Experiments.
1. Into a jar of chlorine gas introduce a few sheets of copper leaf, sold under the name of Dutch foil, when it will burn with a dull red light.
2. If some metallic antimony in a state of powder be poured into a jar of this gas, it will take fire as it falls, and burn with a bright white light.
3. A small piece of the metal potassium may be introduced, and will also take fire.
4. A piece of phosphorus will also generally take fire spontaneously when introduced into this gas. In all these cases direct compounds of the substances with chlorine are produced, called chlorides.
5. If a lighted taper be plunged quickly into the gas, it will continue to burn with a dull light, giving off a very large quantity of smoke, being in fact the carbon of the wax taper, with which the chlorine does not unite; while the other constituent of the taper, the hydrogen, forms muriatic acid by union with the chlorine.
6. This substance has the property of destroying most vegetable colors and is used in large quantities for bleaching calico, linen, and the rags of which paper is made. It is a curious fact that it shows this property only when water is present, for if a piece of colored cloth is introduced dry into a jar of the gas, also dry, no effect will be produced—wet the cloth, and reintroduce it, and in a very short time its color will be discharged.
7. Introduce a quantity of the infusion of the common red cabbage, which is of a beautiful blue color, into a jar of this gas, and it will instantly become nearly as pale as water, retaining a slight tinge of yellow. A solution of sulphate of indigo can always be obtained, and answers well for this experiment.