COMBUSTION OF CHARCOAL, %QJ 



Combustion of Charcoal that had been employed for preparing 

 liquid hidrogaretted sy.lphur. 



The great quantity of hidrogen "gas that is produced, Charcoal left 



when sulphur is passed over charcoal in a red hot tube, has aftertn e pre- 

 ,1 , . i , < i ^ii in paration of li- 



led to the conjecture, that this gas does not belong wholly quid sulphur- 

 to the sulphur; and that this process might afford the etted hidrogen. 

 means of obtaining charcoal perfectly pure, or freed from 

 hidrogen *. For this reasou I examined the products of the Burned in oxi- 

 combustion of some fir charcoal, which had lost half its 6 en 6 as » 

 weight in the formation of liquid sulphur; and which had 

 been afterward exposed to a red heat in contact with air, till 

 it appeared to be divested of sulphur, or no longer diffuse 

 any sulphurous smell while incandescent. Immediately 

 after cooling it was enclosed in a phial, and weighed in it. 

 It then weighed 0*53-2 of a gr. The charcoal I burned ab- 

 sorbed in cooling 4| times its bulk of atmospheric air, or 

 001 of a gr. ; and this being deducted, 0*522 of a gr. [8*0(> 

 grs.] remained for the true weight of the charcoal. When 

 burned in a receiver filled with oxigen gas, it left 0*012 of 

 a gr. [0*185 of a gr.] of ashes. 



On taking out of the receiver a sufficient quantity of gas Retains sul* 

 for examination, and throwing away the rest, contrary to P hur ver Y 

 my expectation it emitted a very striking smell of sulphur- 

 ous acid gas, though the red hot charcoal had no percepti- 

 ble smell. The extreme difficulty with which this combus- w hi c h renders 

 tible burns can be ascribed only to the intimate combination il difficult of 

 of the sulphur with the charcoal. Common charcoal ac- mnc h more' 

 quires by long-continued incandescence a kind of incora- than long in-, 

 bustibility, bu v it does not come near that of sulphuretted ca " escence " 

 charcoal. 



The gas in which this charcoal was burned consisted of State of thega* 

 _ . . before com* 



Oxigen gas 1537*9 cent. cub. :z:93o*51 cub. in. bustion. 



Nitrogen 123*3 *S 75*08 



l66i*2 =1011*59 



Measuring after combust. 1688*2 - =1028*03 



Increase 27 = 16*44 * Increase. 



* Aon. deChira. vol. LXI, p. 13!): or Journal, vol. XVIII, p. as. 

 X 2 After 



