scholarly journals III. Experiments on the quantity of gases absorbed by water, at different temperatures, and under different pressures

1803 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 29-274 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Acid Gas ◽  
Different Temperatures ◽  
Chemical History

Though the solubility of an individual gas in water forms, generally, a part of its chemical history, yet this property has been overlooked, in the examination of several species of the class of aëriform substances. The carbonic acid, indeed, is the only gas whose relation to water has been an object of much attention; and, at a very early period of its history, Mr. Cavendish, in the course of inquiries, the results of which were the groundwork of the most important subsequent discoveries, ascertained, with peculiar care, the proportion of carbonic acid gas condensible in water, at the temperature of 55º of Fahrenheit. Dr. Priestley also, about the same period, directed his attention to the saturation of water with fixed air, and contrived a simple and effectual mode of obtaining this impregnation. His apparatus, afterwards, gave way to the more manageable one of Dr. Nooth; and this, in its turn, has been superseded by the improved mode of condensing, into water, many times its bulk of various gases, invented and practised by several chemical artists, (as well as by myself,) both in this country and abroad. The influence of pressure, in accomplishing this strong impregnation, was first, I believe, suggested by Dr. Priestley. “In an exhausted receiver,” that most ingenious philosopher observes, “Pyrmont water will actually boil, by the copious “discharge of its air; and I do not doubt, therefore, that by “means of a condensing engine, water might be much more “highly impregnated with the virtues of the Pyrmont “spring.”

scholarly journals IV. On the action of electricity on gases.—II. On the electric decomposition of carbonic-acid gas

1874 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 83-103 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Pure Oxygen ◽  
Subsequent Removal ◽  
Acid Gas ◽  
Critical Experiment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Mixed Gases ◽  
Requisite Amount

At a very early period of the investigation on the action of electricity upon oxygen, which formed the subject of my previous memoir, the idea occurred to me that although but a small and limited proportion of the total oxygen passed through the induction-tube was converted into ozone (which proportion could not be exceeded by any modification I had been able to effect in the conditions of the experiment), it might be practicable to replace that portion of the oxygen which was unaffected by the action of electricity by an indifferent gas, and thus effect the total conversion of oxygen into ozone, or even the actual isolation of the ozone by the subsequent removal of the gas by which it was diluted. Thus, for example, by the passage of 100 cub. centims. of oxygen through the induction-tube, a gas can readily be obtained of which the iodinetitre is 5 cub. centims. This corresponds, according to my previous experiments, to an absorption by hyposulphite of soda of 10 cub. centims. of a gas containing in that space the matter of 15 cub. centims. of oxygen. If, therefore, we were to mix 15 cub. centims. of oxygen with 85 cub. centims. of an indifferent gas which should be unaffected by the action of the electricity, and pass the mixed gases through the induction-tube (assuming the same proportion of ozone to be still formed as in the case of the passage through the tube of pure oxygen), the total amount of oxygen in the gas would be con­verted into ozone, and be removed in that form by passing the gas though a solution of hyposulphite of soda. With the view of testing this idea by a critical experiment, I passed such a mixture of carbonic-acid gas and oxygen through the induction-tube. The formation of ozone was at once apparent, and was rendered evident by the action of the gas issuing from the induction-tube upon a neutral solution of iodide of potassium. But on examining the composition of the gas I soon discovered that the proportion of oxygen in it had actually increased, owing to the decomposition in the induction-tube of the carbonic-acid gas into oxygen and carbonic oxide. I did not publish this experiment; but the apparatus by which it was effected long stood upon my laboratory table, and, together with the results, has repeatedly been explained by me to other chemists. Since that time, as appears from the pages of the 'Comptes Rendus,’ this decomposition of carbonic-acid gas under the influence of electricity has been cited as a novel discovery. So far as the bare fact of the decomposition of carbonic-acid gas, under the influence of electricity, in the induction-tube into oxygen and carbonic oxide is concerned, the results of this experiment might, even at the time it was made by me, have reasonably been anticipated, not only from the circumstance that carbonic-acid gas is, as is well known, decomposed by the passage of the electric spark, but also that Plücker had already observed (although I was unaware of the observation) that when the electric discharge was passed through rarefied carbonic-acid gas, the spectrum of the gas after a short time changed into the spectrum of carbonic oxide, and from this circumstance had inferred the decomposition of the gas. But the observations of this eminent investigator were made under very different circumstances to mine; and he was not cognizant of the forma­tion of ozone, which was the critical point of my experiment, and a result which could not have been ascertained by his method of observation. The experiment having failed in its immediate object was for a time laid aside by me. Subsequently, however, I reverted to it under a somewhat modified form. It occurred to me, instead of mixing oxygen with carbonic acid, to endeavour to generate in the very atmosphere of the carbonic acid itself, by the electric decomposition of the gas, the requisite amount of oxygen. I passed, therefore, pure and dry carbonic acid through the induction-tube, and examined the gases resulting from its decomposition, estimating the ozone by the titre of the gas, and also the oxygen and carbonic oxide formed. This examination at once convinced me of the importance of the experiment in reference to the problem of the isolation of ozone, and became the foundation of the following research, which has gradually been extended in more than one direction.

scholarly journals Asphyxia from Carbonic Acid Gas

1852 ◽  
Vol 46 (13) ◽  
pp. 260-261
Author(s):  
E. C. CROSS
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Acid Gas

scholarly journals Observations on the theory of respiration

1837 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 334-335
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
Hydrogen Gas ◽  
The Body ◽  
Pure Hydrogen ◽  
Atmospheric Air ◽  
Acid Gas ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Dark Colour ◽  
Oxygen Gas

From the fact that no carbonic acid gas is given out by venous blood when that fluid is subjected to the action of the air-pump, former experimentalists had inferred that this blood contains no carbonic acid. The author of the present paper contends that this is an erroneous inference; first, by showing that serum, which had been made to absorb a considerable quantity of this gas, does not yield it upon the removal of the atmospheric pressure; and next, by adducing several experiments in proof of the strong attraction exerted on carbonic acid both by hydrogen and by oxygen gases, which were found to absorb it readily through the medium of moistened membrane. By means of a peculiar apparatus, consisting of a double-necked bottle, to which a set of bent tubes were adapted, he ascertained that venous blood, agitated with pure hydrogen gas, and allowed to remain for an hour in contact with it, imparts to that gas a considerable quantity of carbonic acid. The same result had, indeed, been obtained, in a former experiment, by the simple application of heat to venous blood confined under hydrogen gas; but on account of the possible chemical agency of heat, the inference drawn from that experiment is less conclusive than from experiments in which the air-pump alone is employed. The author found that, in like manner, atmospheric air, by remaining, for a sufficient time, in contact with venous blood, on the application of the air-pump, acquires carbonic acid. The hypothesis that the carbon of the blood attracts the oxygen of the air into the fluid, and there combines with it, and that the carbonic acid thus formed is afterwards exhaled, appears to be inconsistent with the fact that all acids, and carbonic acid more especially, impart to the blood a black colour; whereas the immediate effect of exposing venous blood to atmospheric air, or to oxygen gas, is a change of colour from a dark to a bright scarlet, implying its conversion from the venous to the arterial character: hence the author infers that the acid is not formed during the experiment in question, but already exists in the venous blood, and is extracted from it by the atmospheric air. Similar experiments made with oxygen gas, in place of atmospheric air, were attended with the like results, but in a more striking degree and tend therefore to corroborate the views entertained by the author of the theory of respiration. According to these views, it is neither in the lungs, nor generally in the course of the circulation, but only during its passage through the capillary system of vessels, that the blood undergoes the change from arterial to venous; a change consisting in the formation of carbonic acid, by the addition of particles of carbon derived from the solid textures of the body, and which had combined with the oxygen supplied by the arterial blood: and it is by this combination that heat is evolved, as well as a dark colour imparted to the blood. The author ascribes, however, the bright red colour of arterial blood, not to the action of oxygen, which is of itself completely inert as a colouring agent, but to that of the saline ingredients naturally contained in healthy blood. On arriving at the lungs, the first change induced on the blood is effected by the oxygen of the atmospheric air, and consists in the removal of the carbonic acid, which had been the source of the dark colour of the venous blood; and the second consists in the attraction by the blood of a portion of oxygen, which it absorbs from the air, and which takes the place of the carbonic acid. The peculiar texture of the lungs, and the elevation of temperature in warm-blooded animals, concur in promoting the rapid production of these changes.

scholarly journals CHOLERA—PREVENTIVE QUALITIES OF CARBONIC ACID GAS AND CARBON.

The Lancet ◽  
1848 ◽  
Vol 52 (1308) ◽  
pp. 355
Author(s):  
ThomasT. Ritson
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Acid Gas

scholarly journals On the respiration of the leaves of plants

1843 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 466-466
Keyword(s):  
Natural Condition ◽  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Atmospheric Air ◽  
Acid Gas ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
As If

The author gives an account of a series of experiments on the products of the respiration of plants, and more particularly of the leaves; selecting, with this view, specimens of plants which had been previously habituated to respire constantly under an inclosure of glass; and employing, for that purpose, the apparatus which he had formerly used in experimenting on the combustion of the diamond, and consisting of two mercurial gasometers, with the addition of two hemispheres of glass closely joined together at their bases, so as to form an air-tight globular receptacle for the plant subjected to experiment. The general conclusions he deduces from his numerous experiments conducted during several years, are, first, that in leaves which are in a state of vigorous health, vegetation is always operating to restore the surrounding atmospheric air to its natural condition, by the absorption of carbonic acid and the disengagement of oxygenous gas: that this action is promoted by the influence of light, but that it continues to be exerted, although more slowly, even in the dark. Secondly, that carbonic acid is never disengaged during the healthy condition of the leaf. Thirdly, that the fluid so abundantly exhaled by plants in their vegetation is pure water, and contains no trace of carbonic acid. Fourthly, that the first portions of carbonic acid gas contained in an artificial atmosphere, are taken up with more avidity by plants than the remaining portions; as if their appetite for that pabulum had diminished by satiety.

scholarly journals VI. An examination into the structure of the cells of the human lungs; with a view to ascertain the office they perform in respiration. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. V. P. R. S. Illustrated by microscopical drawings from the pencil of F. Bauer, Esq. F. R. S

1827 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 58-64 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Present Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Atmospheric Air ◽  
Acid Gas ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Human Lungs ◽  
Measure For Measure ◽  
Anatomical Knowledge

No subject connected with physiological enquiry has more excited the attention of the anatomist and chemist, than respiration; but the association between this subject and animal heat, which has so long been supposed to exist, has led to the belief, for the last century, that both enquiries belong more particularly to chemistry than anatomy, and I may probably be considered as going out of my province in taking up this investigation. On the other hand, I see reason to believe that the process of respiration is in itself more simple than is imagined, and more within the reach of disco­very by means of accurate anatomical knowledge of the parts employed, than by means of acquaintance with the intricacies belonging to chemical affinities: I carry this so far as to contend that no explanation of respiration upon chemical principles is to be depended on, unless it accord in all respects with the anatomy and physiology of the lungs , by which the assumed process takes place. The present theory respecting respiration adopted by the chemists, is, that this process decarbonises the blood in the following manner; at every inspiration a compound of oxygen and nitrogen, mixed together, is received into the lungs, and in every expiration, the same volume is returned, measure for measure exactly, with this only difference, that what entered as oxygen is returned in the form of carbonic acid gas, which, according to their theory, proves that no part of the inspired atmospheric air has been retained in the lungs, but a quantity of carbon, equal to that of the oxygen inspired, has been extracted from the blood by the oxygen, making it become carbonic acid gas.

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