Experimental Researches in Electricity Part 19

624. It would appear from many cases of nuclei in solutions, and from the effects of bodies put into atmospheres containing the vapours of water, or camphor, or iodine, &c., as if this attraction were in part elective, partaking in its characters both of the attraction of aggregation and chemical affinity: nor is this inconsistent with, but agreeable to, the idea entertained, that it is the power of particles acting, not upon others with which they can immediately and intimately combine, but upon such as are either more distantly situated with respect to them, or which, from previous condition, physical const.i.tution, or feeble relation, are unable to enter into decided union with them.

625. Then, of all bodies, the gases are those which might be expected to show some _mutual_ action whilst _jointly_ under the attractive influence of the platina or other solid acting substance. Liquids, such as water, alcohol, &c., are in so dense and comparatively incompressible a state, as to favour no expectation that their particles should approach much closer to each other by the attraction of the body to which they adhere, and yet that attraction must (according to its effects) place their particles as near to those of the solid wetted body as they are to each other, and in many cases it is evident that the former attraction is the stronger. But gases and vapours are bodies competent to suffer very great changes in the relative distances of their particles by external agencies; and where they are in immediate contact with the platina, the approximation of the particles to those of the metal may be very great. In the case of the hygrometric bodies referred to (621.), it is sufficient to reduce the vapour to the fluid state, frequently from atmospheres so rare that without this influence it would be needful to compress them by mechanical force into a bulk not more than 1/10th or even 1/20th of their original volume before the vapours would become liquids.

626. Another most important consideration in relation to this action of bodies, and which, as far as I am aware, has not hitherto been noticed, is the condition of elasticity under which the gases are placed against the acting surface. We have but very imperfect notions of the real and intimate conditions of the particles of a body existing in the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous state; but when we speak of the gaseous state as being due to the mutual repulsions of the particles or of their atmospheres, although we may err in imagining each particle to be a little nucleus to an atmosphere of heat, or electricity, or any other agent, we are still not likely to be in error in considering the elasticity as dependent on _mutuality_ of action. Now this mutual relation fails altogether on the side of the gaseous particles next to the platina, and we might be led to expect _a priori_ a deficiency of elastic force there to at least one half; for if, as Dalton has shown, the elastic force of the particles of one gas cannot act against the elastic force of the particles of another, the two being as vacua to each other, so is it far less likely that the particles of the platina can exert any influence on those of the gas against it, such as would be exerted by gaseous particles of its own kind.

627. But the diminution of power to one-half on the side of the gaseous body towards the metal is only a slight result of what seems to me to flow as a necessary consequence of the known const.i.tution of gases. An atmosphere of one gas or vapour, however dense or compressed, is in effect as a vacuum to another: thus, if a little water were put into a vessel containing a dry gas, as air, of the pressure of one hundred atmospheres, as much vapour of the water would _rise_ as if it were in a perfect vacuum.

Here the particles of watery vapour appear to have no difficulty in approaching within any distance of the particles of air, being influenced solely by relation to particles of their own kind; and if it be so with respect to a body having the same elastic powers as itself, how much more surely must it be so with particles, like those of the platina, or other limiting body, which at the same time that they have not these elastic powers, are also unlike it in nature! Hence it would seem to result that the particles of hydrogen or any other gas or vapour which are next to the platina, &c., must be in such contact with it as if they were in the liquid state, and therefore almost infinitely closer to it than they are to each other, even though the metal be supposed to exert no attractive influence over them.

628. A third and very important consideration in favour of the mutual action of gases under these circ.u.mstances is their perfect miscibility. If fluid bodies capable of combining together are also capable of mixture, _they do combine_ when they are mingled, not waiting for any other determining circ.u.mstance; but if two such gases as oxygen and hydrogen are put together, though they are elements having such powerful affinity as to unite naturally under a thousand different circ.u.mstances, they do not combine by mere mixture. Still it is evident that, from their perfect a.s.sociation, the particles are in the most favourable state possible for combination upon the supervention of any determining cause, such either as the negative action of the platina in suppressing or annihilating, as it were, their elasticity on its side; or the positive action of the metal in condensing them against its surface by an attractive force; or the influence of both together.

629. Although there are not many distinct cases of combination under the influence of forces external to the combining particles, yet there are sufficient to remove any difficulty which might arise on that ground. Sir James Hull found carbonic acid and lime to remain combined under pressure at temperatures at which they would not have remained combined if the pressure had been removed; and I have had occasion to observe a case of direct combination in chlorine[A], which being compressed at common temperatures will combine with water, and form a definite crystalline hydrate, incapable either of being formed or of existing if that pressure be removed.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1823, p. 161.

630. The course of events when platina acts upon, and combines oxygen and hydrogen, may be stated, according to these principles, as follows. From the influence of the circ.u.mstances mentioned (619. &c.), i.e. the deficiency of elastic power and the attraction of the metal for the gases, the latter, when they are in a.s.sociation with the former, are so far condensed as to be brought within the action of their mutual affinities at the existing temperature; the deficiency of elastic power, not merely subjecting them more closely to the attractive influence of the metal, but also bringing them into a more favourable state for union, by abstracting a part of that power (upon which depends their elasticity,) which elsewhere in the ma.s.s of gases is opposing their combination. The consequence of their combination is the production of the vapour of water and an elevation of temperature. But as the attraction of the platina for the water formed is not greater than for the gases, if so great, (for the metal is scarcely hygrometric,) the vapour is quickly diffused through the remaining gases; fresh portions of this latter, therefore, come into juxtaposition with the metal, combine, and the fresh vapour formed is also diffused, allowing new portions of gas to be acted upon. In this way the process advances, but is accelerated by the evolution of heat, which is known by experiment to facilitate the combination in proportion to its intensity, and the temperature is thus gradually exalted until ignition results.

631. The dissipation of the vapour produced at the surface of the platina, and the contact of fresh oxygen and hydrogen with the metal, form no difficulty in this explication. The platina is not considered as causing the combination of any particles with itself, but only a.s.sociating them closely around it; and the compressed particles are as free to move from the platina, being replaced by other particles, as a portion of dense air upon the surface of the globe, or at the bottom of a deep mine, is free to move by the slightest impulse, into the upper and rarer parts of the atmosphere.

632. It can hardly be necessary to give any reasons why platina does not show this effect under ordinary circ.u.mstances. It is then not sufficiently clean (617.), and the gases are prevented from touching it, and suffering that degree of effect which is needful to commence their combination at common temperatures, and which they can only experience at its surface. In fact, the very power which causes the combination of oxygen and hydrogen, is competent, under the usual casual exposure of platina, to condense extraneous matters upon its surface, which soiling it, take away for the time its power of combining oxygen and hydrogen, by preventing their contact with it (598.).

633. Clean platina, by which I mean such as has been made the positive pole of a pile (570.), or has been treated with acid (605.), and has then been put into distilled water for twelve or fifteen minutes, has a _peculiar friction_ when one piece is rubbed against another. It wets freely with pure water, even after it has been shaken and dried by the heat of a spirit-lamp; and if made the pole of a voltaic pile in a dilute acid, it evolves minute bubbles from every part of its surface. But platina in its common state wants that peculiar friction: it will not wet freely with water as the clean platina does; and when made the positive pole of a pile, it for a time gives off large bubbles, which seem to cling or adhere to the metal, and are evolved at distinct and separate points of the surface.

These appearances and effects, as well as its want of power on oxygen and hydrogen, are the consequences, and the indications, of a soiled surface.

634. I found also that platina plates which had been cleaned perfectly soon became soiled by mere exposure to the air; for after twenty-four hours they no longer moistened freely with water, but the fluid ran up into portions, leaving part of the surface bare, whilst other plates which had been retained in water for the same time, when they were dried (580.) did moisten, and gave the other indications of a clean surface.

635. Nor was this the case with platina or metals only, but also with earthy bodies, Rock crystal and obsidian would not wet freely upon the surface, but being moistened with strong oil of vitriol, then washed, and left in distilled water to remove all the acid, they did freely become moistened, whether they were previously dry or whether they were left wet; but being dried and left exposed to the air for twenty-four hours, their surface became so soiled that water would not then adhere freely to it, but ran up into partial portions. Wiping with a cloth (even the cleanest) was still worse than exposure to air; the surface either of the minerals or metals immediately became as if it were slightly greasy. The floating upon water of small particles of metals under ordinary circ.u.mstances is a consequence of this kind of soiled surface. The extreme difficulty of cleaning the surface of mercury when it has once been soiled or greased, is due to the same cause.

636. The same reasons explain why the power of the platina plates in some circ.u.mstances soon disappear, and especially upon use: MM. Dulong and Thenard have observed the same effect with the spongy metal[A], as indeed have all those who have used Dobereiner's instantaneous light machines. If left in the air, if put into ordinary distilled water, if made to act upon ordinary oxygen and hydrogen, they can still find in all these cases _that_ minute portion of impurity which, when once in contact with the surface of the platina, is retained there, and is sufficient to prevent its full action upon oxygen and hydrogen at common temperatures: a slight elevation of temperature is again sufficient to compensate this effect, and cause combination.

[A] Annales de Chimie, tom. xxiv. p. 386.

637. No state of a solid body can be conceived more favourable for the production of the effect than that which is possessed by platina obtained from the ammonio-muriate by heat. Its surface is most extensive and pure, yet very accessible to the gases brought in contact with it: if placed in impurity, the interior, as Thenard and Dulong have observed, is preserved clean by the exterior; and as regards temperature, it is so bad a conductor of heat, because of its divided condition, that almost all which is evolved by the combination of the first portions of gas is retained within the ma.s.s, exalting the tendency of the succeeding portions to combine.

638. I have now to notice some very extraordinary interferences with this phenomenon, dependent, not upon the nature or condition of the metal or other acting solid, but upon the presence of certain substances mingled with the gases acted upon; and as I shall have occasion to speak frequently of a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, I wish it always to be understood that I mean a mixture composed of one volume of oxygen to two volumes of hydrogen, being the proportions that form water. Unless otherwise expressed, the hydrogen was always that obtained by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on pure zinc, and the oxygen that obtained by the action of heat from the chlorate of pota.s.sa.

639. Mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen with _air_, containing one-fourth, one-half, and even two-thirds of the latter, being introduced with prepared platina plates (570. 605.) into tubes, were acted upon almost as well as if no air were present: the r.e.t.a.r.dation was far less than might have been expected from the mere dilution and consequent obstruction to the contact of the gases with the plates. In two hours and a half nearly all the oxygen and hydrogen introduced as mixture was gone.

640. But when similar experiments were made with _olefiant gas_ (the platina plates having been made the positive poles of a voltaic pile (570.) in acid), very different results occurred. A mixture was made of 29.2 volumes hydrogen and 14.6 volumes oxygen, being the proportions for water; and to this was added another mixture of 3 volumes oxygen and one volume olefiant gas, so that the olefiant gas formed but 1/40th part of the whole; yet in this mixture the platina plate would not act in forty-five hours.

The failure was not for want of any power in the plate, for when after that time it was taken out of this mixture and put into one of oxygen and hydrogen, it immediately acted, and in seven minutes caused explosion of the gas. This result was obtained several times, and when larger proportions of olefiant gas were used, the action seemed still more hopeless.

641. A mixture of forty-nine volumes oxygen and hydrogen (638.) with one volume of olefiant gas had a well-prepared platina plate introduced. The diminution of gas was scarcely sensible at the end of two hours, during which it was watched; but on examination twenty-four hours afterwards, the tube was found blown to pieces. The action, therefore, though it had been very much r.e.t.a.r.ded, had occurred at last, and risen to a maximum.

642. With a mixture of ninety-nine volumes of oxygen and hydrogen (638.) with one of olefiant gas, a feeble action was evident at the end of fifty minutes; it went on accelerating (630.) until the eighty-fifth minute, and then became so intense that the gas exploded. Here also the r.e.t.a.r.ding effect of the olefiant gas was very beautifully ill.u.s.trated.

643. Plates prepared by alkali and acid (605.) produced effects corresponding to those just described.

644. It is perfectly clear from these experiments, that _olefiant gas_, even in small quant.i.ties, has a very remarkable influence in preventing the combination of oxygen and hydrogen under these circ.u.mstances, and yet without at all injuring or affecting the power of the platina.

645. Another striking ill.u.s.tration of similar interference may be shown in _carbonic oxide_; especially if contrasted with _carbonic acid_. A mixture of one volume oxygen and hydrogen (638.) with four volumes of carbonic acid was affected at once by a platina plate prepared with acid, &c. (605.); and in one hour and a quarter nearly all the oxygen and hydrogen was gone.

Mixtures containing less carbonic acid were still more readily affected.

646. But when carbonic oxide was subst.i.tuted for the carbonic acid, not the slightest effect of combination was produced; and when the carbonic oxide was only one-eighth of the whole volume, no action occurred in forty and fifty hours. Yet the plates had not lost their power; for being taken out and put into pure oxygen and hydrogen, they acted well and at once.

647. Two volumes of carbonic oxide and one of oxygen were mingled with nine volumes of oxygen and hydrogen (638.). This mixture was not affected by a plate which had been made positive in acid, though it remained in it fifteen hours. But when to the same volumes of carbonic oxide and oxygen were added thirty-three volumes of oxygen and hydrogen, the carbonic oxide being then only 1/18th part of the whole, the plate acted, slowly at first, and at the end of forty-two minutes the gases exploded.

648. These experiments were extended to various gases and vapours, the general results of which may be given as follow. Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide, when used to dilute the mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, did not prevent the action of the plates even when they made four-fifths of the whole volume of gas acted upon. Nor was the r.e.t.a.r.dation so great in any case as might have been expected from the mere dilution of the oxygen and hydrogen, and the consequent mechanical obstruction to its contact with the platina. The order in which carbonic acid and these substances seemed to stand was as follows, the first interfering least with the action; _nitrous oxide, hydrogen, carbonic acid, nitrogen, oxygen_: but it is possible the plates were not equally well prepared in all the cases, and that other circ.u.mstances also were unequal; consequently more numerous experiments would be required to establish the order accurately.

649. As to cases of _r.e.t.a.r.dation_, the powers of olefiant gas and carbonic oxide have been already described. Mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen, containing from 1/16th to 1/20th of sulphuretted hydrogen or phosphuretted hydrogen, seemed to show a little action at first, but were not further affected by the prepared plates, though in contact with them for seventy hours. When the plates were removed they had lost all power over pure oxygen and hydrogen, and the interference of these gases was therefore of a different nature from that of the two former, having permanently affected the plate.

650. A small piece of cork was dipped in sulphuret of carbon and pa.s.sed up through water into a tube containing oxygen and hydrogen (638.), so as to diffuse a portion of its vapour through the gases. A plate being introduced appeared at first to act a little, but after sixty-one hours the diminution was very small. Upon putting the same plate into a pure mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, it acted at once and powerfully, having apparently suffered no diminution of its force.

651. A little vapour of ether being mixed with the oxygen and hydrogen r.e.t.a.r.ded the action of the plate, but did not prevent it altogether. A little of the vapour of the condensed oil-gas liquor[A] r.e.t.a.r.ded the action still more, but not nearly so much as an equal volume of olefiant gas would have done. In both these cases it was the original oxygen and hydrogen which combined together, the ether and the oil-gas vapour remaining unaffected, and in both cases the plates retained the power of acting on fresh oxygen and hydrogen.

[A] Philosophical Transactions, 1825, p.440.

652. Spongy platina was then used in place of the plates, and jets of hydrogen mingled with the different gases thrown against it in air. The results were exactly of the same kind, although presented occasionally in a more imposing form. Thus, mixtures of one volume of olefiant gas or carbonic oxide with three of hydrogen could not heat the spongy platina when the experiments were commenced at common temperatures; but a mixture of equal volumes of nitrogen and hydrogen acted very well, causing ignition. With carbonic acid the results were still more striking. A mixture of three volumes of that gas with one of hydrogen caused _ignition_ of the platina, yet that mixture would not continue to burn from the jet when attempts were made to light it by a taper. A mixture even of _seven_ volumes of carbonic acid and _one_ of hydrogen will thus cause the ignition of cold spongy platina, and yet, as if to supply a contrast, than which none can be greater, _it cannot burn at a taper_, but causes the extinction of the latter. On the other hand, the mixtures of carbonic oxide or olefiant gas, which can do nothing with the platina, are _inflamed_ by the taper, burning well.

653. Hydrogen mingled with the vapour of ether or oil-gas liquor causes the ignition of the spongy platina. The mixture with oil-gas burns with a flame far brighter than that of the mixture of hydrogen and olefiant gas already referred to, so that it would appear that the r.e.t.a.r.ding action of the hydrocarbons is not at all in proportion merely to the quant.i.ty of carbon present.

654. In connexion with these interferences, I must state, that hydrogen itself, prepared from steam pa.s.sed over ignited iron, was found when mingled with oxygen to resist the action of platina. It had stood over water seven days, and had lost all fetid smell; but a jet of it would not cause the ignition of spongy platina, commencing at common temperatures; nor would it combine with oxygen in a tube either under the influence of a prepared plate or of spongy platina. A mixture of one volume of this gas with three of pure hydrogen, and the due proportion of oxygen, was not affected by plates after fifty hours. I am inclined to refer the effect to carbonic oxide present in the gas, but have not had time to verify the suspicion. The power of the plates was not destroyed (640. 646.).

655. Such are the general facts of these remarkable interferences. Whether the effect produced by such small quant.i.ties of certain gases depends upon any direct action which they may exert upon the particles of oxygen and hydrogen, by which the latter are rendered less inclined to combine, or whether it depends upon their modifying the action of the plate temporarily (for they produce no real change on it), by investing it through the agency of a stronger attraction than that of the hydrogen, or otherwise, remains to be decided by more extended experiments.

656. The theory of action which I have given for the original phenomena appears to me quite sufficient to account for all the effects by reference to known properties, and dispenses with the a.s.sumption of any new power of matter. I have pursued this subject at some length, as one of great consequence, because I am convinced that the superficial actions of matter, whether between two bodies, or of one piece of the same body, and the actions of particles not directly or strongly in combination, are becoming daily more and more important to our theories of chemical as well as mechanical philosophy[A]. In all ordinary cases of combustion it is evident that an action of the kind considered, occurring upon the surface of the carbon in the fire, and also in the bright part of a flame, must have great influence over the combinations there taking place.

[A] As a curious ill.u.s.tration of the influence of mechanical forces over chemical affinity, I will quote the refusal of certain substances to effloresce when their surfaces are perfect, which yield immediately upon the surface being broken, If crystals of carbonate of soda, or phosphate of soda, or sulphate of soda, having no part of their surfaces broken, be preserved from external violence, they will not effloresce. I have thus retained crystals of carbonate of soda perfectly transparent and unchanged from September 1827 to January 1833; and crystals of sulphate of soda from May 1832 to the present time, November 1833. If any part of the surface were scratched or broken, then efflorescence began at that part, and covered the whole.

The crystals were merely placed in evaporating basins and covered with paper.

657. The condition of elasticity upon the exterior of the gaseous or vaporous ma.s.s already referred to (626. 627.), must be connected directly with the action of solid bodies, as nuclei, on vapours, causing condensation upon them in preference to any condensation in the vapours themselves; and in the well-known effect of nuclei on solutions a similar condition may have existence (623.), for an a.n.a.logy in condition exists between the parts of a body in solution, and those of a body in the vaporous or gaseous state. This thought leads us to the consideration of what are the respective conditions at the surfaces of contact of two portions of the same substance at the same temperature, one in the solid or liquid, and the other in the vaporous state; as, for instance, steam and water. It would seem that the particles of vapour next to the particles of liquid are in a different relation to the latter to what they would be with respect to any other liquid or solid substance; as, for instance, mercury or platina, if they were made to replace the water, i.e. if the view of independent action which I have taken (626. 627.) as a consequence of Dalton's principles, be correct. It would also seem that the mutual relation of similar particles, and the indifference of dissimilar particles which Dalton has established as a matter of fact amongst gases and vapours, extends to a certain degree amongst solids and fluids, that is, when they are in relation by contact with vapours, either of their own substance or of other bodies. But though I view these points as of great importance with respect to the relations existing between different substances and their physical const.i.tution in the solid, liquid, or gaseous state, I have not sufficiently considered them to venture any strong opinions or statements here[A].

[A] In reference to this paragraph and also 626, see a correction by Dr. C. Henry, in his valuable paper on this curious subject.

Philosophical Magazine, 1835. vol. vi. p. 305.--_Dec. 1838._

658. There are numerous well-known cases, in which substances, such as oxygen and hydrogen, act readily in their _nascent_ state, and produce chemical changes which they are not able to effect if once they have a.s.sumed the gaseous condition. Such instances are very common at the poles of the voltaic pile, and are, I think, easily accounted for, if it be considered that at the moment of separation of any such particle it is entirely surrounded by other particles of a _different_ kind with which it is in close contact, and has not yet a.s.sumed those relations and conditions which it has in its fully developed state, and which it can only a.s.sume by a.s.sociation with other particles of its own kind. For, at the moment, its elasticity is absent, and it is in the same relation to particles with which it is in contact, and for which it has an affinity, as the particles of oxygen and hydrogen are to each other on the surface of clean platina (626. 627.).

659. The singular effects of r.e.t.a.r.dation produced by very small quant.i.ties of some gases, and not by large quant.i.ties of others (640. 645. 652.), if dependent upon any relation of the added gas to the surface of the solid, will then probably be found immediately connected with the curious phenomena which are presented by different gases when pa.s.sing through narrow tubes at low pressures, which I observed many years ago[A]; and this action of surfaces must, I think, influence the highly interesting phenomena of the diffusion of gases, at least in the form in which it has been experimented upon by Mr. Graham in 1829 and 1831[B], and also by Dr.

Mitch.e.l.l of Philadelphia[C] in 1830. It seems very probable that if such a substance as spongy platina were used, another law for the diffusion of gases under the circ.u.mstances would come out than that obtained by the use of plaster of Paris.

[A] Quarterly Journal of Science, 1819, vol. vii. p. 106.

[B] Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. xxviii. p. 74, and Edinburgh Transactions, 1831.

[C] Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tution for 1831, p. 101.