CHAPTER III

OXYGEN AND THE CHIEF ASPECTS OF ITS SALINE COMBINATIONS

On the earth's surface there is no other element which is so widely distributed as oxygen in its various compounds.[1] It makes up eight-ninths of the weight of water, which occupies the greater part of the earth's surface. Nearly all earthy substances and rocks consist of compounds of oxygen with metals and other elements. Thus, the greater part of sand is formed of silica, SiO₂, which contains 53 p.c. of oxygen; clay contains water, alumina (formed of aluminium and oxygen), and silica. It may be considered that earthy substances and rocks contain up to one-third of their weight of oxygen; animal and vegetable substances are also very rich in oxygen. Without counting the water present in them, plants contain up to 40, and animals up to 20 p.c. by weight of oxygen. Thus, oxygen compounds predominate on the earth's surface. Besides this, a portion exists in a free state, and is contained in admixture with nitrogen in the atmosphere, forming about one-fourth of its mass, or one-fifth of its volume.

Being so widely distributed in nature, oxygen plays a very important part in it, for a number of the phenomena which take place before us are mainly dependent on it. Animals breathe air in order to obtain only oxygen from it, the oxygen entering into their respiratory organs (the lungs of human beings and animals, the gills of fishes, and the trachæ of insects); they, so to say, drink in air in order to absorb the oxygen. The oxygen of the air (or dissolved in water) passes through the membranes of the respiratory organs into the blood, is retained in it by the blood corpuscles, is transmitted by their means to all parts of the body, aids their transformations, bringing about chemical processes in them, and chiefly extracting carbon from them in the form of carbonic anhydride, the greater part of which passes into the blood, is dissolved by it, and is thrown off by the lungs during the absorption of the oxygen. Thus, in the process of respiration carbonic anhydride (and water) is given off, and the oxygen of the air absorbed, by which means the blood is changed from a red venous to a dark-red arterial blood. The cessation of this process causes death, because then all those chemical processes, and the consequent heat and work which the oxygen introduced into the system brought about, cease. For this reason suffocation and death ensue in a vacuum, or in a gas which does not contain free oxygen, i.e. which does not support combustion. If an animal be placed in an atmosphere of free oxygen, at first its movements are very active and a general invigoration is remarked, but a reaction soon sets in, and death may ensue. The oxygen of the air when it enters the lungs is diluted with four volumes of nitrogen, which is not absorbed into the system, so that the blood absorbs but a small quantity of oxygen from the air, whilst in an atmosphere of pure oxygen a large quantity of oxygen would be absorbed, and would produce a very rapid change of all parts of the organism, and destroy it. From what has been said, it will be understood that oxygen may be employed in respiration, at any rate for a limited time, when the respiratory organs suffer under certain forms of suffocation and impediment to breathing.[2]

The combustion of organic substances—that is, substances which make up the composition of plants and animals—proceeds in the same manner as the combustion of many inorganic substances, such as sulphur, phosphorus, iron, &c., from the combination of these substances with oxygen, as was described in the Introduction. The decomposition, rotting, and similar transformations of substances, which proceed around us, are also very often dependent on the action of the oxygen of the air, and also reduce it from a free to a combined state. The majority of the compounds of oxygen are, like water, very stable, and do not give up their oxygen under the ordinary conditions of nature. As these processes are taking place everywhere, it might be expected that the amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere should decrease, and this decrease should proceed somewhat rapidly. This is, in fact, observed where combustion or respiration proceeds in a closed space. Animals suffocate in a closed space because in consuming the oxygen the air remains unfit for respiration. In the same manner combustion, after a time, ceases in a closed space, which may be proved by a very simple experiment. An ignited substance—for instance, a piece of burning sulphur—has only to be placed in a glass flask, which is then closed with a stout cork to prevent the access of the external air; combustion will proceed for a certain time, so long as the flask contains any free oxygen, but it will cease when the oxygen of the enclosed air has combined with the sulphur. From what has been said, it is evident that regularity of combustion or respiration requires a constant renewal of air—that is, that the burning substance or respiring animal should have access to a fresh supply of oxygen. This is attained in dwellings by having many windows, outlets, and ventilators, and by the current of air produced by fires and stoves. As regards the air over the entire earth's surface its amount of oxygen hardly decreases, because in nature there is a process going on which renews the supply of free oxygen. Plants, or rather their leaves, during daytime,[3] under the influence of light, absorb carbonic anhydride CO₂, and evolve free oxygen. Thus the loss of oxygen which occurs in consequence of the respiration of animals and of combustion is made good by plants. If a leaf be placed in a bell jar containing water, and carbonic anhydride (because this gas is absorbed and oxygen evolved from it by plants) be passed into the bell, and the whole apparatus placed in sunlight, then oxygen will accumulate in the bell jar. This experiment was first made by Priestley at the end of the last century. Thus the life of plants on the earth not only serves for the formation of food for animals, but also for keeping up a constant percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. In the long period of the life of the earth an equilibrium has been attained between the processes absorbing and evolving oxygen, by which a definite quantity of free oxygen is preserved in the entire mass of the atmosphere.[4]

Oxygen was obtained as an independent gas in 1774 by Priestley in England and in the same year by Scheele in Sweden, but its nature and great importance were only perfectly elucidated by Lavoisier.

Free oxygen may be obtained by one or other method from all the substances in which it occurs. Thus, for instance, the oxygen of many substances may be transferred into water, from which, as we have already seen, oxygen may be obtained.[5] We will first consider the methods of extracting oxygen from air as being a substance everywhere distributed. The separation of oxygen from it is, however, hampered by many difficulties.

From air, which contains a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, the nitrogen alone cannot be removed, because it has no inclination to combine directly or readily with any substance; and although it does combine with certain substances (boron, titanium), these substances combine simultaneously with the oxygen of the atmosphere.[6] However, oxygen may be separated from air by causing it to combine with substances which may be easily decomposed by the action of heat, and, in so doing, give up the oxygen absorbed—that is, by making use of reversible reactions. Thus, for instance, the oxygen of the atmosphere may be made to oxidise sulphurous anhydride, SO₂ (by passing directly over ignited spongy platinum), and to form sulphuric anhydride, or sulphur trioxide, SO₃; and this substance (which is a solid and volatile, and therefore easily separated from the nitrogen and sulphurous anhydride), on further heating, gives oxygen and sulphurous anhydride. Caustic soda or lime extracts (absorbs) the sulphurous anhydride from this mixture, whilst the oxygen is not absorbed, and thus it is isolated from the air. On a large scale in works, as we shall afterwards see, sulphurous anhydride is transformed into hydrate of sulphuric trioxide, or sulphuric acid, H₂SO₄; if this is allowed to drop on to red-hot flagstones, water, sulphurous anhydride, and oxygen are obtained. The oxygen is easily isolated from this mixture by passing the gases over lime. The extraction of oxygen from oxide of mercury (Priestley, Lavoisier), which is obtained from mercury and the oxygen of the atmosphere, is also a reversible reaction by which oxygen may be obtained from the atmosphere. So also, by passing dry air through a red-hot tube containing barium oxide, it is made to combine with the oxygen of the air. In this reaction the so-called barium peroxide, BaO₂, is formed from the barium oxide, BaO, and at a higher temperature the former evolves the absorbed oxygen, and leaves the barium oxide originally taken.[7]

Oxygen is evolved with particular ease by a whole series of unstable oxygen compounds, of which we shall proceed to take a general survey, remarking that many of these reactions, although not all, belong to the number of reversible reactions;[8] so that in order to obtain many of these substances (for instance, potassium chlorate) rich in oxygen, recourse must be had to indirect methods (see Introduction) with which we shall become acquainted in the course of this book.

1. The compounds of oxygen with certain metals, and especially with the so-called noble metals—that is, mercury, silver, gold, and platinum—having once been obtained, retain their oxygen at the ordinary temperature, but part with it at a red heat. The compounds are solids, generally amorphous and infusible, and are easily decomposed by heat into the metal and oxygen. We have seen an example of this in speaking of the decomposition of mercury oxide. Priestley, in 1774, obtained pure oxygen for the first time by heating mercury oxide by means of a burning-glass, and clearly showed its difference from air. He showed its characteristic property of supporting combustion ‘with remarkable vigour,’ and named it dephlogisticated air.

2. The substances called peroxides[9] evolve oxygen at a greater or less heat (and also by the action of many acids). They usually contain metals combined with a large quantity of oxygen. Peroxides are the highest oxides of certain metals; those metals which form them generally give several compounds with oxygen. Those of the lowest degrees of oxidation, containing the least amount of oxygen, are generally substances which are capable of easily reacting with acids—for instance, with sulphuric acid. Such low oxides are called bases. Peroxides contain more oxygen than the bases formed by the same metals. For example, lead oxide contains 7·1 parts of oxygen in 100 parts, and is basic, but lead peroxide contains 13·3 parts of oxygen in 100 parts. Manganese peroxide is a similar substance, and is a solid of a dark colour, which occurs in nature. It is employed for technical purposes under the name of black oxide of manganese (in German, ‘Braunstein,’ the pyrolusite of the mineralogist). Peroxides are able to evolve oxygen at a more or less elevated temperature. They do not then part with all their oxygen, but with only a portion of it, and are converted into a lower oxide or base. Thus, for example, lead peroxide, on heating, gives oxygen and lead oxide. The decomposition of this peroxide proceeds tolerably easily on heating, even in a glass vessel, but manganese peroxide only evolves oxygen at a strong red heat, and therefore oxygen can only be obtained from it in iron, or other metallic, or clay vessels. This was formerly the method for obtaining oxygen. Manganese peroxide only parts with one-third of its oxygen (according to the equation 3MnO₂ = Mn₃O₄ + O₂), whilst two-thirds remain in the solid substance which forms the residue after heating. Metallic peroxides are also capable of evolving oxygen on heating with sulphuric acid. They then evolve just that amount of oxygen which is in excess of that necessary for the formation of the base, the latter reacting on the sulphuric acid forming a compound (salt) with it. Thus barium peroxide, when heated with sulphuric acid, forms oxygen and barium oxide, which gives a compound with sulphuric acid termed barium sulphate (BaO₂ + H₂SO₄ = BaSO₄ + H₂O + O).[9 bis] This reaction usually proceeds with greater ease than the decomposition of peroxides by heat alone. For the purposes of experiment powdered manganese peroxide is usually taken and mixed with strong sulphuric acid in a flask, and the apparatus set up as shown in Fig. 28. The gas which is evolved is passed through a Woulfe's bottle containing a solution of caustic potash, to purify it from carbonic anhydride and chlorine, which accompany the evolution of oxygen from commercial manganese peroxide, and the gas is not collected until a thin smouldering taper placed in front of the escape orifice bursts into flame, which shows that the gas coming off is oxygen. By this method of decomposition of the manganese peroxide by sulphuric acid there is evolved, not, as in heating, one-third, but one-half of the oxygen contained in the peroxide (MnO₂ + H₂SO₄ = MnSO₄ + H₂O + O)—that is, from 50 grams of peroxide about 7⅕ grams, or about 5½ litres, of oxygen,[10] whilst by heating only about 3½ litres are obtained. The chemists of Lavoisier's time generally obtained oxygen by heating manganese peroxide. At the present time more convenient methods are known.

3. A third source to which recourse may be had for obtaining oxygen is represented in acids and salts containing much oxygen, which are capable, by parting with a portion or all of their oxygen, of being converted into other compounds (lower products of oxidation) which are more difficultly decomposed. These acids and salts (like peroxides) evolve oxygen either on heating alone, or only when in the presence of some other substance. Sulphuric acid may be taken as an example of an acid which is decomposed by the action of heat alone,[11] for it breaks up at a red heat into water, sulphurous anhydride, and oxygen, as was mentioned before. Priestley, in 1772, and Scheele, somewhat later, obtained oxygen by heating nitre to a red heat. The best examples of the formation of oxygen by the heating of salts is given in potassium chlorate, or Berthollet's salt, so called after the French chemist who discovered it. Potassium chlorate is a salt composed of the elements potassium, chlorine, and oxygen, KClO₃. It occurs as transparent colourless plates, is soluble in water, especially in hot water, and resembles common table salt in some of its reactions and physical properties; it melts on heating, and in melting begins to decompose, evolving oxygen gas. This decomposition ends in all the oxygen being evolved from the potassium chlorate, potassium chloride being left as a residue, according to the equation KClO₃ = KCl + O₃.[12] This decomposition proceeds at a temperature which allows of its being conducted in a glass vessel. However, in decomposing, the molten potassium chlorate swells up and boils, and gradually solidifies, so the evolution of the oxygen is not regular, and the glass vessel may crack. In order to overcome this inconvenience, the potassium chlorate is crushed and mixed with a powder of a substance which is infusible, incapable of combining with the oxygen evolved, and is a good conductor of heat. Usually it is mixed with manganese peroxide.[13] The decomposition of the potassium chlorate is then considerably facilitated, and proceeds at a lower temperature (because the entire mass is then better heated, both externally and internally), without swelling up, and this method is therefore more convenient than the decomposition of the salt alone. This method for the preparation of oxygen is very convenient; it is generally employed when a small quantity of oxygen is required. Further, potassium chlorate is easily obtained pure, and it evolves much oxygen. 100 grams of the salt give as much as 39 grams, or 30 litres, of oxygen. This method is so simple and easy,[14] that a course of practical chemistry is often commenced by the preparation of oxygen by this method, and of hydrogen by the aid of zinc and sulphuric acid, since by means of these gases many interesting and striking experiments may be performed.[15]

A solution of bleaching powder, which contains calcium hypochlorite, CaCl₂O₂, evolves oxygen on gently heating when a small quantity of certain oxides is added—for instance, cobalt oxide, which in this case acts by contact (see Introduction). When heated by itself, a solution of bleaching powder does not evolve oxygen, but it oxidises the cobalt oxide to a higher degree of oxidation; this higher oxide of cobalt in contact with the bleaching powder decomposes into oxygen and lower oxidation products, and the resultant lower oxide of cobalt with bleaching powder again gives the higher oxide, which again gives up its oxygen, and so on.[16] The calcium hypochlorite is here decomposed according to the equation CaCl₂O₂ = CaCl₂ + O₂. In this manner a small quantity of cobalt oxide[17] is sufficient for the decomposition of an indefinitely large quantity of bleaching powder.

The properties of oxygen.[18]—It is a permanent gas—that is, it cannot be liquefied by pressure at the ordinary temperature, and further, is only liquefied with difficulty (although more easily than hydrogen) at temperatures below -120°, because this is its absolute boiling point. As its critical pressure[19] is about 50 atmospheres, it can be easily liquefied under pressures greater than 50 atmospheres at temperatures below -120°. According to Dewar, the density of oxygen in a critical state is 0·65 (water = 1), but, like all other substances in this state,[20] it varies considerably in density with a change of pressure and temperature, and therefore many investigators who made their observations under high pressures give a greater density, as much as 1·1. Liquefied oxygen is an exceedingly mobile transparent liquid, with a faint blue tint and boiling (tension = 1 atmosphere) about -180°. Oxygen, like all gases, is transparent, and like the majority of gases, colourless. It has no smell or taste, which is evident from the fact of its being a component of air. The weight of one litre of oxygen gas at 0° and 760 mm. pressure is 1·4298 gram; it is therefore slightly denser than air. Its density in respect to air = 1·1056 and in respect to hydrogen = 16.[21]

In its chemical properties oxygen is remarkable from the fact that it very easily—and, in a chemical sense, vigorously—reacts on a number of substances, forming oxygen compounds. However, only a few substances and mixtures of substances (for example, phosphorus, copper with ammonia, decomposing organic matter, aldehyde, pyrogallol with an alkali, &c.) combine directly with oxygen at the ordinary temperature, whilst many substances easily combine with oxygen at a red heat, and often this combination presents a rapid chemical reaction accompanied by the evolution of a large quantity of heat. Every reaction which takes place rapidly, if it be accompanied by so great an evolution of heat as to produce incandescence, is termed combustion. Thus combustion ensues when many metals are plunged into chlorine, or oxide of sodium or barium into carbonic anhydride, or when a spark falls on gunpowder. A great many substances are combustible in oxygen, and, owing to its presence, in air also. In order to start combustion it is generally necessary[22] that the combustible substance should be brought to a state of incandescence. The continuation of the process does not require the aid of fresh external heat, because sufficient heat[23] is evolved to raise the temperature of the remaining parts of the combustible substance to the required degree. Examples of this are familiar to all from every-day experience. Combustion proceeds in oxygen with greater rapidity, and is accompanied by a more powerful incandescence, than in ordinary air. This may be demonstrated by a number of very convincing experiments. If a piece of charcoal, attached to a wire and previously brought to red-heat, be plunged into a flask full of oxygen, it burns rapidly at a white heat—i.e. it combines with the oxygen, forming a gaseous product of combustion called carbonic anhydride, or carbonic acid gas, CO₂. This is the same gas that is evolved in the act of respiration, for charcoal is one of the substances which is obtained by the decomposition of all organic substances which contain it, and in the process of respiration part of the constituents of the body, so to speak, slowly burn. If a piece of burning sulphur be placed in a small cup attached to a wire and introduced into a flask full of oxygen, then the sulphur, which burns in air with a very feeble flame, burns in the oxygen with a violet flame, which, although pale, is much larger than in air. If the sulphur be exchanged for a piece of phosphorus,[24] then, unless the phosphorus be heated, it combines very slowly with the oxygen; but, if heated, although on only one spot, it burns with an exceedingly brilliant white flame. In order to heat the phosphorus inside the flask, the simplest way is to bring a red-hot wire into contact with it. Before the charcoal can burn, it must be brought to a state of incandescence. Sulphur also will not burn under 100°, whilst phosphorus inflames at 40°. Phosphorus which has been already lighted in air cannot so well be introduced into the flask, because it burns very rapidly and with a large flame in air. If a small lump of metallic sodium be put in a small cup made of lime,[25] melted, and ignited,[26] it burns very feebly in air. But if burning sodium be introduced into oxygen, the combustion is invigorated and is accompanied by a brighter yellow flame. Metallic magnesium, which burns brightly in air, continues to burn with still greater vigour in oxygen, forming a white powder, which is a compound of magnesium with oxygen (magnesium oxide; magnesia). A strip of iron or steel does not burn in air, but an iron wire or steel spring may be easily burnt in oxygen.[27] The combustion of steel or iron in oxygen is not accompanied by a flame, but sparks of oxide fly in all directions from the burning portions of the iron.[28]

In order to demonstrate by experiment the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen, a gas-conducting tube, bent so as to form a convenient jet, is led from the vessel evolving hydrogen. The hydrogen is first set light to in air, and then the gas-conducting tube is let down into a flask containing oxygen. The combustion in oxygen will be similar to that in air; the flame remains pale, notwithstanding the fact that its temperature rises considerably. It is instructive to remark that oxygen may burn in hydrogen, just as hydrogen in oxygen. In order to show the combustion of oxygen in hydrogen, a tube bent vertically upwards and ending in a fine orifice is attached to the stopcock of a gas-holder full of oxygen. Two wires, placed at such a distance from each other as to allow the passage of a constant series of sparks from a Ruhmkorff's coil, are fixed in front of the orifice of the tube. This is in order to ignite the oxygen, which may also be done by attaching tinder round the orifice, and burning it. When the wires are arranged at the orifice of the tube, and a series of sparks passes between them, then an inverted (because of the lightness of the hydrogen) jar full of hydrogen is placed over the gas-conducting tube. When the jar covers the orifice of the gas-conducting tube (and not before, as otherwise an explosion might take place) the cock of the gasometer is opened, and the oxygen flows into the hydrogen and is set light to by the sparks. The flame obtained is similar to that formed by the combustion of hydrogen in oxygen.[29] From this it is evident that the flame is the locality where the oxygen combines with the hydrogen, therefore a flame of burning oxygen can be obtained as well as a flame of burning hydrogen.

If, instead of hydrogen, any other combustible gas be taken—for example, ordinary coal gas—then the phenomenon of combustion will be exactly the same, only a bright flame will be obtained, and the products of combustion will be different. However, as coal gas contains a considerable amount of free and combined hydrogen, it will also form a considerable quantity of water in its combustion.

If hydrogen be mixed with oxygen in the proportion in which they form water—i.e. if two volumes of hydrogen be taken for each volume of oxygen—then the mixture will be the same as that obtained by the decomposition of water by a galvanic current—detonating gas.

We have already mentioned in the last chapter that the combination of these gases, or their explosion, may be brought about by the action of an electric spark, because the spark heats the space through which it passes, and acts consequently in a manner similar to ignition by means of contact with an incandescent or burning substance.[29 bis] Cavendish made this experiment on the ignition of detonating gas, at the end of the last century, in the apparatus shown in fig. 31. Ignition by the aid of the electric spark is convenient, for the reason that it may then be brought about in a closed vessel, and hence chemists still employ this method when it is required to ignite a mixture of oxygen with a combustible gas in a closed vessel. For this purpose, especially since Bunsen's time,[30] an eudiometer is employed. It consists of a thick glass tube graduated along its length in millimetres (for indicating the height of the mercury column), and calibrated for a definite volume (weight of mercury). Two platinum wires are fused into the upper closed end of the tube, as shown in fig. 32.[31] By the aid of the eudiometer we may not only determine the volumetric composition of water,[32] and the quantitative contents of oxygen in air,[33] but also make a number of experiments explaining the phenomenon of combustion.

Thus, for example, it may be demonstrated, by the aid of the eudiometer, that for the ignition of detonating gas, a definite temperature is required. If the temperature be below that required, combination will not take place, but if at any spot within the tube it rises to the temperature of inflammation, then combination will ensue at that spot, and evolve enough heat for the ignition of the adjacent portions of the detonating mixture. If to 1 volume of detonating gas there be added 10 volumes of oxygen, or 4 volumes of hydrogen, or 3 volumes of carbonic anhydride, then we shall not obtain an explosion by passing a spark through the diluted mixture. This depends on the fact that the temperature falls with the dilution of the detonating gas by another gas, because the heat evolved by the combination of the small quantity of hydrogen and oxygen brought to incandescence by the spark is not only transmitted to the water proceeding from the combination, but also to the foreign substance mixed with the detonating gas.[34] The necessity of a definite temperature for the ignition of detonating gas is also seen from the fact that pure detonating gas explodes in the presence of a red-hot iron wire, or of charcoal heated to 275°, but with a lower degree of incandescence there is not any explosion. It may also be brought about by rapid compression, when, as is known, heat is evolved.[35] Experiments made in the eudiometer showed that the ignition of detonating gas takes place at a temperature between 450° and 560°.[36]

The combination of hydrogen with oxygen is accompanied by the evolution of a very considerable amount of heat; according to the determinations of Favre and Silbermann,[37] 1 part by weight of hydrogen in forming water evolves 34,462 units of heat. Many of the most recent determinations are very close to this figure, so that it may be taken that in the formation of 18 parts of water (H₂O) there are evolved 69 major calories, or 69,000 units of heat.[38] If the specific heat of aqueous vapour (0·48) remained constant from the ordinary temperature to that at which the combustion of detonating gas takes place (but there is now no doubt that it increases), were the combustion concentrated at one point[39] (but it occurs in the whole region of a flame), were there no loss from radiation and heat conduction, and did dissociation not take place—that is, did not a state of equilibrium between the hydrogen, oxygen, and water come about—then it would be possible to calculate the temperature of the flame of detonating gas. It would then be 8,000°.[40] In reality it is very much lower, but it is nevertheless higher than the temperature attained in furnaces and flames, and is as high as 2,000°. The explosion of detonating gas is explained by this high temperature, because the aqueous vapour formed must occupy a volume at least 5 times greater than that occupied by the detonating gas at the ordinary temperature. Detonating gas emits a sound, not only as a consequence of the commotion which occurs from the rapid expansion of the heated vapour, but also because it is immediately followed by a cooling effect, the conversion of the vapour into water, and a rapid contraction.[41]

Mixtures of hydrogen and of various other gases with oxygen are taken advantage of for obtaining high temperatures. By the aid of such high temperatures metals like platinum may be melted on a large scale, which cannot be performed in furnaces heated with charcoal and fed by a current of air. The burner, shown in fig. 34, is constructed for the application of detonating gas to the purpose. It consists of two brass tubes, one fixed inside the other, as shown in the drawing. The internal central tube C C conducts oxygen, and the outside, enveloping, tube E' E' conducts hydrogen. Previous to their egress the gases do not mix together, so that there can be no explosion inside the apparatus. When this burner is in use C is connected with a gas-holder containing oxygen, and E with a gas-holder containing hydrogen (or sometimes coal-gas). The flow of the gases can be easily regulated by the stopcocks O H. The flame is shortest and evolves the greatest heat when the gases burning are in the proportion of 1 volume of oxygen to 2 volumes of hydrogen. The degree of heat may be easily judged from the fact that a thin platinum wire placed in the flame of a properly proportioned mixture easily melts. By placing the burner in the orifice of a hollow piece of lime, a crucible A B is obtained in which the platinum may be easily melted, even in large quantities if the current of oxygen and hydrogen be sufficiently great (Deville). The flame of detonating gas may also be used for illuminating purposes. It is by itself very pale, but owing to its high temperature it may serve for rendering infusible objects incandescent, and at the very high temperature produced by the detonating gas the incandescent substance gives a most intense light. For this purpose lime, magnesia, or oxide of zirconium are used, as they are not fusible at the very high temperature evolved by the detonating gas. A small cylinder of lime placed in the flame of detonating gas, if regulated to the required point, gives a very brilliant white light, which was at one time proposed for illuminating lighthouses. At present in the majority of cases the electric light, owing to its constancy and other advantages, has replaced it for this purpose. The light produced by the incandescence of lime in detonating gas is called the Drummond light or limelight.

The above cases form examples of the combustion of elements in oxygen, but exactly similar phenomena are observed in the combustion of compounds. So, for instance, the solid, colourless, shiny substance, naphthalene, C₁₀H₈, burns in the air with a smoky flame, whilst in oxygen it continues to burn with a very brilliant flame. Alcohol, oil, and other substances burn brilliantly in oxygen on conducting the oxygen by a tube to the flame of lamps burning these substances. A high temperature is thus evolved, which is sometimes taken advantage of in chemical practice.

In order to understand why combustion in oxygen proceeds more rapidly, and is accompanied by a more intense heat effect, than combustion in air, it must be recollected that air is oxygen diluted with nitrogen, which does not support combustion, and therefore fewer particles of oxygen flow to the surface of a substance burning in air than when burning in pure oxygen, besides which the reason of the intensity of combustion in oxygen is the high temperature acquired by the substance burning in it.[41 bis]

Among the phenomena accompanying the combustion of certain substances, the phenomenon of flame attracts attention. Sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, naphthalene, &c., burn like hydrogen with a flame, whilst in the combustion of other substances no flame is observed, as, for instance, in the combustion of iron and of charcoal. The appearance of flame depends on the capacity of the combustible substance to yield gases or vapours at the temperature of combustion. At the temperature of combustion, sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, and naphthalene pass into vapour, whilst wood, alcohol, oil, &c., are decomposed into gaseous and vaporous substances. The combustion of gases and vapours forms flames, and therefore a flame is composed of the hot and incandescent gases and vapours produced by combustion. It may easily be proved that the flames of such non-volatile substances as wood contain volatile and combustible substances formed from them, by placing a tube in the flame connected with an aspirator. Besides the products of combustion, combustible gases and liquids, previously in the flame as vapours, collect in the aspirator. For this experiment to succeed—i.e. in order to really extract combustible gases and vapours from the flame it is necessary that the suction tube should be placed inside the flame. The combustible gases and vapours can only remain unburnt inside the flame, for at the surface of the flame they come into contact with the oxygen of the air and burn.[42] Flames are of different degrees of brilliancy, according to whether solid incandescent particles occur in the combustible gas or vapour, or not. Incandescent gases and vapours emit but little light by themselves, and therefore give a paler flame.[43] If a flame does not contain solid particles it is transparent, pale, and emits but little light.[44] The flames of burning alcohol, sulphur, and hydrogen are of this kind. A pale flame may be rendered luminous by placing fine particles of solid matter in it. Thus, if a very fine platinum wire be placed in the pale flame of burning alcohol—or, better still, of hydrogen—the flame emits a bright light. This is still better seen by sifting the powder of an incombustible substance, such as fine sand, into the flame, or by placing a bunch of asbestos threads in it. Every brilliant flame always contains some kind of solid particles, or at least some very dense vapour. The flame of sodium burning in oxygen has a brilliant yellow colour, from the presence of particles of solid sodium oxide. The flame of magnesium is brilliant from the fact that in burning it forms solid magnesia, which becomes white hot, and similarly the brilliancy of the Drummond light is due to the heat of the flame raising the solid non-volatile lime to a state of incandescence. The flames of a candle, wood, and similar substances are brilliant, because they contain particles of charcoal or soot. It is not the flame itself which is luminous, but the incandescent soot it contains. These particles of charcoal which occur in flames may be easily observed by introducing a cold object, like a knife, into the flame.[45] The particles of charcoal burn at the outer surface of the flame if the supply of air be sufficient, but if the supply of air—that is, of oxygen—be insufficient for their combustion the flame smokes, because the unconsumed particles of charcoal are carried off by the current of air.[46]

The combination of various substances with oxygen may not present any signs of combustion—that is, the temperature may rise but inconsiderably. This may either proceed from the fact that the reaction of the substance (for example, tin, mercury, lead at a high temperature, or a mixture of pyrogallol with caustic potash at the ordinary temperature) evolves but little heat, or that the heat evolved is transmitted to good conductors of heat, like metals, or that the combination with oxygen takes place so slowly that the heat evolved succeeds in passing to the surrounding objects. Combustion is only a particular, intense, and evident case of combination with oxygen. Respiration is also an act of combination with oxygen; it also serves, like combustion, for the development of heat by those chemical processes which accompany it (the transformation of oxygen into carbonic anhydride). Lavoisier enunciated this in the lucid expression, ‘respiration is slow combustion.’

Reactions involving slow combination of substances with oxygen are termed oxidations. Combination of this kind (and also combustion) often results in the formation of acid substances, and hence the name oxygen (Sauerstoff). Combustion is only rapid oxidation. Phosphorus, iron, and wine may be taken as examples of substances which slowly oxidise in air at the ordinary temperature. If such a substance be left in contact with a definite volume of air or oxygen, it absorbs the oxygen little by little, as may be seen by the decrease in volume of the gas. This slow oxidation is not often accompanied by a sensible evolution of heat; an evolution of heat really does occur, only it is not apparent to our senses owing to the small rise in temperature which takes place; this is owing to the slow rate of the reaction and to the transmission of the heat formed as radiant heat, &c. Thus, in the oxidation of wine and its transformation into vinegar by the usual method of preparation of the latter, the heat evolved cannot be observed because it extends over several weeks, but in the so-called rapid process of the manufacture of vinegar, when a large quantity of wine is comparatively rapidly oxidised, the evolution of heat is quite apparent.

Such slow processes of oxidation are always taking place in nature by the action of the atmosphere. Dead organisms and the substances obtained from them—such as bodies of animals, wood, wool, grass, &c.—are especially subject to this action. They rot and decompose—that is, their solid matter is transformed into gases, under the influence of moisture and atmospheric oxygen, and generally under the influence of other organisms, such as moulds, worms, micro-organisms (bacteria), and the like. These are processes of slow combustion, of slow combination with oxygen. It is well known that manure rots and develops heat, that stacks of damp hay, damp flour, straw, &c., become heated and are changed in the process.[47] In all these transformations the same chief products of combustion are formed as those which are contained in smoke; the carbon gives carbonic anhydride, and the hydrogen water. Hence these processes require oxygen just like combustion. This is the reason why the entire prevention of access of air hinders these transformations,[48] and an increased supply of air accelerates them. The mechanical treatment of arable lands by the plough, harrow, and other similar means has not only the object of facilitating the spread of roots in the ground, and of making the soil more permeable to water, but it also serves to facilitate the access of the air to the component parts of the soil; as a consequence of which the organic remains of soil rot—so to speak, breathe air and evolve carbonic anhydride. One acre of good garden land in the course of a summer evolves more than sixteen tons of carbonic anhydride.

It is not only vegetable and animal substances which are subject to slow oxidation in the presence of water. Some metals even rust under these conditions. Copper very easily absorbs oxygen in the presence of acids. Many metallic sulphides (for example, pyrites) are very easily oxidised with access of air and moisture. Thus processes of slow oxidation proceed throughout nature. However, there are many elements which do not under any circumstances combine directly with gaseous oxygen; nevertheless their compounds with oxygen may be obtained. Platinum, gold, iridium, chlorine, and iodine are examples of such elements. In this case recourse is had to a so-called indirect method—i.e. the given substance is combined with another element, and by a method of double decomposition this element is replaced by oxygen. Substances which do not directly combine with oxygen, but form compounds with it by an indirect method, often readily lose the oxygen which they had absorbed by double decomposition or at the moment of its evolution. Such, for example, are the compounds of oxygen with chlorine, nitrogen, and platinum, which evolve oxygen on heating—that is, they may be used as oxidising agents. In this respect oxidising agents, or those compounds of oxygen which are employed in chemical and technical practice for transferring oxygen to other substances, are especially remarkable. The most important among these is nitric acid or aqua fortis—a substance rich in oxygen, and capable of evolving it when heated, which easily oxidises a great number of substances. Thus nearly all metals and organic substances containing carbon and hydrogen are more or less oxidised when heated with nitric acid. If strong nitric acid be taken, and a piece of burning charcoal be immersed in the acid, it continues to burn. Chromic acid acts like nitric acid; alcohol burns when mixed with it. Although the action is not so marked, even water may oxidise with its oxygen. Sodium is not oxidised in perfectly dry oxygen at the ordinary temperature, but it burns very easily in water and aqueous vapour. Charcoal can burn in carbonic anhydride—a product of combustion—forming carbonic oxide. Magnesium burns in the same gas, separating carbon from it. Speaking generally, combined oxygen can pass from one compound to another.

The products of combustion or oxidation—and in general the definite compounds of oxygen—are termed oxides. Some oxides are not capable of combining with other oxides—or combine with only a few, and then with the evolution of very little heat; others, on the contrary, enter into combination with very many other oxides, and in general have remarkable chemical energy. The oxides incapable of combining with others, or only showing this quality in a small degree, are termed indifferent oxides. Such are the peroxides, of which mention has before been made.

The class of oxides capable of entering into mutual combination we will term saline oxides. They fall into two chief groups—at least, as regards the most extreme members. The members of one group combine with the members of the other group with particular ease. As representative of one group may be taken the oxides of the metals, magnesium, sodium, calcium, &c. Representatives of the other group are the oxides formed by the non-metals, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon. Thus, if we take the oxide of calcium, or lime, and bring it into contact with oxides of the second group, combination very readily ensues. For instance, if we mix calcium oxide with oxide of phosphorus they combine with great facility and with the evolution of much heat. If we pass the vapour of sulphuric anhydride, obtained by the combination of sulphurous oxide with oxygen, over pieces of lime heated to redness, the sulphuric anhydride is absorbed by the lime with the formation of a substance called calcium sulphate. The oxides of the first kind, which contain metals, are termed basic oxides or bases. Lime is a familiar example of this class. The oxides of the second group, which are capable of combining with the bases, are termed anhydrides of the acids or acid oxides. Sulphuric anhydride, SO₃, may be taken as a type of the latter group. It is a compound of sulphur with oxygen formed not directly but by the addition of a fresh quantity of oxygen to sulphurous anhydride, SO₂, by passing it together with oxygen over incandescent spongy platinum. Carbonic anhydride (often termed ‘carbonic acid’), CO₂, phosphoric anhydride, sulphurous anhydride, are all acid oxides, for they can combine with such oxides as lime or calcium oxide, magnesia or magnesium oxide, MgO, soda or sodium oxide, Na₂O, &c.

If a given element form but one basic oxide, it is termed the oxide; for example, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, potassium oxide. Some indifferent oxides are also called ‘oxides’ if they have not the properties of peroxides, and at the same time do not show the properties of acid anhydrides—for example, carbonic oxide, of which mention has already been made. If an element forms two basic oxides (or two indifferent oxides not having the characteristics of a peroxide) then that of the lower degree of oxidation is called a suboxide—that is, suboxides contain less oxygen than oxides. Thus, when copper is heated to redness in a furnace it increases in weight and absorbs oxygen, until for 63 parts of copper there is absorbed not more than 8 parts of oxygen by weight, forming a red mass, which is suboxide of copper; but if the roasting be prolonged, and the draught of air increased, 63 parts of copper absorb 16 parts of oxygen, and form black oxide of copper. Sometimes to distinguish between the degrees of oxidation a change of suffix is made in the oxidised element, -ic oxide denoting the higher degree of oxidation, and -ous oxide the lower degree. Thus ferrous oxide and ferric oxide are the same as suboxide of iron and oxide of iron. If an element forms one anhydride only, then it is named by an adjective formed from the name of the element made to end in -ic and the word anhydride. When an element forms two anhydrides, then the suffixes -ous and -ic are used to distinguish them: -ous signifying less oxygen than -ic; for example, sulphurous and sulphuric anhydrides.[49] When several oxides are formed from the same element, the prefixes mon, di, tri, tetra are used, thus: chlorine monoxide, chlorine dioxide, chlorine trioxide, and chlorine tetroxide or chloric anhydride.

The oxides themselves rarely undergo chemical transformations, and in the few cases where they are subject to such changes a particularly important part is played by their combinations with water. The majority of, if not all, basic and acid oxides combine with water, either by a direct or an indirect method forming hydrates—that is, compounds which split up into water and an oxide of the same kind only. It is well known that many substances are capable of combining with water. Oxides possess this property in the highest degree. We have already seen examples of this (Chapter I.) in the combination of lime, and of sulphuric and phosphoric anhydrides, with water. The resulting combinations are basic and acid hydrates. Acid hydrates are called acids because they have an acid taste when dissolved in water (or saliva), for then only can they act on the palate. Vinegar, for example, has an acid taste because it contains acetic acid dissolved in water. Sulphuric acid, to which we have frequently referred, because it is the acid of the greatest importance both in practical chemistry and for its technical applications, is really a hydrate formed by the combination of sulphuric anhydride with water. Besides their acid taste, dissolved acids or acid hydrates have the property of changing the blue colour of certain vegetable dyes to red. Of these dyes litmus is particularly remarkable and much used. It is the blue substance extracted from certain lichens, and is used for dyeing tissues blue; it gives a blue infusion with water. This infusion, on the addition of an acid, changes from blue to red.[50]

Basic oxides, in combining with water, form hydrates, of which, however, very few are soluble in water. Those which are soluble in water have an alkaline taste like that of soap or of water in which wood ashes have been boiled, and are called alkalis. Further, alkalis have the property of restoring the blue colour to litmus which has been reddened by the action of acids. The hydrates of the oxides of sodium and potassium, NaHO and KHO, are examples of basic hydrates easily soluble in water. They are true alkalis, and are termed caustic, because they act very powerfully on the skin of animals and plants. Thus NaHO is called ‘caustic’ soda.

The saline oxides are capable of combining together and with water. Water itself is an oxide, and not an indifferent one, for it can, as we have seen, combine with basic and acid oxides; it is a representative of a whole series of saline oxides, intermediate oxides, capable of combining with both basic and acid oxides. There are many such oxides, which, like water, combine with basic and acid anhydrides—for instance, the oxides of aluminium and tin, &c. From this it may be concluded that all oxides might be placed, in respect to their capacity for combining with one another, in one uninterrupted series, at one extremity of which would stand those oxides which do not combine with the bases—that is, the alkalis—while at the other end would be the acid oxides, and in the interval those oxides which combine with one another and with both the acid and basic oxides. The further apart the members of this series are, the more stable are the compounds they form together, the more energetically do they act on each other, the greater the quantity of heat evolved in their reaction, and the more marked is their saline chemical character.

We said above that basic and acid oxides combine together, but rarely react on each other; this depends on the fact that the majority of them are solids or gases—that is, they occur in the state least prone to chemical reaction. The gaseo-elastic state is with difficulty destroyed, because it necessitates overcoming the elasticity proper to the gaseous particles. The solid state is characterised by the immobility of its particles; whilst chemical action requires contact, and hence a displacement and mobility. If solid oxides be heated, and especially if they be melted, then reaction proceeds with great ease. But such a change of state rarely occurs in nature or in practice. Only in a few furnace processes is this the case. For example; in the manufacture of glass, the oxides contained in it combine together in a molten state. But when oxides combine with water, and especially when they form hydrates soluble in water, then the mobility of their particles increases to a considerable extent, and their reaction is greatly facilitated. Reaction then takes place at the ordinary temperature—easily and rapidly; so that this kind of reaction belongs to the class of those which take place with unusual facility, and are, therefore, very often taken advantage of in practice, and also have been and are going on in nature at every step. We will now consider the reactions of oxides in the state of hydrates, not losing sight of the fact that water is itself an oxide with definite properties, and has, therefore, no little influence on the course of those changes in which it takes part.

If we take a definite quantity of an acid, and add an infusion of litmus to it, it turns red; the addition of an alkaline solution does not immediately alter the red colour of the litmus, but on adding more and more of the alkaline solution a point is reached when the red colour changes to violet, and then the further addition of a fresh quantity of the alkaline solution changes the colour to blue. This change of the colour of the litmus is a consequence of the formation of a new compound. This reaction is termed the saturation or neutralisation of the acid by the base, or vice versâ. The solution in which the acid properties of the acid are saturated by the alkaline properties of the base is termed a neutral solution. Such a solution, although derived from the mixture of a base with an acid, does not exhibit either the acid or basic reaction on litmus, yet it preserves many other signs of the acid and alkali. It is observed that in such a definite admixture of an acid with an alkali, besides the changes in the colour of litmus there is a heating effect—i.e. an evolution of heat—which is alone sufficient to prove that there was chemical action. And, indeed, if the resultant violet solution be evaporated, there separates out, not the acid or the alkali originally taken, but a substance which has neither acid nor alkaline properties, but is usually solid and crystalline, having a saline appearance; this is a salt in the chemical sense of the word. Hence a salt is derived from the reaction of an acid on an alkali, in a certain definite proportion. The water here taken for solution plays no other part than merely facilitating the progress of the reaction. This is seen from the fact that the anhydrides of the acids are able to combine with basic oxides, and give the same salts as do the acids with the alkalis or hydrates. Hence, a salt is a compound of definite quantities of an acid with an alkali. In the latter reaction, water is separated out if the substance formed be the same as is produced by the combination of anhydrous oxides together.[51] Examples of the formation of salts from acids and bases are easily observed, and are very often applied in practice. If we take, for instance, insoluble magnesium oxide (magnesia) it is easily dissolved in sulphuric acid, and on evaporation gives a saline substance, bitter, like all the salts of magnesium, and familiar to all under the name of Epsom salts, used as a purgative. If a solution of caustic soda—which is obtained, as we saw, by the action of water on sodium oxide—be poured into a flask in which charcoal has been burnt; or if carbonic anhydride, which is produced under so many circumstances, be passed through a solution of caustic soda, then sodium carbonate or soda, Na₂CO₃, is obtained, of which we have spoken several times, and which is prepared on a large scale and often used in manufactures. This reaction is expressed by the equation, 2NaHO + CO₂ = Na₂CO₃ + H₂O. Thus, the various bases and acids form an innumerable number of different salts.[52] Salts constitute an example of definite chemical compounds, and both in the history and practice of science are most often cited as confirming the conception of definite chemical compounds. Indeed, all the indications of a definite chemical combination are clearly seen in the formation and properties of salts. Thus, they are produced with a definite proportion of oxides, heat is evolved in their formation,[53] and the chemical character of the oxides and many of the physical properties become hidden in their salts. For example, when gaseous carbonic anhydride combines with a base to form a solid salt, the elasticity of the gas quite disappears in its passage into the salt.[54]

Judging from the above, a salt is a compound of basic and acid oxides, or the result of the action of hydrates of these classes on each other with separation of water. But salts may be obtained by other methods. It must not be forgotten that basic oxides are formed by metals, and acid oxides usually by non-metals. But metals and non-metals are capable of combining together, and a salt is frequently formed by the oxidation of such a compound. For example, iron very easily combines with sulphur, forming iron sulphide FeS (as we saw in the Introduction); this in air, and especially moist air, absorbs oxygen, with the formation of the same salt FeSO₄, that may be obtained by the combination of the oxides of iron and sulphur, or of the hydrates of these oxides. Hence, it cannot be said or supposed that a salt has the properties of the oxides, or must necessarily contain two kinds of oxides in itself. The derivation of salts from oxides is merely one of the methods of their preparation. We saw, for instance, that in sulphuric acid it was possible to replace the hydrogen by zinc, and that by this means zinc sulphate was formed; so likewise the hydrogen in many other acids may be replaced by zinc, iron, potassium, sodium, and a whole series of similar metals, corresponding salts being obtained. The hydrogen of the acid, in all these cases, is exchanged for a metal, and a salt is obtained from the hydrate. Regarding a salt from this point of view, it may be said that a salt is an acid in which hydrogen is replaced by a metal. This definition shows that a salt and an acid are essentially compounds of the same series, with the difference that the latter contains hydrogen and the former a metal. Such a definition is more exact than the first definition of salts, inasmuch as it likewise includes those acids which do not contain oxygen, and, as we shall afterwards learn, there is a series of such acids. Such elements as chlorine and bromine form compounds with hydrogen in which the hydrogen may be replaced by a metal, forming substances which, in their reactions and external characters, resemble the salts formed from oxides. Table salt, NaCl, is an example of this. It may be obtained by the replacement of hydrogen in hydrochloric acid, HCl, by the metal sodium, just as sulphate of sodium, Na₂SO₄, may be obtained by the replacement of hydrogen in sulphuric acid, H₂SO₄, by sodium. The exterior appearance of the resulting products, their neutral reaction, and even their saline taste, show their resemblance to one another.

To the fundamental properties of salts yet another must be added—namely, that they are more or less decomposed by the action of a galvanic current. The results of this decomposition are very different according to whether the salt be taken in a fused or dissolved state. But the decomposition may generally be so represented, that the metal appears at the electro-negative pole or cathode (like hydrogen in the decomposition of water, or its mixture with sulphuric acid), and the remaining parts of the salt appear at the electro-positive pole or anode (where the oxygen of water appears). If, for instance, an electric current acts on an aqueous solution of sodium sulphate, then the sodium appears at the negative pole, and oxygen and the anhydride of sulphuric acid at the positive pole. But in the solution itself the result is different, for sodium, as we know, decomposes water with evolution of hydrogen, forming caustic soda; consequently hydrogen will be evolved, and caustic soda appear at the negative pole: while at the positive pole the sulphuric anhydride immediately combines with water and forms sulphuric acid, and therefore oxygen will be evolved and sulphuric acid formed round this pole.[55] In other cases, when the metal separated is not able to decompose water, it will be deposited in a free state. Thus, for example, in the decomposition of copper sulphate, copper separates out at the cathode, and oxygen and sulphuric acid appear at the anode, and if a copper plate be attached to the positive pole, then the oxygen evolved will oxidise the copper, and the oxide of copper will dissolve and be deposited at the negative pole—that is, a transfer of copper from the positive to the negative pole ensues. The galvanoplastic art (electro-typing) is based on this principle.[56] Therefore the most radical and general properties of salts (including also such salts as table salt, which contain no oxygen) may be expressed by representing the salt as composed of a metal M and a haloid X—that is, by expressing the salt by MX. In common table salt the metal is sodium, and the haloid an elementary body, chlorine. In sodium sulphate, Na₂SO₄, sodium is again the metal, but the complex group, SO₄, is the haloid. In sulphate of copper, CuSO₄, the metal is copper and the haloid the same as in the preceding salt. Such a representation of salts expresses with great simplicity the capacity of every salt to enter into saline double decompositions with other salts; consisting in the mutual replacement of the metals in the salts. This exchange of their metals is the fundamental property of salts. In the case of two salts with different metals and haloids, which are in solution or fusion, or in any other manner brought into contact, the metals of these salts will always partially or wholly exchange places. If we designate one salt by MX, and the other by NY, then we either partially or wholly obtain from them new salts, MY and NX. Thus we saw in the Introduction, that on mixing solutions of table salt, NaCl, and silver nitrate, AgNO₃, a white insoluble precipitate of silver chloride, AgCl, is formed and a new salt, sodium nitrate, NaNO₃, is obtained in solution. If the metals of salts exchange places in reactions of double decomposition, it is clear that metals themselves, taken in a separate state, are able to act on salts, as zinc evolves hydrogen from acids, and as iron separates copper from copper sulphate. When, to what extent, and which metals displace each other, and how the metals are distributed between the haloids, will be discussed in Chapter X., where we shall be guided by those reflections and deductions which Berthollet introduced into the science at the beginning of this century.