part was incondensable.
We will first take the condensable part, and examine it, and, strange to say, we find
that that part of the product is just water - nothing but water. On the last occasion I
spoke of it incidentally, merely saying that water was produced among the condensable
products of the candle; but to-day I wish to draw your attention to water, that we may
examine it carefully, especially in relation to this subject, and also with respect to its
general existence on the surface of the globe.
Now, having previously arranged an experiment for the purpose of condensing water from
the products of the candle, my next point will be to show you this water; and perhaps one
of the best means that I can adopt for showing its presence to so many at once is to
exhibit a very visible action of water and then to apply that test to what is collected as
a drop at the bottom of that vessel. I have here a chemical substance, discovered by Sir
Humphry Davy, which has a very energetic action upon water, which I shall use as a test of
the presence of water. If I take a little piece of it - it is called potassium, as coming
from potash - if I take a little piece of it, and throw it into the basin, you see how it
shows the presence of water by lighting up and floating about, burning with a violet
flame. I am now going to take away the candle which has been burning beneath the vessel
containing ice and salt, and you see a drop of water - a condensed product of the candle -
hanging from the under surface of the dish. I will show you that potassium has the same
action upon it as upon the water in that basin in the experiment we have just tried. See!
it takes fire, and burns in just the same manner. I will take another drop upon this glass
slab, and when I put the potassium on to it, you see at once, from its taking fire, that
there is water present. Now that water was produced by the candle. In the same manner, if
I put this spirit lamp under that jar, you will soon see the latter become damp from the
dew which is deposited upon it - that dew being the result of combustion; and I have no
doubt you will shortly see, by the drops of water which fall upon the paper below, that
there is a good deal of water produced from the combustion of the lamp. I will let it
remain, and you can afterward see how much water has been collected. So, if I take a gas
lamp, and put any cooling arrangement over it, I shall get water - water being likewise
produced from the combustion of gas. Here, in this bottle, is a quantity of water -
perfectly pure, distilled water, produced from the combustion of a gas lamp - in no point
different from the water that you distill from the river, or ocean, or spring, but exactly
the same thing. Water is one individual thing; it never changes. We can add to it by
careful adjustment for a little while, or we can take it apart and get other things from
it; but water, as water, remains always the same, either in a solid, liquid, or fluid
state. Here again [holding another bottle] is some water produced by the combustion of an
oil lamp. A pint of oil, when burnt fairly and properly, produces rather more than a pint
of water. Here, again, is some water, produced by a rather long experiment, from a wax
candle. And so we can go on with almost all combustible substances, and find that if they
burn with a flame, as a candle, they produce water. You may make these experiments
yourselves: the head of a poker is a very good thing to try with, and if it remains cold
long enough over the candle, you may get water condensed in drops on it; or a spoon, or
ladle, or any thing else may be used, provided it be clean, and can carry off the heat,
and so condense the water.
And now - to go into the history of this wonderful production of water from
combustibles, and by combustion - I must first of all tell you that this water may exist
in different conditions; and although you may now be acquainted with all its forms, they
still require us to give a little attention to them for the present; so that we may
perceive how the water, while it goes through its Protean changes, is entirely and
absolutely the same thing, whether it is produced from a candle, by combustion, or from
the rivers or ocean.
First of all, water, when at the coldest, is ice. Now we philosophers - I hope that I
may class you and myself together in this case - speak of water as water, whether it be in
its solid, or liquid, or gaseous state - we speak of it chemically as water. Water is a
thing compounded of two substances, one of which we have derived from the candle, and the
other we shall find elsewhere. Water may occur as ice; and you have had most excellent
opportunities lately of seeing this. Ice changes back into water - for we had on our last
Sabbath a strong instance of this change by the sad catastrophe which occurred in our own
house, as well as in the houses of many of our friends - ice changes back into water when
the temperature is raised; water also changes into steam when it is warmed enough. The
water which we have here before us is in its densest state 11; and, although it
changes in weight, in condition, in form, and in many other qualities, it still is water;
and whether we alter it into ice by cooling, or whether we change it into steam by heat,
it increases in volume in the one case very strangely and powerfully, and in the other
case very largely and wonderfully. For instance, I will now take this tin cylinder, and
pour a little water into it, and, seeing how much water I pour in, you may easily estimate
for yourselves how high it will rise in the vessel: it will cover the bottom about two
inches. I am now about to convert the water into steam for the purpose of showing to you
the different volumes which water occupies in its different states of water and steam.
[Footnote 11: Water is in its densest state at a temperature of 39.1 Fahrenheit.]
Let us now take the case of water changing into ice: we can effect that by cooling it
in a mixture of salt and pounded ice 12 - and I shall do so to show you to the
expansion of water into a thing of larger bulk when it is so changed. These bottles
[holding one] are made strong cast iron, very strong and very thick - I suppose they are
the third of an inch in thickness; they are very carefully filled with water, so as to
exclude all air, and then they are screwed down tight. We shall see that when we freeze
the water in these iron vessels, they will not be able to hold the ice, and the expansion
within them will break them in pieces as these [pointing to some fragments] are broken,
which have been bottles of exactly the same kind. I am about to put these two bottles into
that mixture of ice and salt for the purpose of showing that when water becomes ice it
changes in volume in this extraordinary way.
[Footnote 12: A mixture of salt and pounded ice reduces the temperature from 32
Fahrenheit to zero, the ice at the same time becoming fluid.]
In the mean time, look at the change which has taken place in the water to which we
have applied heat; it is losing its fluid state. You may tell this by two or three
circumstances. I have covered the mouth of this glass flask, in which water is boiling,
with a watch-glass. Do you see what happens? It rattles away like a valve chattering,
because the steam rising from the boiling water sends the valve up and down, and forces
itself out, and so makes it clatter. You can very easily perceive that the flask is quite
full of steam, or else it would not force its way out. You see, also, that the flask
contains a substance very much larger than the water, for it fills the whole of the flask
over and over again, and there it is blowing away into the air; and yet you can not
observe any great diminution in the bulk of the water, which shows you that its change of
bulk is very great when it becomes steam.
I have put our iron bottles containing water into this freezing mixture, that you may
see what happens. No communication will take place, you observe, between the water in the
bottles and the ice in the outer vessel. But there will be a conveyance of heat from the
one to the other, and if we are successful - we are making our experiment in very great
haste - I expect you will by-and-by, so soon as the cold has taken possession of the
bottles and their contents, hear a pop on the occasion of the bursting of the one bottle
or the other, and, when we come to examine the bottles, we shall find their contents
masses of ice, partly inclosed by the covering of iron which is too small for them,
because the ice is larger in bulk than the water. You know very well that ice floats upon
water; if a boy falls through a hole into the water, he tries to get on the ice again to
float him up. Why does the ice float? Think of that, and philosophize. Because the ice is
larger than the quantity of water which can produce it, and therefore the ice weighs the
lighter and the water is the heavier.
To return now to the action of heat on water. See what a stream of vapor is issuing
from this tin vessel! You observe, we must have made it quite full of steam to have it
sent out in that great quantity. And now, as we can convert the water into steam by heat,
we convert it back into liqui! water by the application of cold. And if we take a glass,
or any other cold thing, and hold it over this steam, see how soon it gets damp with
water: it will condense it until the glass is warm - it condenses the water which is now
running down the sides of it. I have here another experiment to show the condensation of
water from a vaporous state back into a liquid state, in the same way as the vapor, one of
the products of the candle, was condensed against the bottom of the dish and obtained in
the form of water; and to show you how truly and thoroughly these changes take place, I
will take this tin flask, which is now full of steam, and close the top. We shall see what
takes place when we cause this water or steam to return back to the fluid state by pouring
some cold water on the outside. [The lecturer poured the cold water over the vessel, when
it immediately collapsed.] You see what has happened. If I had closed the stopper, and
still kept the heat applied to it, it would have burst the vessel; yet, when the steam
returns to the state of water, the vessel collapses, there being a vacuum produced inside
by the condensation of the steam. I show you these experiments for the purpose of pointing
out that in all these occurrences there is nothing that changes the water into any other
thing; it still remains water; and so the vessel is obliged to give way, and is crushed
inward, as in the other case, by the farther application of heat, it would have been blown
outward.
And what do you think the bulk of that water is when it assumes the vaporous condition?
You see that cube [pointing to a cubic foot]. There, by its side, is a cubic inch, exactly
the same shape as the cubic foot, and that bulk of water [the cubic inch] is sufficient to
expand into that bulk [the cubic foot] of steam; and, on the contrary, the application of
cold will contract that large quantity of steam into this small quantity of water. [One of
the iron bottles burst at that moment.] Ah! There is one of our bottles burst, and here,
you see, is a crack down one side an eighth of an inch in width. [The other now exploded,
sending the freezing mixture in all directions.] This other bottle is also broken;
although the iron was nearly half an inch thick, the ice has burst it asunder. These
changes always take place in water; they do not require to be always produced by
artificial means; we only use them here because we want to produce a small winter round
that little bottle instead of a long and severe one. But if you go to Canada, or to the
North, you will find the temperature there out of doors will do the same thing as has been
done here by the freezing mixture.
To return to our quiet philosophy. We shall not in future be deceived, therefore, by
any changes that are produced in water. Water is the same every where, whether produced
from the ocean or from the flame of the candle. Where, then, is this water which we get
from a candle? I must anticipate a little, and tell you. It evidently comes, as to part of
it, from the candle, but is it within the candle beforehand? No, it is not in the candle;
and it is not in the air around about the candle which is necessary for its combustion. It
is neither in one nor the other, but it comes from their conjoint action, a part from the
candle, a part from the air; and this we have now to trace, so that we may understand
thoroughly what is the chemical history of a candle when we have it burning on our table.
How shall we get at this? I myself know plenty of ways, but I want you to get at it from
the association in your own minds of what I have already told you.
I think you can see a little in this way. We had just now the case of a substance which
acted upon the water in the way that Sir Humphry Davy showed us 13, and which I
am now going to recall to your minds by making again an experiment upon that dish. It is a
thing which we have to handle very carefully; for you see, if I allow a little splash of
water to come upon this mass, it sets fire to part of it; and if there were free access of
air, it would quickly set fire to the whole. Now this is a metal - a beautiful and bright
metal - which rapidly changes in the air, and, as you know, rapidly changes in water. I
will put a piece on the water, and you see it burns beautifully, making a floating lamp,
using the water in the place of air. Again, if we take a few iron filings or turnings and
put them in water, we find that they likewise undergo an alteration. They do not change so
much as this potassium does, but they change somewhat in the same way; they become rusty,
and show an action upon the water, though in a different degree of intensity to what this
beautiful metal does; but they act upon the water in the same manner generally as this
potassium. I want you to put these different facts together in your minds. I have another
metal here [zinc], and when we examined it with regard to the solid substance produced by
its combustion, we had an opportunity of seeing that it burned; and I suppose, if I take a
little strip of this zinc and put it over the candle, you will see something half way, as
it were, between the combustion of potassium on the water and the action of iron - you see
there is a sort of combustion. It has burned, leaving a white ash or residuum; and here
also we find that the metal has a certain amount of action upon water.
[Footnote 13: Potassium, the metallic basis of potash, was discovered by Sir Humphry
Davy in 1807, who succeeded in separating it from potash by means of a powerful voltaic
battery. Its great affinity for oxygen causes it to decompose water with evolution of
hydrogen, which takes fire with the heat produced.]
By degrees we have learned how to modify the action of these different substances, and
to make them tell us what we want to know. And now, first of all, I take iron. It is a
common thing in all chemical reactions, where we get any result of this kind, to find that
it is increased by the action of heat; and if we want to examine minutely and carefully
the action of bodies one upon another, we often have to refer to the action of heat. You
are aware, I believe, that iron filings burn beautifully in the air; but I am about to
show you an experiment of this kind, because it will impress upon you what I am going to
say about iron in its action on water. If I take a flame and make it hollow - you know
why, because I want to get air to it and into it, and therefore I make it hollow - and
then take a few iron filings and drop them into the flame, you see how well they burn.
That combustion results from the chemical action which is going on when we ignite those
particles. And so we proceed to consider these different effects, and ascertain what iron
will do when it meets with water. It will tell us the story so beautifully, so gradually
and regularly, that I think it will please you very much.
I have here a furnace with a pipe going through it like an iron gun barrel, and I have
stuffed that barrel full of bright iron turnings, and placed it across the fire to be made
red-hot. We can either send air through the barrel to come in contact with the iron, or we
can send steam from this little boiler at the end of the barrel. Here is a stop-cock which
shuts off the steam from the barrel until we wish to admit it. There is some water in
these glass jars, which I have colored blue, so that you may see what happens. Now you
know very well that any steam I might send through that barrel, if it went through into
the water, would be condensed; for you have seen that steam can not retain its gaseous
form if it be cooled down; you saw it here [pointing to the tin flask] crushing itself
into a small bulk, and causing the flask holding it to collapse; so that if I were to send
steam through that barrel it would be condensed, supposing the barrel were cold; it is,
therefore, heated to perform the experiment I am now about to show you. I am going to send
the steam through the barrel in small quantities, and you shall judge for yourselves, when
you see it issue from the other end, whether it still remains steam. Steam is condensible
into water, and when you lower the temperature of steam you convert it back into fluid
water; but I have lowered the temperature of the gas which I have collected in this jar by
passing it through water after it has traversed the iron barrel, and still it does not
change back into water. I will take another test and apply to this gas. (I hold the jar in
an inverted position, or my substance would escape.) If I now apply a light to the mouth
of the jar, it ignites with a slight noise. That tells you that it is not steam; steam
puts out a fire; it does not burn; but you saw that what I had in that jar burnt. We may
obtain this substance equally from water produced from the candle flame as from any other
source. When it is obtained by the action of the iron upon the aqueous vapor, it leaves
the iron in a state very similar to that in which these filings were after they were
burnt. It makes the iron heavier than it was before. So long as the iron remains in the
tube and is heated, and is cooled again without the access of air or water, it does not
change in its weight; but after having had this current of steam passed over it, it then
comes out heavier than it was before, having taken something out of the steam, and having
allowed something else to pass forth, which we see here. And now, as we have another jar
full, I will show you something most interesting. It is a combustible gas; and I might at
once take this jar and set fire to the contents, and show you that it is combustible; but
I intend to show you more, if I can. It is also a very light substance. Steam will
condense; this body will rise in the air, and not condense. Suppose I take another glass
jar, empty of all but air: if I examine it with a taper I shall find that it contains
nothing but air. I will now take this jar full of the gas that I am speaking of, and deal
with it as though it were a light body; I will hold both upside down, and turn the one up
under the other; and that which did contain the gas procured from the steam, what does it
contain now? You will find it now only contains air. But look! Here is the combustible
substance [taking the other jar] which I have poured out of the one jar into the other. It
still preserves its quality, and condition, and independence, and therefore is the more
worthy of our consideration, as belonging to the products of a candle.
Now this substance which we have just prepared by the action of iron on the steam or
water, we can also get by means of those other things which you have already seen act so
well upon the water. If I take a piece of potassium, and make the necessary arrangements,
it will produce this gas; and if, instead, a piece of zinc, I find, when I come to examine
it very carefully, that the main reason why this zinc can not act upon the water
continuously as the other metal does, is because the result of the action of the water
envelops the zinc in a kind of protecting coat. We have learned in consequence, that if we
put into our vessel only the zinc and water, they, by themselves, do not give rise to much
action, and we get no result. But suppose I proceed to dissolve off this varnish - this
encumbering substance - which I can do by a little acid; the moment I do this I find the
zinc acting upon the water exactly as the iron did, but at the common temperature. The
acid in no way is altered, except in its combination with the oxide of zinc which is
produced. I have now poured the acid into the glass, and the effect is as though I were
applying heat to cause this boiling up. There is something coming off from the zinc very
abundantly, which is not steam. There is a jar full of it; and you will find that I have
exactly the same combustible substance remaining in the vessel, when I hold it upside
down, that I produced during the experiment with the iron barrel. This is what we get from
water, the same substance which is contained in the candle.
Let us now trace distinctly the connection between these two points. This is hydrogen -
a body classed among those things which in chemistry we call elements, because we can get
nothing else out of them. A candle is not an elementary body, because we can get carbon
out of it; we can bet this hydrogen out of it, or at least out of the water which it
supplies. And this gas has been so named hydrogen, because it is that element which, in
association with another generates water. 14 Mr. Anderson having now been able
to get two or three jars of gas, we shall have a few experiments to make, and I want to
show you the best way of making these experiments. I am not afraid to show you, for I wish
you to make experiments, if you will only make them with care and attention, and the
assent of those around you. As we advance in chemistry we are obliged to deal with
substances which are rather injurious if in their wrong places; the acids, and heat, and
conbustible things we use, might do harm if carelessly employed. If you want to make
hydrogen, you can make it easily from bits of zinc, and sulphuric or pipe into the suds
and blow bubbles by means of the hydrogen. You observe how the bubbles fall downward when
I blow them with my warm breath; but notice the difference when I blow them with hydrogen.
[The lecturer here blew bubbles with hydrogen, which rose to the roof of the theatre.] It
shows you how light this gas must be in order to carry with it not merely the ordinary
soap bubble, but the larger portion of a drop hanging to the bottom of it. I can show its
lightness in a better way than this; larger bubbles than these may be so lifted up;
indeed, in former times balloons used to be filled with this gas. Mr. Anderson will fasten
this tube on to our generator, and we shall have a stream of hydrogen here with which we
can charge this balloon made of collodion. I need not even be very careful to get all air
out, for I know the power of this gas to carry it up. [Two collodion balloons were
inflated and sent up, one being held by a string.] Here is another larger one, made of
thin membrane, which we will fill and allow to ascend; you will see they will all remain
floating about until the gas escapes.
[Footnote 14: Yowp, "water," and yevvaw, "I generate."]
What, then, are the comparative weights of these substances? I have a table here which
will show you the proportion which their weights bear to each other. I have taken a pint
and a cubic foot as the measures, and have placed opposite to them the respective figures.
A pint measure of this hydrogen weighs three-quarters of our smallest weight, a grain, and
a cubic foot weighs one-twelfth of an ounce; whereas a pint of water weighs 8,750 grains,
and a cubic foot of water weighs almost 1,000 ounces. You see, therefore, what a vast
difference there is between the weight of a cubic foot of water and a cubic foot of
hydrogen.
Hydrogen gives rise to no substance that can become solid, either during combustion or
afterward as a product of its combustion; but when it burns it produces water only; and if
we take a cold glass and put it over the flame, it becomes damp, and you have water
produced immediately in appreciable quantity; and nothing is produced by its combustion
but the same water which you have seen the flame of the candle produce. It is important to
remember that this hydrogen is the only thing in nature which furnishes water as the sole
product of combustion.
And now we must endeavor to find some additional proof of the general character and
composition of water, and for this purpose I will keep you a little longer, so that at our
next meeting we may be better prepared for the subject. We have the power of arranging the
zinc which you have seen acting upon the water by the assistance of an acid, in such a
manner as to cause all the power to be evolved in the place where we require it. I have
behind me a voltaic pile, and I am just about to show you, at the end of this lecture, its
character and power, that you may see what we shall have to deal with when next we meet. I
hold here the extremities of the wires which transport the power from behind me, and which
I shall cause to act on the water.
We have previously seen what a power of combustion is possessed by the potassium, or
the zinc, or the iron filings; but none of them show such energy as this. [The lecturer
here made contact between the two terminal wires of the battery, when a brilliant flash of
light was produced.] This light is, in fact, produced by a forty-zinc power of burning; it
is a power that I can carry about in my hands through these wires at pleasure, although if
I applied it wrongly to myself, it would destroy me in an instant, for it is a most
intense thing, and the power you see here put forth while you count five [bringing the
poles in contact and exhibiting the electric light] is equivalent to the power of several
thunder-storms, so great is its force 15. And that you may see what intense
energy it has, I will take the ends of the wires which convey the power from the battery,
and with it I dare say I can burn this iron file. Now this is a chemical power, and one
which, when we next meet, I shall apply to water, and show you what results we are able to
produce.
[Footnote 15: Professor Faraday has calculated that there is as much electricity
required to decompose one grain of water as there is in a very powerful flash of
lightning.]
Lecture IV: Hydrogen In The Candle - Burns
Into Water - The Other Part Of Water - Oxygen
I see you are not tired of the candle yet, or I am sure you would not be interested in
the subject in the way you are. When our candle was burning we found it produced water
exactly like the water we have around us; and by farther examination of this water we
found in it that curious body, hydrogen that light substance of which there is some in
this jar. We afterward saw the burning powers of that hydrogen, and that it produced
water. And I think I introduced to your notice an apparatus which I very briefly said was
an arrangement of chemical force, or power, or energy, so adjusted as to convey its power
to us in these wires; and I said I should use that force to pull the water to pieces, to
see what else there was in the water besides hydrogen; because, you remember, when we
passed the water through the iron tube, we by no means got the weight of water back which
we put in in the form of steam, though we had a very large quantity of gas evolved. We
have now to see what is the other substance present. That you may understand the character
and use of this instrument, let us make an experiment or two. Let us put together, first
of all, some substances, knowing what they are, and then see what that instrument does to
them. There is some copper (observe the various changes which it can undergo), and here is
some nitric acid, and you will find that this, being a strong chemical agent, will act
very powerfully when I add it to the copper. It is now sending forth a beautiful red
vapor; but as we do not want that vapor, Mr. Anderson will hold it near the chimney for a
short time, that we may have the use and beauty of the experiment without the annoyance.
The copper which I have put into the flask will dissolve it: it will change the acid and
the water into a blue fluid containing copper and other things, and I purpose then showing
you how this voltaic battery deals with it; and in the mean time we will arrange another
kind of experiment for you to see what power it has. This is a substance which is to us
like water - that is to say, it contains bodies which we do not know of as yet, as water
contains a body which we do not know as yet. Now this solution of a salt 16 I
will put upon paper, and spread about, and apply the power of the battery to it, and
observe what will happen. Three or four important things will happen which we shall take
advantage of. I place this wetted paper upon a sheet of tin foil, which is convenient for
keeping all clean, and also for the advantageous application of the power; and this
solution, you see, is not at all affected by being put upon the paper or tin foil, nor by
any thing else I have brought in contact with it yet, and which, therefore, is free to us
to use as regards that instrument. But first let us see that our instrument is in order.
Here are our wires. Let us see whether it is in the state in which it was last time. We
can soon tell. As yet, when I bring them together, we have no power, because the conveyers
- what we call the electrodes - the passages or ways for the electricity - are stopped;
but now Mr. Anderson by that [referring to a sudden flash at the ends of the wires] has
given me a telegram to say that it is ready. Before I begin our experiment I will get Mr.
Anderson to break contact again at the battery behind me, and we will put a platinum wire
across to connect the poles, and then if I find I can ignite a pretty good length of this
wire we shall be safe in our experiment. Now you will see the power. [The connection was
established, and the intermediate wire became red-hot.] There is the power running
beautifully through the wire, which I have made thin on purpose to show you that we have
those powerful forces; and now, having that power, we will proceed with it to the
examination of water.
[Footnote 16: A solution of acetate of lead submitted to the action of the voltaic
current yields lead at the negative pole, and brown peroxide of lead at the positive pole.
A solution of nitrate of silver, under the same circumstances, yields silver at the
negative pole, and peroxide of silver at the positive pole.]
I have here two pieces of platinum, and if I lay them down upon this piece of paper
[the moistened paper on the tin foil] you will see no action; and if I take them up there
is no change that you can see, but the arrangement remains just as it was before. But,
now, see what happens: if I take these two poles and put either one or the other of them
down separately on the platinum plates, they do nothing for me; both are perfectly without
action; but if I let them both be in contact at the same moment, see what happens [a brown
spot appeared under each pole of the battery]. Look here at the effect that takes place,
and see how I have pulled something apart from the white something brown; and I have no
doubt, if I were to arrange it thus, and were to put one of the poles to the tin foil on
the other side of the paper - why, I get such a beautiful action upon the paper that I am
going to see whether I can not write with it - a telegram, if you please. [The lecturer
here traced the word "juvenile" on the paper with one of the terminal wires.]
See there how beautifully we can get our results!
You see we have here drawn something which we have not known about before out of this
solution. Let us now take that flask from Mr. Anderson's hands, and see what we can draw
out of that. This, you know, is a liquid which we have just made up from copper and nitric
acid while our other experiments were in hand; and though I am making this experiment very
hastily, and may bungle a little, yet I prefer to let you see what I do rather than
prepare it beforehand
Now see what happens. These two platinum plates are the two ends (or I will make them
so immediately) of this apparatus; and I am about to put them in contact with that
solution, just as we did a moment ago on the paper. It does not matter to us whether the
solution be on the paper or whether it be in the jar, so long as we bring the ends of the
apparatus to it. If I put the two platinums in by themselves they come out as clean and as
white as they go in [inserting them into the fluid without connecting them with the
battery]; but when we take the power and lay that on [the platinums were connected with
the battery and again dipped into the solution], this, you see [exhibiting one of the
platinums], is at once turned into copper, as it were; it has become like a plate of
copper; and that [exhibiting the other piece of platinum] has come out quite clean. If I
take this coppered piece and change sides, the copper will leave the right-hand side and
come over to the left side; what was before the coppered plate comes out clean, and the
plate which was clean comes out coated with copper; and thus you see that the same copper
we put into this solution we can also take out of it by means of this instrument.
Putting that solution aside, let us now see what effect this instrument will have upon
water. Here are two little platinum plates which I intend to make the ends of the battery,
and this (C) is a little vessel so shaped as to enable me to take it to pieces, and show
you its construction. In these two cups (A and B) I pour mercury, which touches the ends
of the wires connected with the platinum plates. In the vessel (C) I pour some water
containing a little acid (but which is put in only for the purpose of facilitating the
action; it undergoes no change in the process), and connected with the top of the vessel
is a bent glass tube (D), which may remind you of the pipe which was connected with the
gun barrel in our furnace experiment, and which now passes under the jar (F). I have now
adjusted this apparatus, and we will proceed to affect the water in some way or other. In
the other case I sent the water through a tube which was made red-hot; I am now going to
pass the electricity through the contents of this vessel. Perhaps I may boil the water; if
I do boil the water, I shall get vessel, which is now quite clear and bright, will become
dim. There will be no sound, for the vessel is strong enough to confine the explosion. [A
spark was then passed through the jar, when the explosive mixture was ignited.] Did you
see that brilliant light? If I again screw the vessel on to the jar, and open these
stop-cocks, you will see that the gas will rise a second time. [The stop-cocks were then
opened.] Those gases [referring to the gases first collected in the jar, and which had
just been ignited by the electric spark] have disappeared, as you see; their place is
vacant, and fresh gas has gone in. Water has been formed from them; and if we repeat our
operation [repeating the last experiment], I shall have another vacancy, as you will see
by the water rising. I always have an empty vessel after the explosion, because the vapor
or gas into which that water has been resolved by the battery explodes under the influence
of the spark, and changes into water; and by-and-by you will see in this upper vessel some
drops of water trickling down the sides and collecting at the bottom.
We are here dealing with water entirely, without reference to the atmosphere. The water
of the candle had the atmosphere helping to produce it; but in this way it can be produced
independently of the air. Water, therefore, ought to contain that other substance which
the candle takes from the air, and which, combining with the hydrogen, produces water.
Just now you saw that one end of this battery took hold of the copper, extracting it
from the vessel which contained the blue solution. It was effected by this wire; and
surely we may say, if the battery has such power with a metallic solution which we made
and unmade, may we not find that it is possible to split asunder the component parts of
the water, and put them into this place and that place? Suppose I take the poles - the
metallic ends of this battery - and see what will happen with the water in this apparatus,
where we have separated the two ends far apart. I place one here (at A), and the other
there (at B); and I have little shelves with holes which I can put upon each pole, and so
arrange them that whatever escapes from the two ends of the battery will appear as
separate gases; for you saw that the water did not become vaporous, but gaseous. The wires
are now in perfect and proper connection with the vessel containing the water, and you see
the bubbles rising; let us collect these bubbles and see what they are. Here is a glass
cylinder (O); I fill it with water and put it over one end (A) of the pile, and I will
take another (H), and put it over the other end (B) of the pile. And so now we have a
double apparatus, with both places delivering gas. Both these jars will fill with gas.
There they go, that to the right (H) filling very rapidly; the one to the left (O) filling
not so rapidly; and, though I have allowed some bubbles to escape, yet still the action is
going on pretty regularly; and were it not that one is rather smaller than the other, you
would see that I should have twice as much in this (H) as I have in that (O). Both these
gases are colorless; they stand over the water without condensing; they are alike in all
things - I mean in all apparent things; and we have here an opportunity of examining these
bodies and ascertaining what they are. Their bulk is large, and we can easily apply
experiments to them. I will take this jar (H) first, and will ask you to be prepared to
recognize hydrogen.
Think of all its qualities - the light gas which stood well in inverted vessels,
burning with a pale flame at the mouth of the jar, and see whether this gas does not
satisfy all these conditions. If it be hydrogen it will remain here while I hold this jar
inverted. [A light was then applied, when the hydrogen burnt.] What is there now in the
other jar? You know that the two together made an explosive mixture. But what can this be
which we find as the other constituent in water, and which must therefore be that
substance which made the hydrogen burn? We know that the water we put into the vessel
consisted of the two things together. We find one of these is hydrogen: what must that
other be which was in the water before the experiment, and which we now have by itself? I
am about to put this lighted splinter of wood into the gas. The gas itself will not burn,
but it will make the splinter of wood burn. [The lecturer ignited the end of the wood and
introduced it into the jar of gas.] See how it invigorates the combustion of the wood, and
how it makes it burn far better than the air would make it burn; and now you see by itself
that every other substance which is contained in the water, and which, when the water was
formed by the burning of the candle, must have been taken from the atmosphere. What shall
we call it, A, B, or C? Let us call it O - call it "Oxygen"; it is a very good,
distinct - sounding name. This, then, is the oxygen which was present in the water,
forming so large a part of it.
We shall now begin to understand more clearly our experiments and researches, because
when we have examined these things once or twice we shall soon see why a candle burns in
the air. When we have in this way analyzed the water - that is to say, separated or
electrolyzed its parts out of it, we get two volumes of hydrogen and one of the body that
burns it. And these two are represented to us on the following diagram, with their weights
also stated; and we shall find that the oxygen is a very heavy body by comparison with the
hydrogen. It is the other element in water.
[Table 1]
I had better, perhaps, tell you now how we get this oxygen abundantly, having shown you
how we can separate it from the water. Oxygen, as you will immediately imagine, exists in
the atmosphere; for how should the candle burn to produce water without it? Such a thing
would be absolutely impossible, and chemically impossible, without oxygen. Can we get it
from the air? Well, there are some very complicated and difficult processes by which we
can get it from the air; but we have better processes. There is a substance called the
black oxide of manganese; it is a very black-looking mineral, but very useful, and when
made red-hot it gives out oxygen. Here is an iron bottle which has had some of this
substance put into it, and there is a tube fixed to it, and a fire ready made, and Mr.
Anderson will put that retort into the fire, for it is made of iron, and can stand the
heat. Here is a salt called chlorate of potassa, which is now made in large quantities for
bleaching, and chemical and medical uses, and for pyrotechnic and other purposes. I will
take some and mix it with some of the oxide of manganese (oxide of copper, or oxide of
iron would do as well); and if I put these together in a retort, far less than a red heat
is sufficient to evolve this oxygen from the mixture. I am not preparing to make much,
because we only want sufficient for our experiments; only, as you will see immediately, if
I use too small a charge, the first portion of the gas will be mixed with the air already
in the retort, and I should be obliged to sacrifice the first portion of the gas because
it would be so much diluted with air; the first portion must therefore be thrown away. You
will find in this case that a common spirit lamp is quite sufficient for me to get the
oxygen, and so we shall have two processes going on for its preparation. See how freely
the gas is coming over from that small portion of the mixture. We will examine it and see
what are its properties. Now in this way we are producing, as you will observe, a gas just
like the one we had in the experiment with the battery, transparent, undissolved by water,
and presenting the ordinary visible properties of the atmosphere. (As this first jar
contains the air, together with the first portions of the oxygen set free during the
preparation, we will carry it out of the way, and be prepared to make our experiments in a
regular, dignified manner.) And inasmuch as that power of making wood, wax, or other
things burn, was so marked in the oxygen we obtained by means of the voltaic battery from
water, we may expect to find the same property here. We will try it. You see there is the
combustion of a lighted taper in air, and here is its combustion in this gas [lowering the
taper into the jar]. See how brightly and how beautifully it burns! You can also see more
than this: you will perceive it is a heavy gas, while the hydrogen would go up like a
balloon, or even faster than a balloon, when not encumbered with the weight of the
envelope. You may easily see that although we obtained from water twice as much in volume
of the hydrogen as of oxygen, it does not follow that we have twice as much in weight,
because one is heavy and the other a very light gas. We have means of weighing gases or
air; but, without stopping to explain that, let me just tell you what their respective
weights are. The weight of a pint of hydrogen is three-quarters of a grain; the weight of
the same quantity of oxygen is nearly twelve grains. This is a very great difference. The
weight of a cubic foot of hydrogen is one-twelfth of an ounce; and the weight of a cubic
foot of oxygen is one ounce and a third. And so on we might come to masses of matter which
may be weighed in the balance, and which we can take account of as to hundred-weights and
as to tons, as you will see almost immediately.
Now, as regards this very property of oxygen supporting combustion, which we may
compare to air, I will take a piece of candle to show it you in a rough way - and the
result will be rough. There is our candle burning in the air: how will it burn in oxygen?
I have here a jar of this gas, and I am about to put it over the candle for you to compare
the action of this gas with that of the air. Why, look at it; it looks something like the
light you saw at the poles of the voltaic battery. Think how vigorous that action must be.
And yet, during all that action, nothing more is produced than what is produced by the
burning of the candle in air. We have the same production of water, and the same phenomena
exactly, when we use this gas instead of air, as we have when the candle is burnt in air.
But now we have got a knowledge of this new substance, we can look at it a little more
distinctly, in order to satisfy ourselves that we have got a good general understanding of
this part of the product of a candle. It is wonderful how great the supporting powers of
this substance are as regards combustion. For instance, here is a lamp which, simple
though it be, is the original, I may say, of a great variety of lamps which are
constructed for divers purposes - for lighthouses, microscopic illuminations, and other
uses; and if it was proposed to make it burn very brightly, you would say, "If a
candle burnt better in oxygen, will not a lamp do the same?" Why, it will do so. Mr.
Anderson will give me a tube coming from our oxygen reservoir, and I am about to apply it
to this flame, which I will previously make burn badly on purpose. There comes the oxygen:
what a combustion that makes! But if I shut it off, what becomes of the lamp? [The flow of
oxygen was stopped, and the lamp relapsed to its former dimness.] It is wonderful how, by
means of oxygen, we get combustion accelerated. But it does not affect merely the
combustion of hydrogen, or carbon, or the candle, but it exalts all combustions of the
common kind. We will take one which relates to iron, for instance, as you have already
seen iron burn a little in the atmosphere. Here is a jar of oxygen, and this is a piece or
iron wire; but if it were a bar as thick as my wrist, it would burn the same. I first
attach a little piece of wood to the iron; I then set the wood on fire, and let them both
down together into the jar. The wood is now alight, and there it burns as wood should burn
in oxygen; but it will soon communicate its combustion to the iron. The iron is now
burning brilliantly, and will continue so for a long time. As long as we supply oxygen, so
long we can carry on the combustion of the iron, until the latter is consumed.
We will now put that on one side, and take some other substance; but we must limit our
experiments, for we have not time to spare for all the illustrations you would have a
right to if we had more time. We will take a piece of sulphur: you know how sulphur burns
in the air; well, we put it into the oxygen, and you will see that whatever can burn in
air can burn with a far greater intensity in oxygen, leading you to think that perhaps the
atmosphere itself owes all its power of combustion to this gas. The sulphur is now burning
very quietly in the oxygen; but you can not for a moment mistake the very high and
increased action which takes place when it is so burnt, instead of being burnt merely in
common air.
I am now about to show you the combustion of another substance phosphorus. I can do it
better for you here than you can do it at home. This is a very combustible substance; and
if it be so combustible in air, what might you expect it would be in oxygen? I am about to
show it to you not in its fullest intensity, for if I did so we should almost blow the
apparatus up; I may even now crack the jar, though I do not want to break things
carelessly. You see how it burns in the air. But what a glorious light it gives out when I
introduce it into oxygen! [Introducing the lighted phosphorus into the jar of oxygen.]
There you see the solid particles going off which cause the combustion to be so
brilliantly luminous.
Thus far we have tested this power of oxygen, and the high combustion it produces, by
means of other substances. We must now, for a little while longer, look at it as respects
the hydrogen. You know, when we allowed the oxygen and the hydrogen derived from the water
to mix and burn together, we had a little explosion. You remember also that when I burnt
the oxygen and the hydrogen in a jet together, we got very little light, but great heat; I
am now about to set fire to oxygen and hydrogen mixed in the proportion in which they
occur in water. Here is a vessel containing one volume of oxygen and two volumes of
hydrogen. This mixture is exactly of the same nature as the gas we just now obtained from
the voltaic battery; it would be far too much to burn at once; I have therefore arranged
to blow soap bubbles with it and burn those bubbles, that we may see by a general
experiment or two how this oxygen supports the combustion of the hydrogen. First of all,
we will see whether we can blow a bubble. Well, there goes the gas [causing it to issue
through a tobacco-pipe into some soapsuds]. Here I have a bubble. I am receiving them on
my hand, and you will perhaps think I am acting oddly in this experiment, but it is to
show you that we must not always trust to noise and sounds, but rather to real facts.
[Exploding a bubble on the palm of his hand.] I am afraid to fire a bubble from the end of
the pipe, because the explosion would pass up into the jar and blow it to pieces. This
oxygen then, will unite with the hydrogen, as you see by the phenomena, and hear by the
sound, with the utmost readiness of action, and all its powers to then taken up in its
neutralization of the qualities of the hydrogen.
So now I think you will perceive the whole history of water with reference to oxygen
and the air from what we have before said. Why does a piece of potassium decompose water?
Because it finds oxygen in the water. What is set free when I put it in the water, as I am
about to do again? It sets free hydrogen, and the hydrogen burns; but the potassium itself
combines with oxygen; and this piece of potassium, in taking the water apart - the water,
you may say, derived from the combustion of the candle - takes away the oxygen which the
candle took from the air, and so sets the hydrogen free; and even if I take a piece of
ice, and put a piece of potassium upon it, the beautiful affinities by which the oxygen
and the hydrogen are related are such that the ice will absolutely set fire to the
potassium. I show this to you to-day, in order to enlarge your ideas of these things, and
that you may see how greatly results are modified by circumstances. There is the potassium
on the ice, producing a sort of volcanic action.
It will be my place when next we meet, having pointed out these anomalous actions, to
show you that none of these extra and strange effects are met with by us - that none of
these strange and injurious actions take place when we are burning, not merely a candle,
but gas in our streets, or fuel in our fireplaces, so long as we confine ourselves within
the laws that Nature has made for our guidance.
Lecture V: Oxygen Present In The Air - Nature
Of The Atmosphere - Carbonic Acid
We have now seen that we can produce hydrogen and oxygen from the water that we
obtained from the candle. Hydrogen, you know, comes from the candle, and oxygen, you
believe, comes from the air. But then you have a right to ask me, "How is it that the
air and the oxygen do not equally well burn the candle?" If you remember what
happened when I put a jar of oxygen over a piece of candle, you recollect there was a very
different kind of combustion to that which took place in the air. Now, why is this? It is
a very important question, and one I shall endeavor to make you understand; it relates
most intimately to the nature of the atmosphere, and is most important to us.
We have several tests for oxygen besides the mere burning of bodies; you have seen a
candle burnt in oxygen or in the air; you have seen phosphorus burnt in the air or in
oxygen, and you have seen iron filings burnt in oxygen. But we have other tests besides
these, and I am about to refer to one or two of them for the purpose of carrying your
conviction and your experience farther. Here we have a vessel of oxygen. I will show its
presence to you: If I take a little spark and put it into that oxygen, you know by the
experience you gained the last time we met what will happen - if I put that spark into the
jar, it will tell you whether we have oxygen here or not. Yes! We have proved it by
combustion; and now here is another test for oxygen, which is a very curious and useful
one. I have here two jars full of gas, with a plate between them to prevent their mixing;
I take the plate away, and the gases are creeping one into the other. "What
happens?" say you; "they together produce no such combustion as was seen in the
case of the candle." But see how the presence of oxygen is told by its association
with this other substance. 17 What a beautifully colored gas I have obtained in
this way, showing me the presence of the oxygen! In the same way we can try this
experiment by mixing common air with this test-gas. Here is a jar containing air-such air
as the candle would burn in - and here is a jar or bottle containing the test - gas. I let
them come together over water, and you see the result: the contents of the test-bottle are
flowing into the jar of air, and you see I obtain exactly the same kind of action as
before, and that shows me that there is oxygen in the air - the very same substance that
has been already obtained by us from the water produced by the candle. But then, beyond
that, how is it that the candle does not burn in air as well as in oxygen? We will come to
that point at once. I have here two jars; they are filled to the same height with gas, and
the appearance to the eye is alike in both, and I really do not know at present which of
these jars contains oxygen and which contains air, although I know they have previously
been filled with these gases. But here is our test-gas, and I am going to work with the
two jars, in order to examine whether there is any difference between them in the quality
of reddening this gas. I am now going to turn this test-gas into one of the jars, and
observe what happens. There is reddening, you see; there is, then, oxygen present. We will
now test the other jar; but you see this is not so distinctly red as the first, and,
farther, this curious thing happens; if I take these two gases and shake them well
together with water, we shall absorb the red gas; and then, if I put in more of this
test-gas and shake again, we shall absorb more; and I can go on as long as there be any
oxygen present to produce that effect. If I let in air, it will not matter; but the moment
I introduce water, the red gas disappears; and I may go on in this way, putting in more
and more of the test - gas, until I come to something left behind which will not redden
any longer by the use of that particular body that rendered the air and the oxygen red.
Why is that? You see in a moment it is because there is, besides oxygen, something else
present which is left behind. I will let a little more air into the jar, and if it turns
red you will know that some of that reddening gas is still present, and that,
consequently, it was not for the want of this producing body that that air was left
behind.
[Footnote 17: The gas which is thus employed as a test for the presence of oxygen is
the binoxide of nitrogen, or nitrous oxide. It is a colorless gas, which, when brought in
contact with oxygen, unites with it, forming hyponitric acid, the red gas referred to.]
Now you will begin to understand what I am about to say. You saw that when I burnt
phosphorus in a jar, as the smoke produced by the phosphorus and the oxygen of the air
condensed, it left a good deal of gas unburnt, just as this red gas left something
untouched; there was, in fact, this gas left behind, which the phosphorus can not touch,
which the reddening gas can not touch, and this something is not oxygen, and yet is part
of the atmosphere.
So that is one way of opening out air into the two things of which it is composed -
oxygen, which burns our candles, our phosphorus, or any thing else, and this other
substance - nitrogen - which will not burn them. This other part of the air is by far the
larger proportion, and it is a very curious body when we come to examine it; it is
remarkably curious, and yet you say, perhaps, that it is very uninteresting. It is
uninteresting in some respects because of this, that it shows no brilliant effects of
combustion. If I test it with a taper as I do oxygen and hydrogen, it does not burn like
hydrogen, nor does it make the taper burn like oxygen. Try it in any way I will, it does
neither the one thing nor the other; it will not take fire; it will not let the taper
burn; it puts out the combustion of every thing. There is nothing that will burn in it in
common circumstances. It has no smell; it is not sour; it does not dissolve in water; it
is neither an acid nor an alkali; it is as indifferent to all our organs as it is possible
for a thing to be. And you might say, "It is nothing; it is not worth chemical
attention; what does it do in the air?" Ah! then come our beautiful and fine results
shown us by an observant philosophy. Suppose, in place of having nitrogen, or nitrogen and
oxygen, we had pure oxygen as our atmosphere; what would become of us? You know very well
that a piece of iron lit in a jar of oxygen goes on burning to the end. When you see a
fire in an iron grate, imagine where the grate would go to if the whole of the atmosphere
were oxygen. The grate would burn up more powerfully than the coals; for the iron of the
grate itself is even more combustible than the coals which we burn in it. A fire put into
the middle of a locomotive would be a fire in a magazine of fuel, if the atmosphere were
oxygen. The nitrogen lowers it down and makes it moderate and useful for us, and then,
with all that, it takes away with it the fumes that you have seen produced from the
candle, disperses them throughout the whole of the atmosphere, and carries them away to
places where they are wanted to perform a great and glorious purpose of good to man, for
the sustenance of vegetation, and thus does a most wonderful work, although you say, on
examining it, "Why, it is a perfectly indifferent thing." This nitrogen in its
ordinary state is an inactive element; no action short of the most intense electric force,
and then in the most infinitely small degree, can cause the nitrogen to combine directly
with the other element of the atmosphere, or with other things round about it; it is a
perfectly indifferent, and therefore to say, a safe substance.
But, before I take you to that result, I must tell you about the atmosphere itself. I
have written on this diagram the composition of one hundred parts of atmospheric air:
---Table 2]
It is a true analysis of the atmosphere so far as regards the quantity of oxygen and
the quantity of nitrogen present. By our analysis, we find that 5 pints of the atmosphere
contain only 1 pint of oxygen, and 4 pints, or 4 parts, of nitrogen by bulk. That is our
analysis of the atmosphere. It requires all that quantity of nitrogen to reduce the oxygen
down, so as to be able to supply the candle properly with fuel, so as to supply us with an
atmosphere which our lungs can healthily and safely breathe; for it is just as important
to make the oxygen right for us to breathe, as it is to make the atmosphere right for the
burning of the fire and the candle.
But now for this atmosphere. First of all, let me tell you the weight of these gases. A
pint of nitrogen weighs 10 4-10 grains, or a cubic foot weighs 1 1-6 ounces. That is the
weight of the nitrogen. The oxygen is heavier: a pint of it weighs 11 9-10 grs., and a
cubic foot weighs 1 3-4 oz. A pint of air weighs about 10 7-10 grs., and a cubic foot 1
1-5 oz.
You have asked me several times, and I am very glad you have, "How do you weigh
gases?" I will show you: it is very simple, and easily done. Here is a balance, and
here a copper bottle, made as light as we can consistent with due strength, turned very
nicely in the lathe, and made perfectly air-tight, with a stop-cock, which we can open and
shut, which at present is open, and, therefore, allows the bottle to be full of air. I
have here a nicely adjusted balance in which I think the bottle, in its present condition,
will be balanced by the weight on the other side. And here is a pump by which we can force
the air into this bottle, and with it we will force in a certain number of volumes of air
as measured by the pump. [Twenty measures were pumped in.] We will shut that in and put it
in the balance. See how it sinks; it is much heavier than it was. By what? By the air that
we have forced into it by the pump. There is not a greater bulk of air, but there is the
same bulk of heavier air, because we have forced in air upon it. And that you may have a
fair notion in your mind as to how much this air measures, here is a jar full of water. We
will open that copper vessel into this jar, and let the air return to its former state.
All I have to do now is to screw them tightly together, and to turn the taps, when there,
you see, is the bulk of the twenty pumps of air which I forced into the bottle; and to
make sure that we have been quite correct in what we have been doing, we will take the
bottle again to the balance, and, if it is now counterpoised by the original weight, we
shall be quite sure we have made our experiment correctly. It is balanced; so, you see, we
can find out the weight of the extra volumes of air forced in that way, and by that means
we are able to ascertain that a cubic foot of air weighs 1 1-5 oz. But that small
experiment will by no means convey to your mind the whole literal truth of this matter. It
is wonderful how it accumulates when you come to larger volumes. This bulk of air [a cubic
foot] weighs 1 1-5 oz. What do you think of the contents of that box above there which I
have had made for the purpose? The air which is within that box weigh one pound - a full
pound; and I have calculated the weight of the air in this room: you would hardly imagine
it, but it is above a ton. So rapidly do the weights rise up, and so important is the
presence to the atmosphere, and of the oxygen and the nitrogen in it, and the use it
performs in conveying things to and fro from place to place, and carrying bad vapors to
places where they will do good instead of harm.
Having given you that little illustration with respect to the weight of the air, let me
show you certain consequences of it. You have a right to them, because you would not
understand so much without it. Do you remember this kind of experiment? Have you ever seen
it? Suppose I take a pump somewhat similar to the one I had a little while ago to force
air into the bottle, and suppose I place it in such a manner that by certain arrangements
I can apply my hand to it. My hand moves about in the air so easily that it seems to feel
nothing, and I can hardly get velocity enough by any motion of my own in the atmosphere to
make sure that there is much resistance to it. But when I put my hand here [on the
air-pump receiver, which was afterward exhausted] you see what happens. Why is my hand
fastened to this place, and why am I able to pull this pump about? And see! how is it that
I can hardly get my hand away? Why is this? It is the weight of the air - the weight of
the air that is above. I have another experiment here, which I think will explain to you
more about it. When the air is pumped from underneath the bladder which is stretched over
this glass, you will see the effect in another shape: the top is quite flat at present,
but I will make a very little motion with the pump, and now look at it; see how it has
gone down, see how it is bent in; you will see the bladder go in more and more, until, at
last, I expect it will be driven in and broken by the force of the atmosphere pressing
upon it. [The bladder at last broke with a loud report.] Now that was done entirely by the
weight of the air pressing on it, and you can easily understand how that is. The particles
that are piled up in the atmosphere stand upon each other, as these five cubes do; you can
easily conceive that four of these five cubes are resting upon the bottom one, and if I
take that away the others will all sink down. So it is with the atmosphere; the air that
is above is sustained by the air that is beneath, and when the air is pumped away from
beneath them, the change occurs which you saw when I placed my hand on the air-pump, and
which you saw in the case of the bladder, and which you shall see better here. I have tied
over this jar a piece of sheet India-rubber, and I am now about to take away the air from
the inside of the jar; and if you will watch the India-rubber which acts as a partition
between the air below and the air above - you will see, when I pump, how the pressure
shows itself. See where it is going to: I can actually put my hand into the jar; and yet
this result is only caused by the great and powerful action of the air above. How
beautifully it shows this curious circumstance!
Here is something that you can have a pull at when I have finished to day. It is a
little apparatus of two hollow brass hemispheres, closely fitted together, and having
connected with it a pipe and a cock, through which we can exhaust the air from the inside;
and although the two halves are so easily taken apart, while the air is left within, yet
you will see, when we exhaust it by-and-by, no power of any two of you will be able to
pull them apart. Every square inch of surface that is contained in the area of that vessel
sustains fifteen pounds by weight, or nearly so, when the air is taken out, and you may
try your strength presently in seeing whether you can overcome that pressure of the
atmosphere.
Here is another very pretty thing - the boy's sucker, only refined by the philosopher.
We young ones have a perfect right to take toys and make them into philosophy, inasmuch as
nowadays we are turning philosophy into toys. Here is a sucker, only it is made of
India-rubber. If I clap it upon the table, you see at once it holds. Why does it hold? I
can slip it about, and yet if I try to pull it up, it seems as if it would pull the table
with it. I can easily make it slip about from place to place, but only when I bring it to
the edge of the table can I get it off. It is only kept down by the pressure of the
atmosphere above; we have a couple of them, and if you take these two and press them
together, you will see how firmly they stick. And, indeed, we may use them as they are
proposed to be used, to stick against windows, or against walls, where they will adhere
for an evening, and serve to hang any thing on that you want. I think, however, that you
boys ought to be shown experiments that you can make at home; and so here is a very pretty
experiment in illustration of the pressure of the atmosphere. Here is a tumbler of water.
Suppose I were to ask you to turn that tumbler upside down so that the water should not
fall out, and yet not be kept in by your hand, but merely by using the pressure of the
atmosphere; could you do that? Take a wine-glass, either quite full or half full of water,
and put a flat card on the top; turn it upside down, and then see what becomes of the card
and of the water. The air can not get in because the water, by its capillary attraction
round the edge, keeps it out.
I think this will give you a correct notion of what you may call the materiality of the
air; and when I tell you that that box holds a pound of it, and this room more than a ton,
you will begin to think that air is something very serious. I will make another experiment
to convince you of this positive resistance. There is that beautiful experiment of the
popgun, made so well and so easily, you know, out of a quill, or a tube, or any thing of
that kind, where we take a slice of potato, for instance, or an apple, and take the tube
and cut out a pellet, as I have now done, and push it to one end. I have made that end
tight; and now I take another piece and put it in: it will confine the air that is within
the tube perfectly and completely for our purpose; and I shall now find it absolutely
impossible by any force of mine to drive that little pellet close up to the other. It can
not be done; I may press the air to a certain extent, but if I go on pressing, long before
it comes to the second, the confined air will drive the front one out with a force
something like that of gunpowder; for gunpowder is in part dependent upon the same action
that you see here exemplified.
I saw the other day an experiment which pleased me much, as I thought it would served
our purpose here. (I ought to have held my tongue for four or five minutes before
beginning this experiment, because it depends upon my lungs for success.) By the proper
application of air, I expect to be able to drive this egg out of one cup into the other by
the force of my breath; but if I fail it is in a good cause, and I do not promise success,
because I have been talking more than I ought to do to make the experiment succeed.
[The lecturer here tried the experiment, and succeeded in blowing the egg from one egg
cup to the other.]
You see that the air which I blow goes downward between the egg and the cup, and makes
a blast under the egg, and is thus able to lift a heavy thing; for a full egg is a very
heavy thing for air to lift. If you want to make the experiment, you had better boil the
egg quite hard first, and then you may very safely try to blow it from one cup to the
other, with a little care.
I have now kept you long enough upon this property of the weight of the air, but there
is another thing I should like to mention. You saw the way in which, in this popgun, I was
able to drive the second piece of potato half or two-thirds of an inch before the first
piece started, by virtue of the elasticity of the air, just as I pressed into the copper
bottle the particles of air by means of the pump. Now this depends upon a wonderful
property in the air, namely, its elasticity, and I should like to give you a good
illustration of this. If I take any thing that confines the air properly, as this
membrane, which also is able to contract and expand so as to give us a measure of the
elasticity of the air, and confine in this bladder a certain portion of air; and then, if
we take the atmosphere off from the outside of it, just as in these cases we put the
pressure on - if we take the pressure off, you will see how it will then go on expanding
and expanding, larger and larger, until it will fill the whole of this bell jar, showing
you that wonderful property of the air, its elasticity, its compressibility, and
expansibility, to an exceedingly large extent, and which is very essential for the
purposes and services it performs in the economy of creation.
We will now turn to another very important part of our subject, remembering that we
have examined the candle in its burning, and have found that it gives rise to various
products. We have the products, you know, of soot, of water, and of something else, which
you have not yet examined. We have collected the water, but have allowed the other things
to go into the air. Let us now examine some of these other products.
Here is an experiment which I think will help you in part in this way. We will put our
candle there, and place over it a chimney, thus. I think my candle will go on burning,
because the air passage is open at the bottom and the top. In the first place, you see the
moisture appearing - that you know about. It is water produced from the candle by the
action of the air upon its hydrogen. But, besides that, something is going out at the top:
it is not moisture - it is not water - it is not condensible; and yet, after all, it has
very singular properties. You will find that the air coming out of the top of our chimney
is nearly sufficient to blow the light out I am holding to it; and if I put the light
fairly opposed to the current, it will blow it quite out. You will say, that is as it
should be, and I am supposing that you think it ought to do so, because the nitrogen does
not support combustion, and ought to put the candle out, since the candle will not burn in
nitrogen. But is there nothing else there than nitrogen? I must now anticipate - that is
to say, I must use my own knowledge to supply you with the means that we adopt for the
purpose of ascertaining these things, and examining such gases as these. I will take an
empty bottle - here is one - and if I hold it over this chimney, I shall get the
combustion of the candle below sending its results into the bottle above; and we shall
soon find that this bottle contains, not merely an air that is bad as regards the
combustion of a taper put into it, but having other properties.
Let me take a little quick-lime and pour some common water on to it the commonest water
will do. I will stir it a moment, then pour it upon a piece of filtering paper in a
funnel, and we shall very quickly have a clear water proceeding to the bottle below, as I
have here. I have plenty of this water in another bottle, but nevertheless I should like
to use the lime water that was prepared before you, so that you may see what its uses are.
If I take some of this beautiful clear lime-water, and pour it into this jar which has
collected the air from the candle, you will see a change coming about. Do you see that the
water has become quite milky? Observe, that will not happen with air merely. Here is a
bottle filled with air; and if I put a little lime-water into it, neither the oxygen nor
the nitrogen, nor any thing else that is in that quantity of air, will make any change in
the lime water. It remains perfectly clear, and no shaking of that quantity of lime water
with that quantity of air in its common state will cause any change; but if I take this
bottle with the lime-water and hold it so as to get the general products of the candle in
contact with it, in a very short time we shall have it milky. There is the chalk,
consisting of the lime which we used in making the lime-water, combined with something
that came from the candle - that other product which we are in search of, and which I want
to tell you about today. This is a substance made visible to us by its action, which is
not the action of the lime-water either upon the oxygen or upon the nitrogen, nor upon the
water itself, but it is something new to us from the candle. And then we find this white
powder, produced by the lime-water and the vapor from the candle, appears to us very much
like whitening or chalk, and when examined it does prove to be exactly the same substance
as whitening or chalk. So we are led, or have been led, to observe upon the various
circumstances of this experiment, and to trace this production of chalk to its various
causes, to give us the true knowledge of the nature of this combustion of the candle - to
find that this substance issuing from the candle is exactly the same as that substance
which would issue from a retort if I were to put some chalk into it with a little moisture
and make it red-hot; you would then find that exactly the same substance would issue from
it as from the candle.
But we have a better means of getting this substance, and in greater quantity, so as to
ascertain what its general characters are. We find this substance in very great abundance
in a multitude of cases where you would least expect it. All limestones contain a great
deal of this gas which issues from the candle, and which we call carbonic acid. All
chalks, all shells, all corals, contain a great quantity of this curious air. We find it
fixed in these stones, for which reason Dr. Black called it "fixed air" -
finding it in these fixed things like marble and chalk - he called it fixed air because it
lost its quality of air, and assumed the condition of a solid body. We can easily get this
air from marble. Here is a jar containing a little muriatic acid, and here is a taper
which, if I put it into that jar, will show only the presence of common air. There is, you
see, pure air down to the bottom; the jar is full of it. Here is a substance - marble 18,
a very beautiful and superior marble - and if I put these pieces of marble into the jar, a
great boiling apparently goes on. That, however, is not steam; it is a gas that is rising
up; and if I now search the jar by a candle, I shall have exactly the same effect produced
upon the taper as I had from the air which issued from the end of the chimney over the
burning candle. It is exactly the same action, and caused by the very same substance that
issued from the candle; and in this way we can get carbonic acid in great abundance - we
have already nearly filled the jar. We also find that this gas is not merely contained in
marble. Here is a vessel in which I have put some common whitening-chalk which has been
washed in water and deprived of its coarser particles, and so supplied to the plasterer as
whitening - here is a large jar containing this whitening and water; and I have here some
strong sulphuric acid, which is the acid you might have to use if you were to make these
experiments (only, in using this acid with limestone, the body that is produced is an
insoluble substance, whereas the muriatic acid produces a soluble substance that does not
so much thicken the water). And you will seek out a reason why I take this kind of
apparatus for the purpose of showing this experiment. I do it because you may repeat in a
small way what I am about to do in a large one. You will have here just the same kind of
action; and I am evolving in this large jar carbonic acid exactly the same in its nature
and properties as the gas which we obtained from the combustion of the candle in the
atmosphere. And, no matter how different the two methods by which we prepare this carbonic
acid, you will see, when we get to the end of our subject, that it is all exactly the
same, whether prepared in the one way or in the other.
[Footnote 18: Marble is a compound of carbonic acid and lime. The muriatic acid, being
the stronger of the two, takes the place of the carbonic acid, which escapes as a gas, the
residue forming muriate of lime or chloride of calcium.]
We will now proceed to the next experiment with regard to this gas. What is its nature?
Here is one of the vessels full, and we will try it as we have done so many other gases -
by combustion. You see it is not combustible, nor does it support combustion. Neither, as
we know, does it dissolve much in water, because we collect it over water very easily.
Then you know that it has an effect, and becomes white in contact with lime-water; and
when it does become white in that way, it becomes one of the constituents to make
carbonate of lime or limestone.
The next thing I must show you is that it really does dissolve a little in water, and
therefore that it is unlike oxygen and hydrogen in that respect. I have here an apparatus
by which we can produce this solution. In the lower part of this apparatus is marble and
acid, and in the upper part cold water. The valves are so arranged that the gas can get
from one to the other. I will set it in action now, and you can see the gas bubbling up
through the water, as it has been doing all night long, and by this time we shall find
that we have this substance dissolved in the water. If I take a glass and draw off some of
the water, I find that it tastes a little acid to the mouth; it is impregnated with
carbonic acid; and if I now apply a little lime-water to it, that will give us a test of
its presence. This water will make the lime water turbid and white, which is proof of the
presence of carbonic acid.
Then it is a very weighty gas; it is heavier than the atmosphere. I have put their
respective weights at the lower part of this table, along with, for comparison, the
weights of the other gases we have been examining:
---Table 3]
A pint of it weighs 16-1/3 grains, and a cubic foot weighs 1-9/10 ounce, almost two
ounces. You can see by many experiments that this is a heavy gas. Suppose I take a glass
containing nothing else but air, and from this vessel containing the carbonic acid I
attempt to pour a little of this gas into that glass - I wonder whether any has gone in or
not. I can not tell by the appearance, but I can in this way [introducing the taper]. Yes,
there it is, you see; and if I were to examine it by lime-water, I should find it by that
test also. I will take this little bucket, and put it down into the well of carbonic acid
- indeed, we too often have real wells of carbonic acid - and now, if there is any
carbonic acid, I must have got to it by this time, and it will be in this bucket, which we
will examine with a taper. There it is, you see; it is full of carbonic acid.
There is another experiment by which I will show you its weight. I have here a jar
suspended at one end of a balance - it is now equipoised; but when I pour this carbonic
acid into the jar on the one side which now contains air, you will see it sink down at
once because of the carbonic acid that I pour into it. And now, if I examine this jar with
the lighted taper, I shall find that the carbonic acid has fallen into it, and it no
longer has any power of supporting the combustion. If I blow a soap bubble, which of
course will be filled with air, and let it fall into this jar of carbonic acid, it will
float. But I shall first of all take one of these little balloons filled with air. I am
not quite sure where the carbonic acid is; we will just try the depth, and see whereabouts
is its level. There, you see, we have this bladder floating on the carbonic acid; and if I
evolve some more of the carbonic acid, the bladder will be lifted up higher. There it
goes; the jar is nearly full, and now I will see whether I can blow a soap bubble on that
and float it in the same way. [The lecturer here blew a soap bubble and allowed it to fall
into the jar of carbonic acid, when it floated in it midway.] It is floating, as the
balloon floated, by virtue of the greater weight of the carbonic acid than of the air. And
now, having so far given you the history of the carbonic acid, as to its sources in the
candle, as to its physical properties and weight, when we next meet I shall show you of
what it is composed, and where it gets its elements from.
Lecture VI: Carbon Or Charcoal - Coal Gas -
Respiration And Its Analogy To A Candle
A Lady who honors me by her presence at these lectures has conferred a still farther
obligation by sending me these two candles, which are from japan, and, I presume, are made
of that substance to which I referred in a former lecture. You see that they are even far
more highly ornamented than the French candles, and, I suppose, are candles of luxury,
judging from their appearance. They have a remarkable peculiarity about them, - namely, a
hollow wick, - that beautiful peculiarity which Argand introduced into the lamp and made
so valuable. To those who receive such presents from the East, I may just say that this
and such like materials gradually undergo a change which gives them on the surface a dull
and dead appearance; but they may easily be restored to their original beauty if the
surface be rubbed with a clean cloth or silk handkerchief, so as to polish the little
rugosity or roughness: this will restore the beauty of the colors. I have so rubbed one of
these candles, and you see the difference between it and the other which has not been
polished, but which may be restored by the same process. Observe, also, that these moulded
candles from Japan are made more conical than the moulded candles in this part of the
world.
I told you, when we last met, a good deal about carbonic acid. We found by the
lime-water test that when the vapor from the top of the candle or lamp was received into
bottles and tested by this solution of lime-water (the composition of which I explained to
you, and which you can make for yourselves), we had that white opacity which was in fact
calcareous matter, like shells and corals, and many of the rocks and minerals in the
earth. But I have not yet told you fully and clearly the chemical history of this
substance, carbonic acid, as we have it from the candle, and I must now resume that
subject. We have seen the products, and the nature of them, as they issue from the candle.
We have traced the water to its elements, and now we have to see where are the elements of
the carbonic acid supplied by the candle. A few experiments will show this. You remember
that when a candle burns badly it produces smoke; but if it is burning well there is no
smoke. And you know that the brightness of the candle is due to this smoke, which becomes
ignited. Here is an experiment to prove this: so long as the smoke remains in the flame of
the candle and becomes ignited, it gives a beautiful light, and never appears to us in the
form of black particles. I will light some fuel which is extravagant in its burning. This
will serve our purpose - a little turpentine on a sponge. You see the smoke rising from
it, and floating into the air in large quantities; and remember now, the carbonic acid
that we have from the candle is from such smoke as that. To make that evident to you, I
will introduce this turpentine burning on the sponge into a flask where I have plenty of
oxygen, the rich part of the atmosphere, and you now see that the smoke is all consumed.
This is the first part of our experiment; and now, what follows? The carbon which you saw
flying off from the turpentine flame in the air is now entirely burned in this oxygen, and
we shall find that it will, by this rough and temporary experiment, give us exactly the
same conclusion and result as we had from the combustion of the candle. The reason why I
make the experiment in this manner is solely that I may cause the steps of our
demonstration to be so simple that you can never for a moment lose the train of reasoning,
if you only pay attention. All the carbon which is burned in oxygen, or air, comes out as
carbonic acid, while those particles which are not so burned show you the second substance
in the carbonic acid, - namely, the carbon - that body which made the flame so bright
while there was plenty of air, but which was thrown off in excess when there was not
oxygen enough to burn it.
I have also to show you a little more distinctly the history of carbon and oxygen in
their union to make carbonic acid. You are now better able to understand this than before,
and I have prepared three or four experiments by way of illustration. This jar is filled
with oxygen, and here is some carbon which has been placed in a crucible for the purpose
of being made red-hot. I keep my jar dry, and venture to give you a result imperfect in
some degree, in order that I may make the experiment brighter. I am about to put the
oxygen and the carbon together. That this is carbon (common charcoal pulverized) you will
see by the way in which it burns in the air [letting some of the red hot charcoal fall out
of the crucible]. I am now about to burn it in oxygen gas, and look at the difference. It
may appear to you at a distance as if it were burning with a flame; but it is not so.
Every little piece of charcoal is burning as a spark, and while it so burns it is
producing carbonic acid. I specially want these two or three experiments to point out what
I shall dwell upon more distinctly by-and-by - that carbon burns in this way, and not as a
flame.
Instead of taking many particles of carbon to burn, I will take a rather large piece,
which will enable you to see the form and size, and to trace the effects very decidedly.
Here is the jar of oxygen, and here is the piece of charcoal, to which I have fastened a
little piece of wood, which I can set fire to, and so commence the combustion, which I
could not conveniently do without. You now see the charcoal burning, but not as a flame
(or if there be a flame it is the smallest possible one, which I know the cause of,
namely, the formation of a little carbonic oxide close upon the surface of the carbon). It
goes on burning, you see, slowly producing carbonic acid by the union of this carbon or
charcoal (they are equivalent terms) with the oxygen. I have here another piece of
charcoal, a piece of bark, which has the quality of being blown to pieces - exploding - as
it burns. By the effect of the heat we shall reduce the lump of carbon into particles that
will fly off; still every particle, equally with the whole mass, burns in this peculiar
way - it burns as a coal and not like a flame. You observe a multitude of little
combustions going on, but no flame. I do not know a finer experiment than this to show
that carbon burns with a park.
Here, then, is carbonic acid formed from its elements. It is produced at once; and if
we examined it by lime-water you will see that we have the same substance which I have
previously described to you. By putting together 6 parts of carbon by weight (whether it
comes from the flame of a candle or from powdered charcoal) and 16 parts of oxygen by
weight, we have 22 parts of carbonic acid; and, as we saw last time, the 22 parts of
carbonic acid combined with 28 parts of lime, product common carbonate of lime. If you
were to examine an oyster-shell and weigh the component parts, you would find that every
50 parts would give 6 of carbon and 16 of oxygen combined with 28 of lime. However, I do
not want to trouble you with these minutiae; it is only the general philosophy of the
matter that we can now go into. See how finely the carbon is dissolving away [pointing to
the lump of charcoal burning quietly in the jar of oxygen]. You may say that the charcoal
is actually dissolving in the air round about; and if that were perfectly pure charcoal,
which we can easily prepare, there would be no residue whatever. When we have a perfectly
cleansed and purified piece of carbon, there is no ash left. The carbon burns as a solid
dense body, that heat alone can not change as to its solidity, and yet it passes away into
vapor that never condenses into solid or liquid under ordinary circumstances; and what is
more curious still is the fact that the oxygen does not change in its bulk by the solution
of the carbon in it. Just as the bulk is at first, so it is at last, only it has become
carbonic acid.
There is another experiment which I must give you before you are fully acquainted with
the general nature of carbonic acid. Being a compound body, consisting of carbon and
oxygen, carbonic acid is a body that we ought to be able to take asunder. And so we can.
As we did with water, so we can with carbonic acid - take the two parts asunder. The
simplest and quickest way is to act upon the carbonic acid by a substance that can attract
the oxygen from it, and leave the carbon behind. You recollect that I took potassium and
put it upon water or ice, and you saw that it could take the oxygen from the hydrogen.
Now, suppose we do something of the same kind here with this carbonic acid. You know
carbonic acid to be a heavy gas. I will not test it with lime-water, as that will
interfere with our subsequent experiments, but I think the heaviness of the gas and the
power of extinguishing flame will be sufficient for our purpose. I introduce a flame into
the gas, and you will see whether it will be put out. You see the light is extinguished.
Indeed, the gas may, perhaps, put out phosphorus, which you know has a pretty strong
combustion. Here is a piece of phosphorus heated to a high degree. I introduce it into
gas, and you observe the light is put out, but it will take fire again in the air, because
there it re-enters into combustion. Now let me take a piece of potassium, a substance
which even at common temperatures can act upon carbonic acid, though not sufficiently for
our present purpose, because it soon gets covered with a protecting coat; but if we warm
it up to the burning point in air, as we have a fair right to do, and as we have done with
phosphorus, you will see that it can burn in carbonic acid; and if it burns, it will burn
by taking oxygen, so that you will see what is left behind. I am going, then, to burn this
potassium in the carbonic acid, as a proof of the existence of oxygen in the carbonic
acid. [In the preliminary process of heating the potassium exploded.] Sometimes we get an
awkward piece of potassium that explodes, or something like it, when it burns. I will take
another piece, and now that it is heated I introduce it into the jar, and you perceive
that it burns in the carbonic acid - not so well as in the air, because the carbonic acid
contains the oxygen combined; but it does burn, and takes away the oxygen. If I now put
this potassium into water, I find that besides the potash formed (which you need not
trouble about) there is a quantity of carbon produced. I have here made the experiment in
a very rough way, but I assure you that if I were to make it carefully, devoting a day to
it instead of five minutes, we should get all the proper amount of charcoal left in the
spoon, or in the place where the potassium was burned, so that there could be no doubt as
to the result. Here, then, is the carbon obtained from the carbonic acid, as a common
black substance; so that you have the entire proof of the nature of carbonic acid as
consisting of carbon and oxygen. And now I may tell you, that whenever carbon burns under
common circumstances it produces carbonic acid.
Suppose I take this piece of wood, and put it into a bottle with lime water. I might
shake that lime-water up with wood and the atmosphere as long as I pleased, it would still
remain clear as you see it; but suppose I burn the piece of wood in the air of that
bottle. You, of course, know I get water. Do I get carbonic acid? [The experiment was
performed.] There it is, you see that is to say, the carbonate of lime, which results from
carbonic acid, and that carbonic acid must be formed from the carbon which comes from the
wood, from the candle, or any other thing. Indeed, you have yourselves frequently tried a
very pretty experiment, by which you may see the carbon in wood. If you take a piece of
wood, and partly burn it, and then blow it out, you have carbon left. There are things
that do not show carbon in this way. A candle does not so show it, but it contains carbon.
Here also is a jar of coal gas, which produces carbonic acid abundantly; you do not see
the carbon, but we can soon show it to you. I will light it, and as long as there is any
gas in the cylinder it will go on burning. You see no carbon, but you see a flame, and
because that is bright it will lead you to guess that there is carbon in the flame. But I
will show it to you by another process. I have some so the same gas in another vessel,
mixed with a body that will burn the hydrogen of the gas, but will not burn the carbon. I
will light them with a burning taper, and you perceive the hydrogen is consumed, but not
the carbon, which is left behind as a dense black smoke. I hope that by these three or
four experiments you will learn to see when carbon is present, and understand what are the
products of combustion when gas or other bodies are thoroughly burned in the air.
Before we leave the subject of carbon, let us make a few experiments and remarks upon
its wonderful condition as respects ordinary combustion. I have shown you that the carbon,
in burning burns only as a solid body, and yet you perceive that, after it is burned, it
ceases to be a solid. There are very few fuels that act like this. It is, in fact, only
that great source of fuel, the carbonaceous series, the coals, charcoals, and woods, that
can do it. I do not know that there is any other elementary substance besides carbon that
burns with these conditions; and if it had not been so, what would happen to us? Suppose
all fuel had been like iron, which, when it burns, burns into a solid substance. We could
not then have such a combustion as you have in this fireplace. Here also is another kind
of fuel which burns very-well as, if not better, than carbon - so well, indeed, as to take
fire of itself when it is in the air, as you see [breaking a tube full of lead
pyrophorus]. This substance is lead, and you see how wonderfully combustible it is. It is
very much divided, and is like a heap of coals in the fireplace; the air can get to its
surface and inside, and so it burns. But why does it burn in that way now, when it is
lying in a mass? [emptying the contents of the tube in a heap on to a plate of iron.]
Simply because the air can not get to it. Though it can produce a great heat, the great
heat which we want in our furnaces and under our boilers, still that which is produced can
not get away from the portion which remains unburned underneath, and that portion,
therefore, is prevented from coming in contact with the atmosphere, and can not be
consumed. How different is that from carbon! Carbon burns just in the same way as this
lead does, and so gives an intense fire in the furnace, or wherever you choose to burn it;
but then the body produced by its combustion passes away, and the remaining carbon is left
clear. I showed you how carbon went on dissolving in the oxygen, leaving no ash, whereas
here [pointing to the heap of pyrophorus] we have actually more ash than fuel, for it is
heavier by the amount of the oxygen which has united with it. Thus you see the difference
between carbon and lead or iron - if we choose iron, which gives so wonderful a result in
our applications of this fuel, either as light or heat. If, when the carbon burnt, the
product went off as a solid body, you would have had the room filled with an opaque
substance, as in the case of the phosphorus; but when carbon burns, every thing passes up
into the atmosphere. It is in a fixed, almost unchangeable condition before the
combustion; but afterward it is in the form of gas, which it is very difficult (though we
have succeeded) to produce in a solid or liquid state.
Now I must take you to a very interesting part of our subject - to the relation between
the combustion of a candle and that living kind of combustion which goes on within us. In
every one of us there is a living process of combustion going on very similar to that of a
candle, and I must try to make that plain to you. For it is not merely true in a poetical
sense - the relation of the life of man to a taper; and if you will follow, I think I can
make this clear. In order to make the relation very plain, I have devised a little
apparatus which we can soon build up before you. Here is a board, and a groove cut in it,
and I can close the groove at the top part by a little cover; I can then continue the
groove as a channel by a glass tube at each end, there being a free passage through the
whole. Suppose I take a taper or candle (we can now be liberal in our use of the word
"candle," since we understand what it means), and place it in one of the tubes;
it will go on, you see, burning very well. You observe that the air which feeds the flame
passes down the tube at one end, then goes along the horizontal tube, and ascends the tube
at the other end in which the taper is placed. If I stop the aperture through which the
air enters, I stop combustion, as you perceive. I stop the supply of air, and consequently
the candle goes out. But now what will you think of this fact? In a former experiment I
showed you the air going from one burning candle to a second candle. If I took the air
proceeding from another candle, and sent it down by a complicated arrangement into this
tube, I should put this burning candle out. But what will you say when I tell you that my
breath will put out the candle? I do not mean by blowing at all, but simply that the
nature of my breath is such that a candle can not burn in it. I will now hold my mouth
over the aperture, and without blowing the flame in any way, let no air enter the tube but
what comes from my mouth. You see the result. I did not blow the candle out. I merely let
the air which I expired pass into the aperture, and the result was that the light went out
for want of oxygen, and for no other reason. Something or other - namely, my lungs - had
taken away the oxygen from the air and there was no more to supply combustion of the
candle. It is, I think, very pretty to see the time it takes before the bad air which I
throw into this part of the apparatus has reached the candle. The candle at first goes on
burning, but so soon as the air has had time to reach it, it goes out. And now I will show
you another experiment, because this is an important part of our philosophy. Here is a jar
which contains fresh air, as you can seen by the circumstance of a candle or gas light
burning it. I make it close for a little time, and by means of a pipe I get my mouth over
it so that I can inhale the air. By putting it over water, in the way that you see, I am
able to draw up this air (supposing the cork to be quite tight), take it into my lungs,
and throw it back into the jar: we can then examine it, and see the result. You observe, I
first take up the air, and then throw it back, as is evident from the ascent and descent
of the water; and now, by putting a taper into the air, you will see the state in which it
is, by the light being extinguished. Even one inspiration, you see, has completely spoiled
this air, so that it is no use my trying to breathe it a second time. Now you understand
the ground of the impropriety of many of the arrangements among the houses of the poorer
classes, by which the air is breathed over and over again for the want of a supply, by
means of proper ventilation, sufficient to produce a good result. You see how bad the air
becomes by a single breathing, so that you can easily understand how essential fresh air
is to us.
To pursue this a little farther, let us see what will happen with lime water. Here is a
globe which contains a little lime-water, and it is so arranged as regards the pipes, as
to give access to the air within, so that we can ascertain the effect of respired or
unrespired air upon it. Of course I can either draw in air (through A), and so make the
air that feeds my lungs go through the lime-water, or I can force the air out of my lungs
through the tube (B), which goes to the bottom, and so show its effect upon the lime
water. You will observe that however long I draw the external air into the lime-water and
then through it to my lungs, I shall produce no effect upon the water - it will not make
the lime-water turbid; but if I throw the air from my lungs through the lime-water several
times is succession, you see how white the milky the water is getting showing the effect
which expired air has had upon it; and now you begin to know that the atmosphere which we
have spoiled by respiration is spoiled by carbonic acid, for you see it here in contact
with the lime-water.
I have here two bottles, one containing lime-water and the other common water, and
tubes which pass into the bottles and connect them. The apparatus is very rough, but it is
useful notwithstanding. If I take these two bottles, inhaling here and exhaling there, the
arrangement of the tubes will prevent the air going backward. The air coming in will go to
my mouth and lungs, and in going out will pass through the lime-water, so that I can go on
breathing, and making an experiment very refined in its nature and very good in its
results. You will observe that the good air has done nothing to the lime-water; in the
other case, nothing has come to the lime-water but my respiration, and you see the
difference in the two cases.
Let us now go a little farther. What is all this process going on within us which we
can not do without, either day or night, which is provided for by the Author of all things
that He has arranged that it shall be independent of all will? If we restrain our
respiration, as we can to a certain extent, we should destroy ourselves. When we are
asleep the organs of respiration and the parts that are associated with them still go on
with their action, so necessary is this process of respiration to us, this contact of the
air with the lungs. I must tell you, in the briefest possible manner, what this process
is. We consume food; the food goes through that strange set of vessels and organs within
us, and is brought into various parts of the system, into the digestive parts especially;
and alternately the portion which is so changed is carried through our lungs by one set of
vessels, while the air that we inhale and exhale is drawn into and thrown out of the lungs
by another set of vessels, so that the air and the food come close together, separated
only by an exceedingly thin surface; the air can thus act upon the blood by this process,
producing precisely the same results in kind as we have seen in the case of the candle.
The candle combines with parts of the air, forming carbonic acid, and evolves heat; so in
the lungs there is this curious, wonderful change taking place. The air entering, combines
with the carbon (not carbon in a free state, but, as in this case, placed ready for action
at the moment), and makes carbonic acid and is so thrown out into the atmosphere, and thus
this singular result takes place; we may thus look upon the food as fuel. Let me take that
piece of sugar, which will serve my purpose. It is a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen, similar to a candle, as containing the same elements, though not in the same
proportion, the proportions being as shown in this table:
---Table 4]
This is, indeed, a very curious thing, which you can well remember, for the oxygen and
hydrogen are in exactly the proportions which form water, so that sugar may be said to be
compounded of 72 parts of carbon and 99 parts of water; and it is the carbon in the sugar
that combines with the oxygen carried in by the air in the process of respiration - so
making us like candles - producing these actions, warmth, and far more wonderful results
besides, for the sustenance of the system, by a most beautiful and simple process. To make
this still more striking, I will take a little sugar; or, to hasten the experiment, I will
use some sirup, which contains about three-fourths of sugar and a little water. If I put a
little oil of vitriol on it, it takes away the water, and leaves the carbon in a black
mass. [The lecturer mixed the two together.] You see how the carbon is coming out, and
before long we shall have a solid mass of charcoal, all of which has come out of sugar.
Sugar, as you know, is food, and here we have absolutely a solid lump of carbon where you
would not have expected it. And if I make arrangements so as to oxidize the carbon of
sugar we shall have a much more striking result. Here is sugar, and I have here an
oxidizer - a quicker one than the atmosphere; and so we shall oxidize this fuel by a
process different from respiration in its form, though not different in its kind. It is
the combustion of the carbon by the contact of oxygen which the body has supplied to it.
If I set this into action at once, you will see combustion produced. Just what occurs in
my lungs - taking in oxygen from another source, namely, the atmosphere - takes place here
by a more rapid process.
You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious play of carbon amounts to. A
candle will burn some four, five, six, or seven hours. What, then, must be the daily
amount of carbon going up into the air in the way of carbonic acid! What a quantity of
carbon must go from each of us in respiration! What a wonderful change of carbon must take
place under these circumstances of combustion or respiration! A man in twenty-four hours
converts as much as seven ounces of carbon into carbonic acid; a milch cow will convert
seventy ounces, and a horse seventy-nine ounces, solely by the act of respiration. That
is, the horse in twenty-four hours burns seventy nine ounces of charcoal, or carbon, in
his organs of respiration to supply his natural warmth in that time. All the warm-blooded
animals get their warmth in this way, by the conversion of carbon, not in a free state,
but in a state of combination. And what an extraordinary notion this gives us of the
alterations going on in our atmosphere. As much as 5,000,000 pounds, or 548 tons, of
carbonic acid is formed by respiration in London alone in twenty four hours. And where
does all this go? Up into the air. If the carbon had been like the lead which I showed
you, or the iron which, in burning, produces a solid substance, what would happen?
Combustion could not go on. As charcoal burns it becomes a vapor and passes off into the
atmosphere, which is the great vehicle, the great carrier for conveying it away to other
places. Then what becomes of it? Wonderful is it to find that the change produced by
respiration, which seems so injurious to us (for we can not breathe air twice over), is
the very life and support of plants and vegetables that grow upon the surface of the
earth. It is the same also under the surface, in the great bodies of water; for fishes and
other animals respire upon the same principle, though not exactly by contact with the open
air.
Such fish as I have here [pointing to a globe of goldfish] respire by the oxygen which
is dissolved from the air by the water, and form carbonic acid, and they all move about to
produce the one great work of making the animal and vegetable kingdoms subservient to each
other. And all the plants growing upon the surface of the earth, like that which I have
brought here to serve as an illustration, absorb carbon; these leaves are taking up their
carbon from the atmosphere to which we have given it in the form of carbonic acid, and
they are growing and prospering. Give them a pure air like ours, and they could not live
in it; give them carbon with other matters, and they live and rejoice. This piece of wood
gets all its carbon, as the trees and plants get theirs, from the atmosphere, which, as we
have seen, carries away what is bad for us and at the same time good for them - what is
disease to the one being health to the other. So are we made dependent not merely upon our
fellow-creatures, but upon our fellow-existers, all Nature being tied together by the laws
that make one part conduce to the good of another.
There is another little point which I must mention before we draw to a close - a point
which concerns the whole of beauty of the taper by making your deeds honorable and
effectual in the discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.
[Footnote 19: Lead pyrophorus is made by heating dry tartrate of lead in a glass tube
(closed at one end, and drawn out to a fine point at the other) until no more vapors are
evolved. The open end of the tube is then to be sealed before the blowpipe. When the tube
is broken and the contents shaken out into the air, they burn with a red flash.]
Source:
Scientific papers: physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, with introductions,
notes and illustrations. New York, P. F. Collier & son [c1910], Harvard classics
; no.XXX.
