A New System of Chemical Philosophy, Volume 2, Part 1

Section 13. _metallic Oxides_ 1

Oxide of Gold 5 ---- Platina 11 ---- Silver 17 Oxides of Mercury 19 Oxide of Palladium 24 Oxides of Rhodium, Iridium, and Osmium 26 ---- Copper 26 ---- Iron 28 ---- Nickel 34 ---- Tin 36 ---- Lead 39 Oxide of Zinc 51 Oxides of Potassium 53 ---- Sodium 56 Oxide of Bismuth 57 Oxides of Antimony 58 Oxide of Tellurium 62 Oxides of Arsenic 63 ---- Cobalt 68 ---- Manganese 71 ---- Chromium 80 ---- Uranium 86 ---- Molybdenum 87 ---- Tungsten 90 ---- Titanium 91 ---- Columbium 92 ---- Cerium 94

Section 14. _earthy, Alkaline,

and Metallic Sulphurets 96 Sulphurets of Lime 99 Sulphuret of Magnesia 111 Sulphurets of Barytes 112 ---- Strontites 114 ---- Alumine, Silex, Yttria, Glucine and Zircone 114 ---- Potash 116 ---- Soda 119 Sulphuret of Ammonia 120 Sulphurets of Gold 121 Sulphuret of Platina 123 Sulphurets of Silver 126 ---- Mercury 127 Sulphuret of Palladium 131 ---- Rhodium 132 ---- Iridium 132 ---- Osmium 132 Sulphurets of Copper 133 ---- Iron 134 ---- Nickel 138 ---- Tin 139 ---- Lead 144 ---- Zinc 146 ---- Potassium and Sodium 148 ---- Bismuth 149 ---- Antimony 151 Sulphuret of Tellurium 153 Sulphurets of Arsenic 153 Sulphuret of Cobalt 160 Sulphurets of Manganese 162 Sulphuret of Chromium 163 ---- Uranium 164 ---- Molybdenum 164 Sulphuret of Tungsten 164 Sulphurets of Titanium, Columbium, and Cerium_ 165

Section 15. _earthy, Alkaline,

and Metallic Phosphurets 166 Phosphuret of Hydrogen 169 Phosphurets of Carbon and Sulphur 184 Phosphuret of Lime 184 ---- Barytes 188 ---- Strontites 190 ---- Gold 191 ---- Platina 194 ---- Silver 195 ---- Mercury 197 ---- Palladium 198 ---- Copper 199 ---- Iron 201 ---- Nickel 201 ---- Tin 202 ---- Lead 203 Phosphurets of Zinc and Potassium 204 ---- Sodium and Bismuth 207 ---- Antimony and Arsenic 208 Phosphuret of Cobalt 209 ---- Manganese_ 210

Section 16. _carburets_ 211

---- of Iron ... steel 212-214

SECTION 17. Metallic Alloys 218 Alloys of Gold, with other metals 222 ---- Platina, with other metals 226 ---- Silver, with other metals 228 ---- Mercury, and other metals: amalgams 230 Triple, Quadruple, &c. amalgams 236 Alloys of Copper, with other metals 238 ---- Iron, with other metals 253 Alloys of Nickel and Tin, with do. 254 ---- Lead, with do. 258 Triple Alloys, Solders; fusible metal, &c. 263

APPENDIX. Abstract of De la Roche and Berard’s essay on the specific heat of gases 268 ---- Dulong and Petit’s essays, On the expansion of air, mercury, glass, iron, copper, and platina, by heat 272 On the capacities of certain bodies, for heat 274 On the laws of refrigeration 277 On the specific heats of certain bodies 280 Remarks on the above essays 282 New Table of the forces of vapours 298 Table of the expansion of air, and the force of aqueous and ætherial vapour, adapted to atmospheric temperatures 299 Applications of the above table 300 Formulæ for determining the proportions of combustible gases, in mixtures 305 Heat produced by the combustion of gases 309 Absorption of gases by water 309 Fluoric acid--deutoxide of hydrogen 311 Muriatic acid--oxymuriatic acid 313 Nitric acid--compounds of azote and oxygen 315 On ammonia 328 Decomposition of ammonia by nitrous oxide 330 ---- ---- ---- by nitrous gas and oxygen 332 Volume of gases from the decomposition of ammonia 335 Decomposition of ammonia by a red heat 335 Decomposition of ammonia by oxymuriatic acid335 Sulphuret of Carbon 338 Potassium, Sodium, &c. 340 Alum 341 New table of the relative weights of atoms. 352

ADDENDA. Steel; mixed gases; expansion of liquids by heat 354

NEW SYSTEM OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY.

CHAP. V.

SECTION 13.. Metallic Oxides.

METALLIC OXIDES.

All the metals are disposed to combine with oxygen, but the combination is effected more easily with some than with others; the compound is usually called an oxide, but in some instances it is also called an acid. The same metal combines with one, two, or perhaps more atoms of oxygen, forming compounds which may be distinguished according to Dr. Thomson, by the terms protoxide, deutoxide, tritoxide, &c.

Such however is the repulsion of oxygen to oxygen that we rarely find three atoms of it retained by a single atom of any kind; and there are not many instances of metals capable of holding two atoms of oxygen. Various modifications of the proportions of metals and oxygen arise from the combinations of the oxides themselves one with another and with oxygen, so as to lead some to imagine that an atom of metal in some instances combines with 3, 4, or more of oxygen. This is altogether improbable: It is much more simple to suppose that one atom of oxygen connects two or more atoms of protoxide, 1 of protoxide unites to 1 or more of deutoxide, &c. These intermediate oxides are in few if any instances found to combine with acids like the other two oxides.

There is no reason that I am acquainted with for disbelieving that oxygen combined with a metal is still repulsive of oxygen, and that by the same law as particles of an elastic fluid; that is, the repulsion is inversely as the distance of the centres of the atoms. Hence it may be demonstrated that it requires twice the strength of affinity to form a deutoxide as a protoxide, three times the strength to form a tritoxide as a protoxide, &c. On this account it is, in all probability, that deutoxides are not numerous, and tritoxides are rarely if ever found.

The quantity of oxygen that combines with any metal to form an oxide may be investigated by several methods.

1st. By combustion; a given weight of the metal may be burned and the oxide produced may be collected and weighed; when the increase by combustion will appear.

2. By solution in an acid and precipitation by an earth or alkali; in this case a given weight of the metal is dissolved and precipitated; the precipitate collected and sufficiently dried shews the increase by oxygen.

3. By transferring the oxygen from an oxide to another metal; in this case the metal in question is usually immersed in a saline solution of the other metal; this latter metal gives up its oxygen to the former and is itself reformed or revived as it is termed.

4. By determining the proportion of hydrogen gas evolved during the solution of a given weight of metal; then allowing half of that volume for its equivalent of oxygenous gas, the weight of it shews the oxygen united to the metal; it being now well understood that water furnishes the two elements of hydrogen and oxygen in such case.

5. The higher oxides are conveniently determined by the application of the solution of oxymuriate of lime to the lower oxides in solution.

6. The quantity of oxygen in several oxides may be found from the quantity of nitrous gas evolved during the solution of a given weight of metal in nitric acid.

The first four methods have been used by chemists for several years past; the two last I have added from my own experience, having found them very useful assistants in various instances. The last method by nitrous gas, has indeed been proposed before, and labour bestowed on it both by others and myself, but without reducing the results to any certainty, till lately; the principal cause of this want of success has arisen from misunderstanding the nature and constitution of nitric acid. Most chemists seem with me to have mistaken nitrous acid for nitric; the former is composed of 1 atom of azote and 2 of oxygen; or perhaps of 2 azote and 4 oxygen; the latter of 2 azote and 5 oxygen, or 2 nitrous gas and 3 oxygen; the weight of the former is 19, or its double 38, on my scale, and that of the latter 45. [My reasons for adopting the above conclusion respecting nitrous acid, which is at variance with that in VOL. 1, p. 331, will be given hereafter.] When therefore a metal is oxidized by nitric acid, 3 atoms of oxygen (= 21) go to the metal, and 2 atoms of nitrous gas (= 24) are disengaged. Hence ⅞ of the weight of nitrous gas evolved is the weight of oxygen combined. It sometimes happens however that the nitrous gas is partly or wholly retained by the residue of nitric acid; but in this case the oxymuriate of lime can be applied to convert the nitrous gas into nitric acid, and from the oxygen imbibed the quantity of nitrous gas may be inferred.

1. Oxide of Gold.

Some difficulties have been found in ascertaining both the number and proportions of the oxides of gold; hence the differences in the results of authors.

Gold does not burn by exposure to heat, but gold leaf and gold wire may be deflagrated by electricity and galvanism; a purple powder is the product, which is considered by some as the protoxide of gold; but others, after Macquer and Proust, conceive with greater probability that this powder is nothing but gold reduced to its ultimate division. Solutions of gold which are of a fine yellow, give a purple stain; and gold deoxidized by green sulphate of iron is precipitated blue, which precipitate gradually assumes a yellow colour as the particles become united. The very weak affinity of gold for oxygen is shewn by the difficulty with which it is oxidized and the ease with which the oxygen is expelled again by heat; these facts seem to preclude the idea of gold combining with oxygen in high temperatures.

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