A DREAM OF FAIR HYDRONE 



(A CHEMICAL IDYL) 



By HENRY E. ARMSTRONG 



Prologue 



Fire-damp or dampf — the fiery vapour of coal-pits — the ex- 

 plosion of which has often given rise to the most terrible 

 catastrophes, also known as marsh gas on account of its pro- 

 duction when vegetation decays in stagnant water, is the 

 simplest hydride of carbon, being represented by the formula CH 4 . 



This gas is the absolute foundation-stone of organic chemistry 

 Systematists call it methane, on account of its relation to the 

 alcohol present in wood spirit, methylic alcohol, CH 3 (OH), 

 which is formed from it by the process of hydroxylation, by the 

 displacement of one of its atoms of hydrogen by the compound 

 radicle 1 hydroxyl, OH — that is to say, water, HOH, less an 

 atom of hydrogen, consequently worth just as much as the 

 hydrogen atom as a combining unit. 



Methane, in comparison with the hydrides of non-metallic 

 elements other than carbon, is strangely lacking in positive 

 qualities. It is gaseous at temperatures far below the ordinary 

 zero, its boiling-point being — 138 , not so very far from that of 

 liquefied oxygen (—182°) and nitrogen (—195°) gases, which is 

 clear proof that its molecules have but very little tendency to 

 cling together. 



Methane is the initial term of the paraffin series of hydro- 

 carbons the composition of which is represented by the general 

 expression CnH^+o. Paraffin, the white waxy solid, known best 

 in the form of paraffin candles, is so named on account of its 

 indifference {parum affinis) to almost all chemical agents, even 

 ozone ; the name is equally descriptive of all terms of the series 



1 The term radicle is applied not only to the simple atom, but also to a group 

 of atoms which is capable as a whole of exercising the functions of an atom by 

 taking its place. 



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