Memoir on sulphuric ether / By John Dalton.

  • Dalton, John, 1766-1844.
Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir on sulphuric ether / By John Dalton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    acid was as much as saturated 107 gr. in weight of dry sulphuric acid = 60 gr. of carbonic acid = 17 charcoal + 43 oxygen. But the oxygen spent in the combustion was -/-j- of 250 gr. = 60 gr. nearly, of which we find two-thirds, or rather more, in the carbonic acid produced ; the rest must have combined with the hydrogen. And the ether consumed was rather more thaii one-half of the weight of the oxygen, which may well be sup- posed to arise from a little loss by evaporation. This experiment, tlierefore, corroborates the conclusion above obtained. My first idea of the ether atom, published in the table on the absorption of gases by water in 1803,* was two atoms of carbon and one of hydrogen. This incorrect notion was formed from some of my early experiments combined with the analysis given by others. M. Saussure, in his last essay on ether, has deter- mined its proportions as under; which, being compared with mine, are found to differ from them materially. Saiissure's. Mine. Carbon 67-98 51-9 Oxygen 17-62 33-7 Hydrogen 14-40 14-4 100-00 100-0 In the present essay I have alluded to the weight of an atom of alcohol; but this weight is not that given in my Chemistry, Part I. From recent experiments on the combustion of alcoho- lic vapour in oxygen by electricity, as well as from the combus- tion of alcohol by the platina wire lamp without flame, I believe the alcohol of 0-82 specific gravity is constituted of one atom carburetted hydrogen and one of water, as it seems to give carbonic acid = half the volume of oxygen consumed, or very little more. But there is a remarkable difference in the results when alcohol is burned in a lamp in common air. This combus- tion gives carbonic acid nearly = two-thirds of the volume of oxygen, and would imply alcohol to be one water and one olefiant gas. At present I have not leisure to clear up this difficulty. Article VI. Calculations of Solar Eclipse to take place on S'>pt 7 1820 By Col. Beaufoy, F.R.S. (To Dr. Thomson.) MY DEAR Sm, Bushe,) Heath, Jan. 6, 1S20. The annular eclipse which takes place the 7th of next Sep- tember will naturally engage the attention of Europe; and it » Memoirs, vol. i. (Second Series.)