The Boy's Playbook of Science / Including the Various Manipulations and Arrangements of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus Required for the Successful Performance of Scientific Experiments in Illustration of the Elementary Branches of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy

by John Henry Pepper

Twelfth Experiment.

In a soup-plate place some strong soap and water; then blow out a number of bubbles with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen; a loud report occurs on the application of flame, and if the room is small the window should be placed open, as the concussion of the air is likely to break the glass.

Thirteenth Experiment.

Any noise repeated at least thirty-two times in a second produces a musical sound, and by producing a number of small explosions of hydrogen gas inside glass tubes of various sizes, the most peculiar sounds are obtained. The hydrogen flame should be extremely small, and the glass tubes held over it may be of all lengths and diameters; a trial only will determine whether they are fit for the purpose or not.

Fourteenth Experiment.

Flowers, figures, or other designs, may be drawn upon silk with a solution of nitrate of silver, and the whole being moistened with water, is exposed to the action of hydrogen gas, which removes the oxygen from the silver, and reduces it to the metallic state.

In like manner designs drawn with a solution of chloride of gold are produced in the metallic state by exposure to the action of hydrogen gas. Chloride of tin, usually termed muriate of tin, may also be reduced in a similar manner, care being taken in these experiments that the fabric upon which the letters, figures, or designs are painted with the metallic solution be kept quite damp whilst exposed to the hydrogen gas.

Fifteenth Experiment.

A mixture of two volumes of hydrogen with one volume of oxygen explodes with great violence, and produces two volumes of steam, which condense against the sides of the strong glass vessel, in which the experiment may be made, in the form of water. As the apparatus called the Cavendish bottle, by which this experiment only may be safely performed, is somewhat expensive, and requires the use of an air-pump, gas jars with stop-cocks, and an electrical machine and Leyden jar, other and more simple means may be adopted to show the combination of oxygen and hydrogen, and formation of water.

If a little alcohol is placed in a cup and set on fire, whilst an empty cold gas jar is held over the flame, an abundant deposition of moisture takes place from the combustion of the hydrogen of the spirits of wine. Alcohol contains six combining properties of hydrogen, with four of charcoal and two of oxygen. If a lighted candle, or an oil, camphine, Belmontine, or gas flame, is placed under a proper condenser, large quantities of water are obtained by the combustion of these substances (Fig. 119).