Water is a bad conductor of electricity—that is, pure water does not transmit a feeble current; but if any salt or acid be dissolved in it, then its conductivity increases, and on the passage of a current through acidified water it is decomposed into its component parts. Some sulphuric acid is generally added to the water. By immersing platinum plates (electrodes) in this water (platinum is chosen because it is not acted on by acids, whilst many other metals are chemically acted on by acids), and connecting them with a galvanic battery, it will be observed that bubbles of gas appear on these plates. The gas which separates is called detonating gas,[2] because, on ignition, it very easily explodes.[3] What takes place is as follows:—First, the water, by the action of the current, is decomposed into two gases. The mixture of these gases forms detonating gas. When detonating gas is brought into contact with an incandescent substance—for instance, a lighted taper—the gases re-combine, forming water, the combination being accompanied by a great evolution of heat, and therefore the vapour of the water formed expands considerably, which it does very rapidly, and as a consequence, an explosion takes place—that is, sound and increase of pressure, and atmospheric disturbance, as in the explosion of gunpowder.
Fig. 18.—Decomposition of water by the galvanic current, for determining the relation between the volumes of hydrogen and oxygen.
In order to discover what gases are obtained by the decomposition of water, the gases which separate at each electrode must be collected separately. For this purpose a V-shaped tube is taken; one of its ends is open and the other fused up. A platinum wire, terminating inside the tube in a plate, is fused into the closed end; the closed end is entirely filled with water[4] acidified with sulphuric acid, and another platinum wire, terminating in a plate, is immersed in the open end. If a current from a galvanic battery be now passed through the wires an evolution of gases will be observed, and the gas which is obtained in the open branch passes into the air, while that in the closed branch accumulates above the water. As this gas accumulates it displaces the water, which continues to descend in the closed and ascend into the open branch of the tubes. When the water, in this way, reaches the top of the open end, the passage of the current is stopped, and the gas which was evolved from one of the electrodes only is obtained in the apparatus. By this means it is easy to prove that a particular gas appears at each electrode. If the closed end be connected with the negative pole—i.e. with that joined to the zinc—then the gas collected in the apparatus is capable of burning. This may be demonstrated by the following experiment:—The bent tube is taken off the stand, and its open end stopped up with the thumb and inclined in such a manner that the gas passes from the closed to the open end. It will then be found, on applying a lighted lamp or taper, that the gas burns. This combustible gas is hydrogen. If the same experiment be carried on with a current passing in the opposite direction—that is, if the closed end be joined up with the positive pole (i.e. with the carbon, copper, or platinum), then the gas which is evolved from it does not itself burn, but it supports combustion very vigorously, so that a smouldering taper in it immediately bursts into flame. This gas, which is collected at the anode or positive pole, is oxygen, which is obtained, as we saw before (in the Introduction), from mercury oxide and is contained in air.
Thus in the decomposition of water oxygen appears at the positive pole and hydrogen at the negative pole,[4 bis] so that detonating gas will be a mixture of both. Hydrogen burns in air from the fact that in doing so it re-forms water, with the oxygen of the air. Detonating gas explodes from the fact that the hydrogen burns in the oxygen mixed with it. It is very easy to measure the relative quantities of one and the other gas which are evolved in the decomposition of water. For this purpose a funnel is taken, whose orifice is closed by a cork through which two platinum wires pass. These wires are connected with a battery. Acidified water is poured into the funnel, and a glass cylinder full of water is placed over the end of each wire (fig. [18]). On passing a current, hydrogen and oxygen collect in these cylinders, and it will easily be seen that two volumes of hydrogen are evolved for every one volume of oxygen. This signifies that, in decomposing, water gives two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen.
Water is also decomposed into its component parts by the action of heat. At the melting point of silver (960°), and in its presence, water is decomposed and the oxygen absorbed by the molten silver, which dissolves it so long as it is liquid. But directly the silver solidifies the oxygen is expelled from it. However, this experiment is not entirely convincing; it might be thought that in this case the decomposition of the water did not proceed from the action of heat, but from the action of the silver on water—that silver decomposes water, taking up the oxygen. If steam be passed through a red-hot tube, whose internal temperature attains 1,000°, then a portion[5] of the water decomposes into its component parts, forming detonating gas. But on passing into the cooler portions of the apparatus this detonating gas again reunites and forms water. The hydrogen and oxygen obtained combine together at a lower temperature.[6] Apparently the problem—to show the decomposability of water at high temperatures—is unattainable. It was considered as such before Henri Sainte-Claire Deville (in the fifties) introduced the conception of dissociation into chemistry, as of a change of chemical state resembling evaporation, if decomposition be likened to boiling, and before he had demonstrated the decomposability of water by the action of heat in an experiment which will presently be described. In order to demonstrate clearly the dissociation of water, or its decomposability by heat, at a temperature approaching that at which it is formed, it was necessary to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen at a high temperature, without allowing the mixture to cool. Deville took advantage of the difference between the densities of hydrogen and oxygen.
