A dissertation on quick-lime and lime-water ... / [Charles Alston].

  • Alston, Charles, 1683-1760
Date:
1752
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on quick-lime and lime-water ... / [Charles Alston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ced to forty-three Grains; which expofed to the Air for two Days, weighed forty four Grains. So that in forty-eight Grains of thofe Crufts, there were only, at moft, five Grains of Water; that is, near one half lefs than Lime retains. Hence either they contained no Air, or Fire could not drive it out. As for Water, 15. It is very certain, that there are few Fluids, with which Lime-water can be mixed, from which it does not precipitate fomething. It precipitates a Solution of Alum, of Borax, of common Salt, of Vitriol, of every volatile or fixed Alcali; every vegetable Infufion ; U- rine, Bile, and other animal Fluids; Wines, hard Waters, our Fountain-water, yea and aromatic diftil- led Waters, and tindlured Proof-fpirits too. I obferved no Precipitation, on mixing it with acid Spirits, nor with a Solution of Nitre. That terreftrial Subftances are in Winter, in fome more, in others lefs, is evident, not only by the many lapidefcent Springs, but alfo by the fto- ny Crufts, with which the inner Surface of VelTels, wherein Water is commonly boiled, for Inftance Tea¬ kettles, is foon covered. If from this earthy Subftance a confiderable Part of the calcarious Crufts formed on the Surface of Lime-water is derived, as probably it is. Lime would appear to be a notable Purifier of Water’ as it is of many other Subftances, and to diminifti its fpecific Weight: But by any Experiment I could make ^ther with a Glafs Ball, or by weighing in a thin Glafs Flalk, the Lime-water, after it had freed itfelf of all the Lime, was neither fpecifically heavier nor light¬ er than the V/ater of which it was made; though a Plalk containing thirty-two Ounces and a hundred and five Grains of common Water, contained thirty-two. Ounces and a hundred and twenty-five Grains of Lime- water. N or could I obferve any Difference betwixt the firft and the tenth or twentieth Infufion. Hence the Lime increafes not the Bulk of the Water in which it is difiblved. I am very fenfible, however, how difficult it is to determine fpecific Gravities accurately (g), (iJ Vid. Phil. Tranf. N0488, 16. Although