Description of an apparatus for deflagrating cabinets, phosphurets, or cyanides, in vacuo or in an atmosphere of hydrogen : with an account of some results obtained by these and by other means, especially the isolation of calcium / by Robert Hare.

  • Hare, Robert, 1781-1858.
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of an apparatus for deflagrating cabinets, phosphurets, or cyanides, in vacuo or in an atmosphere of hydrogen : with an account of some results obtained by these and by other means, especially the isolation of calcium / by Robert Hare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/6
    blow-pipe, or voltaic ignition, without being enabled to remove the darkness which hides the mysteries of nature from our intellectual vision. I hope, nevertheless, that some of the results attained may not be unworthy of attention; and that, as a new mode of employing the voltaic circuit, my ap- paratus and mode of manipulation will be interesting to chemists. An equivalent of quicklime, made with great care from pure crystallized spar, was well mingled, by trituration, with an equivalent and a half of bicya- nide of mercury, and was then enclosed within a covered porcelain crucible. The crucible was included within an iron alembic, such as has been described by me, in this volume, as employed for the isolation of metallic radicals. (See page 38.) The whole was exposed to heat approaching to redness. In two experi- ments the residual mass had such a weight as would result from the union of an equivalent of cyanogen with an equivalent of calcium. A similar mixture being made, and, in like manner, enclosed in the crucible and alembic, it was subjected to a white heat. The apparatus being refrige- rated, the residual mass was transferred to a dry glass phial with a ground stopper. A portion of the compound thus obtained and preserved was placed upon the parallelopiped of charcoal, which was made to form the cathode of two defla- grators of one hundred pairs, each of one hundred square inches of zinc sur- face, co-operating as one series. In the next place, the cavity of the bell-glass was filled with hydrogen, by the process already described, and the cone of charcoal being so connected with the positive end of the series as to be prepared to perform the office of an anode, was brought into contact with the compound to be deflagrated. These arrange- ments being accomplished, and the circuit completed by throwing the acid upon the plates, the most intense ignition took place. The compound proved to be an excellent conductor; and during its deflagra- tion emitted a most beautiful purple light, which was too vivid for more than a transient endurance by an eye unprotected by deep-coloured glasses. After the compound wras adjudged to be sufficiently deflagrated, and time had been allowed for refrigeration, on lifting the receiver minute masses were found upon the coal, which had a metallic appearance, and which, when moistened,