In a particular memoir, I shall give an account to the Academy of the difficulties inseparable from this kind of experiments: These are so insurmountable and troublesome, that I have not hitherto been able to obtain any rigorous determination of the quantities of the products. I have sufficient proof, however, that the fixed oils are entirely resolved during combustion into water and carbonic acid gas, and consequently that they are composed of hydrogen and charcoal; but I have no certain knowledge respecting the proportions of these ingredients.
SECT. V.
Of the Combustion of Alkohol.
The combustion of alkohol may be very readily performed in the apparatus already described for the combustion of charcoal and phosphorus. A lamp filled with alkohol is placed under the jar A, Pl. IV. Fig. 3. a small morsel of phosphorus is placed upon the wick of the lamp, which is set on fire by means of the hot iron, as before directed. This process is, however, liable to considerable inconveniency; it is dangerous to make use of oxygen gas at the beginning of the experiment for fear of deflagration, which is even liable to happen when common air is employed. An instance of this had very near proved fatal to myself, in presence of some members of the Academy. Instead of preparing the experiment, as usual, at the time it was to be performed, I had disposed every thing in order the evening before; the atmospheric air of the jar had thereby sufficient time to dissolve a good deal of the alkohol; and this evaporation had even been considerably promoted by the height of the column of mercury, which I had raised to EF, Pl. IV. Fig. 3. The moment I attempted to set the little morsel of phosphorus on fire by means of the red hot iron, a violent explosion took place, which threw the jar with great violence against the floor of the laboratory, and dashed it in a thousand pieces.
Hence we can only operate upon very small quantities, such as ten or twelve grains of alkohol, in this manner; and the errors which may be committed in experiments upon such small quantities prevents our placing any confidence in their results. I endeavoured to prolong the combustion, in the experiments contained in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1784, p. 593. by lighting the alkohol first in common air, and furnishing oxygen gas afterwards to the jar, in proportion as it consumed; but the carbonic acid gas produced by the process became a great hinderance to the combustion, the more so that alkohol is but difficultly combustible, especially in worse than common air; so that even in this way very small quantities only could be burnt.
Perhaps this combustion might succeed better in the oil apparatus, Pl. XI.; but I have not hitherto ventured to try it. The jar A in which the combustion is performed is near 1400 cubical inches in dimension; and, were an explosion to take place in such a vessel, its consequences would be very terrible, and very difficult to guard against. I have not, however, despaired of making the attempt.
From all these difficulties, I have been hitherto obliged to confine myself to experiments upon very small quantities of alkohol, or at least to combustions made in open vessels, such as that represented in Pl. IX. Fig. 5. which will be described in Section VII. of this chapter. If I am ever able to remove these difficulties, I shall resume this investigation.
SECT. VI.
Of the Combustion of Ether.
Tho' the combustion of ether in close vessels does not present the same difficulties as that of alkohol, yet it involves some of a different kind, not more easily overcome, and which still prevent the progress of my experiments. I endeavoured to profit by the property which ether possesses of dissolving in atmospheric air, and rendering it inflammable without explosion. For this purpose, I constructed the reservoir of ether a b c d, Plate XII. Fig. 8. to which air is brought from the gazometer by the tube 1, 2, 3, 4. This air spreads, in the first place, in the double lid ac of the reservoir, from which it passes through seven tubes ef, gh, ik, &c. which descend to the bottom of the ether, and it is forced by the pressure of the gazometer to boil up through the ether in the reservoir. We may replace the ether in this first reservoir, in proportion as it is dissolved and carried off by the air, by means of the supplementary reservoir E, connected by a brass tube fifteen or eighteen inches long, and shut by a stop-cock. This length of the connecting tube is to enable the descending ether to overcome the resistance occasioned by the pressure of the air from the gazometer.