Part 16

TO MAKE CARBONIC ACID GAS.

Put about an ounce of marble in small lumps, into an eight ounce phial, with about an equal quantity of water; pour in a little muriatic acid, and carbonic acid gas will be evolved.

CARBONIC ACID GAS IN WINE OR BEER VESSELS.

The apparently empty or upper part of vessels in which wine or beer is working, is filled with this deleterious gas; for its great weight prevents its ascent from the fermenting liquid. A variety of striking but simple experiments may be made with the gas in this condition. Lighted paper, or a candle dipped into it, will be immediately extinguished; and the smoke remaining in the carbonic acid gas will render its surface visible, which may be thrown into waves by agitation, like water. In consequence of the great weight of the carbonic acid gas, it may be taken from a vat of fermenting liquor, in a jug or bottle, and in the latter, if well corked, it may be conveyed to great distances; or the gas may be drawn out of a vessel by a cock, like a liquid.

TO EXTINGUISH FLAME WITH GAS.

The effects produced by pouring carbonic acid gas from one vessel to another, have a very singular appearance: if a lighted candle be placed in a jar, and the gas be poured upon it, the flame will be extinguished in a few seconds, though the eye is incapable of distinguishing that anything is poured out.

EFFECT OF HYDROGEN ON THE VOICE.

Make a hole through a wine cork of sufficient size to admit a smaller cork; through which make another hole, and fix it into the larger one. Tie the corks thus fixed into the neck of a bullock’s bladder, previously exhausted of air; let a tube from a bottle generating hydrogen pass very tightly through the aperture in the small cork, and the gas will distend and fill the bladder. The instant it is full, withdraw the inner cork, and either prevent the escape of the gas by means of the thumb, or cork it closely, till the operator is ready to breathe the gas; to do which, he should put the open cork into his mouth, and take one inspiration, when, on immediately speaking, his voice will be remarkably shrill. The effect will pass off in a few seconds.

MAGIC TAPER.

Provide a piece of copper wire, about ten inches long, and fix at one end of it a piece of wax taper: take a pint bottle of hydrogen, and place the mouth downwards; light the taper, introduce it into the bottle, and the gas will take fire, and burn slowly towards the mouth, where it is in contact with the air. If, however, the taper be passed up into the bottle, it will be extinguished; but, on gently withdrawing it through the burning hydrogen, the wick will be rekindled. This may be done several times in succession with the same portion of gas.

THE GAS CANDLE.

Provide a strong glass bottle which will contain about eight ounces, or half a pint, into which put a few pieces of zinc; then mix half an ounce of sulphuric acid with four ounces of water, and pour it into the bottle upon the zinc; fit the mouth closely with a cork, through which put a metal tube which ends upward in a fine opening: the mixture in the bottle will soon effervesce, and hydrogen gas will rise through the tube. When it has escaped for about a minute, apply a lighted paper to the tube, and the gas will burn like a candle, but with a pale flame. Its brightness may be increased to brilliance, by sifting over it a small quantity of magnesia.

GAS BUBBLES.

Provide a bladder, fill it with hydrogen gas, to be made as for the last experiment, and fit the end of a tobacco-pipe closely into the bladder; dip the bowl of the pipe into soap and water, and, by pressing the bladder, soap-bubbles will be formed, filled with hydrogen gas; which bubbles, or balloons, will rise in the air, and keep there for some time.

GAS-LIGHT IN THE DAY-TIME.

Light a stream of hydrogen gas, and it will be scarcely visible in the day-light; but place in it a small coil of platinum wire, or project a little oxide of zinc through the flame, and it will become very luminous.

MINIATURE BALLOONS.

One of the simplest and most beautiful experiments in aërostation, is to take a turkey’s maw, or stomach, properly prepared, and to fill it either with pure hydrogen gas, or the carburetted hydrogen produced from coal. If the balloon be then allowed to escape in the open air, it will ascend rapidly in the atmosphere: but the best method of showing the experiment, is to let the balloon off a high staircase, and observe it ascend to the cupola or light, where it will remain near the highest point till the escape of the gas allow it to descend. The prepared maw for this balloon may be purchased of any optician.

MINIATURE GAS-LIGHTING.

Bicarburetted hydrogen is the principal constituent of the gas burned in the streets: it is procured from coal, and the process may readily be performed on a small scale. Put about two ounces of pounded coal into an earthen retort, and fix a glass tube into the neck, terminating in an aperture of one-fifth of an inch in diameter; heat the retort red-hot, and apply the flame of a taper to the orifice of the tube, when the gas will burn with a bright white light, very different from that afforded by the combustion of hydrogen; a circumstance owing to the presence of particles of carbon in the carburet, which being intensely ignited, are highly luminous.

It is no less strange than true, that bicarburetted hydrogen, the substance which we so largely consume to illuminate our towns, is ether when united to water in one proportion, and spirit when combined with it in another; a fluid which constitutes the strength of all wines, beer, and fermented liquors.

MUSICAL GAS.

Into a half-pint glass bottle, put some zinc, granulated by being melted in a ladle, and then poured gradually into water. Add some sulphuric acid, diluted with eight parts by weight of water. Then pass a glass tube with a capillary bore, through a cork, which you have previously made to closely fit the bottle, and cork the bottle well. In a short time, the atmospheric air will be expelled, and hydrogen gas will rise through the tube; you then apply a light, and the gas will become ignited. If you now hold another glass tube, about eighteen or twenty inches long over the flame sufficiently wide to enclose the other tube very loosely (see engraving), the little speck of flame will sport along the larger tube, and musical sounds will be produced, which may be varied by using other tubes of different dimensions, and made of different materials; the wide tubes forming the lower, and the narrow tubes the upper notes.

MINIATURE WILL O’-THE-WISP.

Put a small piece or two of the phosphuret of lime into a saucer of water, when bubbles of phosphuretted hydrogen gas will rise to the surface, explode into flame, and cause a white smoke; representing, on a small scale, the ignis fatuus, or will o’-the-wisp, as seen over marshy ground, or stagnant pools of water.

PHOSPHORIC ILLUMINATION.

A light so brilliant that the eye can scarcely bear to contemplate it, is produced by the immersion of phosphorus in oxygen gas. To perform this experiment, you place a piece of phosphorus in a copper cup, of the circumference of a sixpence, which is fastened to a thick piece of iron wire, attached to a cork which fits a bottle (as in the foregoing experiment) filled with oxygen gas. Set fire to the phosphorous, and quickly plunge it into the bottle; when the splendour of the combustion will be surpassingly beautiful.

It is necessary to observe, that the heat is so excessive, that if the piece of phosphorous in this experiment be larger than a small pea, there will be great danger of breaking the bottle.