c 



44 Olefiani Gal. 



XI. 

 ExtraH of n jilemolr esnccrnlng three different Species of Carbonnted Hydrogenous Gas, eltainecT 

 J rem Ether and Alcohol by different Procejjls, forwarded to the National Infiitiite of France by 

 the Society of Dutch Chcmijls ; being Part of a Report read to the Firfl Clafs of the Inflittile, by 

 Citizen FoVRCROr, at the Sitting of the 26th Friinaire, l6th December 1796*. 



ITIZENSBondt, Deiman,Van Trooftvvyk and Lauwerenberg, chemifts, of Amfterdam, 

 who for feveral years pad have made experiments together, and have already rendered great 

 fervices to thefciences, fent on the firft Fru(flidor of the fourth year to the Inftitute, a Memoir 

 addrefled to that body by C. Van Mons of Druni'ls, its anbciate. As the fubjecl it treats 

 of relates intimately to the progrefs and ftate of modem chcmiftry, it becomes neccfiary to 

 give an account as ample as the novelty and importance of the fubjeil demand. 



Several months before the arrival of this Memoir, the Inftitute had received an account 

 of the difcovery it announces. The contents of the letters of C. Van Mons, op this difco- 

 very made in Holland, forwarded to the Inftitute in Ventofe the fourtli year (^March 1 796), 

 were as follows : 



The olefiant gas, which is fo called from its chara£leriftic property of forming oil In a 

 circumftance which fliall be defcribed, is formed of a mixture of feventy-five parts of con- 

 centrated fulphuric acid with twenty-Cve parts of alcohol, even without the aftiftance of 

 foreign heat. It is likewife formed by pafting alcohol or ether in vapour over (ilex or aiu- 

 mine in a tube of glafs, or fimply in a tube of pipe earth ignited without addition. It is 

 not formed by the paflage of the alcoholic or ethereal vapour in a tube of glafs ignited with- 

 out filex or alumine, nor in the fame tube containing lime or magneGa. 1 he inflammable 

 gas, which is obtained in this laft cafe, is no longer fufceptible of becoming olefiant, by a 

 fecond tranfition through filex or alumine. The olefiant gas is not abforbed nor altered by 

 remaining over water ; with a fmall quantity of oxigenated muriatic acid gas it forms aiv 

 ethereal oil. Mixed with this gas in equal proportions, and fet on fire, it lets fall a great 

 quantity of carbone ; when 0.25, or 0.20, or 0.15 of oxigenated muriatic acid gas is 

 added to 0.75, or 0.80, or 0.85, of olefiant gas, and the mixture fet on fire, the carbone 

 appears immediately in the form of very fine lamp-black. The greater the proportion of the 

 olefiant gas, the more perceptible is the appearance of carbone during the inflammation. 

 Too large a portion of oxigenated muriatic acid converts it into carbonic acid. This experi- 

 ment proves that the hydrogene attra£ls oxigene more ftrongly than the carbone does. 

 C. Van Mons thinks, in his letters on this fubjedl, that the olefiant gas is a true carbonated 

 hydrogenous gas. 



Five months ,-ifter this firft account, on the firft of Fruftidor, in the fourth year of the Re- 

 public of France (i8th Auguft 1796), C. Van Mons forwarded to the Inflitute the Memoir 

 of Citizens 'Bondt, Dclman, Van Trooftvvyk and Lauwercnberg, in which thefe chemifts 

 have with great care defcribed the properties of this gas, which they had difcovered, and 

 which was already known by the name of the olefiant gas. This Memoir, which is very well 

 drawn up, confifts of twenty-four paragraphs ; the fubftance of which we ftiall here relate. 

 In the firft paragraph the authors obfervc, that the gas which is difengagetl during the mu- 

 tual a£lion of concentrated fuJphuric acid and alcohol, which was known tooccafion frequent 

 ruptures of the veflelj, to burn with an oily flame, which had caufed it to be preferred in 



' Annalcs de Chimit^ XXI. 4S. 



lamps 



