Certainly not; for, as I have just explained to you, it is necessary that the oxygen and hydrogen gases be burnt together, in order to combine chemically and produce water.
CAROLINE.
That is true; but I thought this was a different combination, for I see no water produced.
MRS. B.
The water resulting from this detonation was so small in quantity, and in such a state of minute division, as to be invisible. But water certainly was produced; for oxygen is incapable of combining with hydrogen in any other proportions than those that form water; therefore water must always be the result of their combination.
If, instead of bringing the hydrogen gas into sudden contact with the atmosphere (as we did just now) so as to make the whole of it explode the moment it is kindled, we allow but a very small surface of gas to burn in contact with the atmosphere, the combustion goes on quietly and gradually at the point of contact, without any detonation, because the surfaces brought together are too small for the immediate union of gases. The experiment is a very easy one. This phial, with a narrow neck, ([Plate VIII.] fig. 5.) is full of hydrogen gas, and is carefully corked. If I take out the cork without moving the phial, and quickly approach the candle to the orifice, you will see how different the result will be——
EMILY.
How prettily it burns, with a blue flame! The flame is gradually sinking within the phial—now it has entirely disappeared. But does not this combustion likewise produce water?
MRS. B.
Undoubtedly. In order to make the formation of the water sensible to you, I shall procure a fresh supply of hydrogen gas, by putting into this bottle ([Plate VIII.] fig. 6.) iron filings, water, and sulphuric acid, materials similar to those which we have just used for the same purpose. I shall then cork up the bottle, leaving only a small orifice in the cork, with a piece of glass-tube fixed to it, through which the gas will issue in a continued rapid stream.