phofphorifed Hydrogen Gas. 1^7 



which muft have been produced at the moment when the 

 detonations took place, as well as dining the disengagement 

 of the flame which followed the fecond detonation. 



I was then obliged to begin a new operation, that is to fay, 

 to diflblve phofphorifed hydrogen gas again in water, that I 

 might afcertain, by employing more caution, in what accu- 

 rate proportions this folution might be effected; and that I 

 might prevent combuftion alio from taking place in the in- 

 fide of the bottle, which would have become a fource of error 

 in the conclusion of my experiments. 



I had ascertained with certainty, by means of the quantity 

 of water and gas which I had tried to diflblve the firft. time, 

 as well as by the detonations which h?id taken place at the 

 moment when the bottle was un flopped, that diftilled water 

 could not diflblve at' the temperature of 47 a volume of 

 phofphorifed hydrogen gas equal to its own. I took care, 

 therefore, to introduce into the bottle the fecond time only 

 about a third of its capacity of the cas. I then repeatedly 

 fhook the mixture in order to render the union of the gas 

 with the water fpeedier, and as complete as pofflble; after 

 which I unftopped the bottle, holding it inverted in a fmall 

 tub, which I had filled with newly diftilled water, that I 

 might fee whether it would become entirely filled with it 

 merely by the effeel of the preflure of the atmofphere, and 

 that I might thence judge whether the whole gas had been 

 liquefied. 



I indeed faw a portion of the water in the tub afcend into 

 the bottle, but I perceived alfo that it was not entirely filled; 

 which confirmed me in the opinion that there ftill remained a 

 portion of the gas which had not participated in the liquidity 

 of the water. Having then tried to make fome bubbles of it 

 ilfueout through this liquid, thele bubbles inflamed fponta- 

 taneoufly by the contact of the air alone; which proved to 

 me that the phofphorifed hydrogen gas had not been decom- 

 pofed at all by agitation, nor by its contact with diflilled 

 water; whereas it foon lofes its highly combuftible property 

 when colledted in bottles filled with water which has not been 

 diftilled, or diftilled water which has been long kept, which 

 I afcribe to the quantity of air which common water always 



holds 



