7i Mr. Faraday on 7iexv Compounds of Carbon mid Hydrogen. 



pressed. This fluid, as obtained at the works of the Portable 

 Oil Gas Company, is colourless, of a specific gravity less than 

 that of water, insoluble in water except in very minute quan- 

 tities, soluble in alcohol, ether, oils, &c., and combustible, 

 burning with a dense flame. It is strikingly distinguished from 

 the oil from which it originated, by not being acted upon to 

 any extent by solutions of the alkalies. 



Part of this fluid is very volatile, causing the appearance of 

 ebullition at temperatures of 50° or 60°. Other parts are more 

 fixed, requiring even 250° or above for ebullition. By repeated 

 distillations, a series of products were obtained from the most 

 to the least volatile, the most abundant being such as occurred 

 from 170° to 200°. On subjecting these, after numerous recti- 

 fications, to a low temperature, it was found that some of them 

 concreted into a crystalline mass ; and, ultimately, a substance 

 was obtained from them, principally by pressure at low tem- 

 peratures, which upon examination proved to be a new com- 

 pound of carbon and hydrogen. At common temperatures it 

 appears as a colourless transparent liquid, of specific gravity 

 0"85 at 60°, having the general odour of oil gas. Below 42° 

 it is a solid body, forming dendritical transparent crystals, and 

 contracting much during its congelation. At 0° it appears as 

 a white or transparent substance, brittle, pulverulent, and of 

 the hardness nearly of loaf sugar. It evaporates entirely in the 

 air: when raised to 186^ it boils, furnishing a vapour, which 

 has a specific gravity of 40 nearly, compared to hydrogen as 

 1. At a higher temperature the vapour is decomposed, depo- 

 siting carbon. The substance is combustible, libei'ating char- 

 coal, if oxygen be not abundantly joresent. Potassium exerts 

 no action upon it below 186°. 



This substance was analysed by being passed over red-hot 

 oxide of copper, and by detonation of its vapour with oxygen. 

 The results obtained were, that it consists of 



2 proportionals of carbon 12 



1 hydrogen .... 1 



13 

 and that, in the state of vapour, six jiroportionals of carbon 

 and three of hydrogen are present to form 1 volume, which is 

 consequently of the specific gravity of 39, hydrogen being 1 . 

 It is named in the paper Bi-carhuret of lujdrogcn. 



Experimenting with the most volatile portions of the liquid, 

 a product was obtained, which, though gaseous at common 

 temperatures, condensed into a liquid at O-". This was found 

 to be very constant in composition and properties. It was 



very 



