The liquefaction of gases : papers / by Michael Faraday.

Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The liquefaction of gases : papers / by Michael Faraday. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    11/90
    I. ON FLUID CHLORINE* Read March 13, 1823. IT is well known that before the year jSio, the solid substance obtained by exposing chlorine, as usually procured, to a low temperature, was considered as the gas itself reduced into that form ; and that Sir Humphry Davy first showed it to be a hydrate, the pure dry gas not being condensible even at a temperature of - 40° F.f I took advantage of the late cold weather to procure crystals of this substance for the purpose of analysis. The results are contained in a short paper in tlie Quarterly Journal of Science, Vol. XV. Its composition is very nearly 27.7 chlorine, 72.3 water, or i proportional of chlorine, and 10 of water. The President of the Royal Society having honoured me by looking at these conclusions, suggested, that an exposure of the substance to heat under pressure, would probably lead to interesting results; the following experi- ments were commenced at his request. Some hydrate of chlorine was prepared, and being dried as well as could be by pressure in bibulous paper, was introduced into a sealed glass tube, the upper end of which was then hermetically closed. Being placed in water at 60°, it underwent no change; but when put into water at 100°, the substance fused, the tube became filled with a bright yellow atmosphere, and, on examination, was found to contain two fluid substances : the one, about three-fourths of the whole, was of a faint yellow colour, having very * [From Philosophical Transactions for 1823, Vol. 113, pp, 160-165.] t [See Alembic Club Reprints, No. 9, p. 58.]