CHEMICAL ESSAYS. NO. III.

(Sel. Mag. March.)

SIMPLE SUPPORTERS OF COMBUSTION.-OXYGEN-CHLORINE-IODINE.

WE considered, in our last number, the powers of matter-homoge neous attraction, heterogeneous attraction, caloric, and electricity. We will now proceed to examine some of the bodies influenced by these principles. We must first give a systematic list of some of these substances. The first class we shall notice, is that which comprises all the simple supporters of combustion. They are remarkable for the great combinations they form with the simple inflammable bodies, and they are all capable of producing acids. They are considered as endued with the negative electricity, and are called acidifying electro-negative supporters of combustion. They are three :

1. OXYGEN.. | 2. CHLORINE. | 3. IODINE. The second class we must consider as the simple acidifiable and inflammable substances. These are all electropositive: they for the most part combine with the three substances before enumerated, and some of these compounds form acids. Their number is six:

1. HYDROGEN. | 3. SULPHUR.

5. CARBON. 2. NITROGEN.. 4. PHOSPHORUS. 6. BORON.

In the new nomenclature, several endings of words have been adopted, to make more clear and concise the meaning of phrases which were before used. The acidifying principles before mentioned enter into two classes of compounds, both with each other, and with the bodies of the second and third class. Those which are not acid are commonly distinguished by the termination ide, as oxide of nitrogen, oxide of chlorine, chloride of sulphur,

iodide of iron, &c.: and if more than one compound is produced, the terminations ous and ic are used to designate the relative proportions of the support ers of combustion. Thus nitrogen forms two oxides: that containing the smallest proportion of oxygen is the nitrous oxide; that containing the largest, nitric oxide. The same difference is maintained in the designations

of "acids; sulphuric and sulphurous acids, malic, malous, &c. The different combinations of the metals with oxygen are expressed by prefixing to the first compound protoxide, the next deutoxide, &c. The acids terminating in ous produce compounds terminating in ite. Thus sulphurous acid and potassa form sulphite of potassa ; those terminating in ic produce compounds ending in ate. Thus nitric acid and soda form a nitrate of soda; nitrous acid and soda form nitrite of soda. When the same acid combines with more than one oxide of the same metal, the first syllable of the Greek word is prefixed to the salt; thus the protosulphate and persulphate of iron signify the combination of sulphuric acid with the protoxide and peroxide of iron.

flammable bodies with each other are The compounds of the simple intion uret; as phosphuret of sulphur, commonly designated by the terminacarburet of phosphorus.

Having thus given some account of the new nomenclature, we will examine the first substance in the class of acidi

fying principles, OXYGEN. This is a transparent gas of greater weight than atmospheric air. It may be obtained by heating the salt called chlorate of potash, in a glass retort, to a state of

immersed in water while the bulb is redness If the beak of the retort be heated, the gas rises through the water, and may be collected with a glass vessel which is filled with water, and held over the beak of the retort; the gas displaces the water, and occupies the room it before held. It may be obtained from the black oxide of manganese, acid is poured on it, and it is heated in a glass retort, when some sulphuric considerably. It may also be obtain

* The apparatus for collecting gases generally made use of is of the following kind. It is a japanned iron vessel, contain ing a shelf perforated with holes, through sels provided to hold it. which the gas may pass into inverted ves

ed from red oxide of lead, and even sue: the wire will ignite, and burn Ditre; though this last substance with the greatest brilliancy; it will does not yield it in any considerable throw out scintillations of the melted purity. metal.

Besides having no colour, and being perfectly transparent, oxygen has neither taste nor smell. It supports respiration and combustion most powerfully. Atmospheric air consists of nitrogen (a gas enumerated in our second class) and oxygen. Oxygen is that which renders our atmosphere respirable. But an atmosphere of oxygen would be too stimulating for our lungs, and cause them to act too rapidly; nitrogen, therefore, tempers this quality and renders the compound more suitable for the purpose of supporting life. Here we see the kindest arrangements of the Creator of all things, in forming an atmosphere, which is neither too invigorating nor too depressing for our system. "O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness!" If the discoveries in Chemistry were viewed with a desire to admire the goodness of the Sovereign of the universe, we should be constrained each moment to acknowledge, "that it well becomes men to be thankful.”- -But to proceed.

This is a very beautiful and at the same time a very safe experiment, in which there is no danger to the operator, and which requires no expensive apparatus. It was considered that there could be no combustion without the presence of oxygen; but recent experiments have proved that this is not correct. Chlorine and iodine will support combustion, even though oxygen may be absent. Combustion is considered to arise from any intense medical action. It is now supposed, that there can be no combustion, when oxygen, chlorine,and iodine, are all absent.

Let us now proceed to our second substance in the first class, CHLORINE. Chlorine is a permanently elastic gas, of a yellowish green colour, of a sour and irritating taste and smell. Its specific gravity is very great: taking bydrogen as 1.00, oxygen is 15.00, chlorine, 33.5. Chlorine is possessed of the negative electricity. Chlorine will support combustion: a taper put into it, burns in a manner inferior to what it does in the open air; but some bodies, such as phosphorus, &c. take fire immediately and spontaneously. Dutch leaf, when inflamed by a small piece of ignited tinder, burns in a beautiful manner. Chlorine may be obtained by heating black oxide of manganese in a glass retort. It is copiously produced; and may be collected over hot water, as cold water absorbs it rapidly. The greatest care should be taken by the young operator in his attempts on this gas, as it is extremely pernicious if res

A simple experiment will show how vividly oxygen supports combustion. Let the operator obtain a glass retort, and put into it a small quantity (say fifteen grains) of chlorate of potash, or black oxide of manganese,made into the subsistence of a paste with sulphuric acid. Let him heat the bulb of the retort over a spirit or argand lamp, and collect the gas in inverted glasses over water. The best instrument perhaps to collect it in for this experi-pired, even when much diluted with ment (to one who is not provided with a glass-stopped bell-glass) would be a bottle. When the vessel is full of oxygen, let him select a cork which just fills the mouth, and let him fix into this a piece of thin “iron wire, wound round a pencil, or any thing of that sort, into a spiral shape like a corkscrew. Having fixed this to the cork, let him place on the end of it a small pice of ignited tinder, and immerse the wire into the vessel containing the oxygen. A vivid combustion will en

atmospheric air. It used to be called by the French chemists, oxymuriatic acid. It is not altered by being expos ed to very high temperatures. Chlorine unites with oxygen in three degrees, forming an oxide and two acids. Oxide of chlorine, euchlorine, is of a very deep colour: it is not so irritable or disagreeable in smell as chlorine itself: it detonates when gently heated. It was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy. It may be obtained by mixing chlorate of potash and sulphuric acid,

(Lond. Lit. Gaz.)

THE FORSAKEN.

(Lond. Mag.)

TO HIS MISTRESS'S LIPS.*

From the German of Gabriello Chiabrera.

SIR,

191

Lond. Lit. Gaz.)

SKETCHES OF SOCIETY.

A COCKNEY SQUIRE.*

him in the progress of his backing and
bowing.
But those were not the days
of foot-stools, ottomans, and work-ta-
bles; no elegant lumber littered his
drawing-room, and the experienced pi-
lot always reached the port in safety.
At the time I remember him, he was a
little spare creature, hardly five feet
high, very much resembling Falstaff's
description of Justice Shallow; pinch-
ed in the waist like an hour-glass, and
giving the idea of a dried wasp. Over
this anatomy was stretched a skin ex-
actly the colour of a walnut, the effect
relieved by a jet-black wig curled
above the ears and tied behind. On
high days this was exchanged for a wig
with a high-powdered toupét, a bushy
frizure at the sides, and a bag. He ge-
nerally wore a grass-green suit with a
gold edging, and a little triangular
cocked-hat under his arm. At his first
outset as a rural economist his fame
quickly spread; his agricultural expe-
riments were only rivalled in absurdity
by the schemes of the Laputan sages.
Of these I only recollect two or three:
the first, a plan for fattening pigs on
cucumbers, which was soon relinquish-
ed. There was a very fine rookery at
a farm close to his park-wall, which
became the object of his envy. He
sent for his bailiff, and told him he in-
tended to keep rooks as well as his
neighbours; the man informed him
that this did not depend upon his will
and pleasure, for though the trees near
the mansion-house were lofty and well
placed for a rookery, "yet somehow
the birds had never seemed to fancy
them." "That (replied the Squire)
must be the fault of the late proprietor.
I shall build a number of nests to save
them the trouble, and you will see what
flights will come, and how glad they
will be to occupy them." In vain did
the bailiff remonstrate; he was forced

I HAVE often heard it remarked, that the recollections of a long life would furnish incidents as singular as any recorded in the annals of fiction, and delineations of character as grotesque and absurd as any which can be produced on the stage in the broadest farce. My own experience very much inclines me to agree to this opinion; and while I was reading your analysis of Percy Mallory, the character of Sir Ferebee de Lacy brought to my remembrance a person well known to me in my youth, and of whom I am strongly impelled to relate a few traits: After a lapse of forty years, and a more extensive knowledge of mankind, the character of this person still appears to me singular and amusing. He was the Squire of the parish in which I was born, and in which I passed my earliest and happiest years; a man of large fortune, which he had accumulated in trade. With this he purchased from a noble but decayed family a considerable estate, with a handsome mansion, and removed from St. Mary Axe to take possession of it, with a determined purpose not only to become a country gentleman, but a fine gentleman; a pattern of good breeding; the glass in which his neighbours might dress themselves. My father always attributed this last resolution to bis having once passed an hour in company with Richardson, (an occurrence he was fond of relating,) at the time when "Sir Charles Grandison" was in his meridian of glory. In pursuance of this plan, his manners were punctilious to the last degree; he always bowed on the hand of every lady be addressed with the commonest civility; the whole world would not have bribed him to turn his back in going out of a room. I can laugh now at the wicked and eager hope with to procure the church ladder, and to which my brother and I used to watch his exit from the fire-place to the door of his forty-five feet long saloon, and with what glee we anticipated that same unlucky chance would overthrow

the infinite amusement of the neigh

* We are indebted to an esteemedCorrespondent for this portrait of a real Character, and of manners at

most antiquated (though only forty years old.) with which we are enabled so pleasingly to vary out department of Sketches of Society.--Ed.