Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Hit. (1909), No. 10. 



THE WILDE LECTURE. 



XVL On the Influence of Moisture on Chemical 

 Change in Gases. 



By H. Brereton Baker, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Delivered March gth, igog. 



Thirty years ago, Prof. H. B. Dixon investigated the 

 behaviour of carbon monoxide and oxygen when they 

 were dried as completely as possible, and he discovered 

 that under these circumstances electric sparks caused no 

 explosion. Some years before Wanklyn had discovered 

 that purified chlorine did not act on sodium, but he did 

 not identify the impurity, now known to be a trace of 

 water, which causes the vigorous action which takes 

 place under ordinary circumstances. 



In 1882 Cowper investigated the action of dried 

 chlorine on several metals, and found that the removal or 

 moisture in many cases inhibited the reaction. 



In the following year, working in Prof Dixon's 

 laboratory at Balliol College, I found that purified carbon 

 could be heated to redness in dried oxygen, and that 

 sulphur and phosphorus could be distilled in the same gas 

 without burning. In the investigations which followed 

 some twenty-five simple reactions have been tried by 

 myself and others. It has been shewn that hydrogen and 

 chlorine can be exposed to light without explosion, 

 ammonia and hydrogen chloride mixed without union, 

 sulphur trioxide can be crystallized on lime, ammonium 

 chloride and mercurous chloride give undissociated 

 vapours, hydrogen and oxygen can be exposed to a red 



May nth, ipog. 



