130 On the Liquefaction of Gases. [1824. 



coarse powder was introduced, and then the bottle two-thirds 

 filled with nitromuriatic acid ; it was shaken, and in a short 

 time chlorine was abundantly disengaged. M. Morveau re- 

 marks upon the facility with which the chlorine is retained in 

 these bottles ; one, thus prepared, and forgotten, when opened 

 at the end of eight years, gave an abundant odour of chlorine. 



I had an impression on my mind that M. de Morveau had 

 proposed the use of phials similarly charged, but made strong, 

 well stoppered, and confined by a screw in a frame, so that no 

 gas should escape, except when the screw and stopper were 

 loosened ; but I have searched for an account of such phials 

 without being able to find any. If such have been made, it is 

 very probable that in some circumstances, liquid chlorine has 

 existed in them, for as its vapour at 60 F. has only a force of 

 about four atmospheres*, a charge of materials might be 

 expected frequently to yield much more chlorine than enough 

 to fill the space, and saturate the fluid present ; and the excess 

 would of course take the liquid form. If such vessels have not 

 been made, our present knowledge of the strength of the vapour 

 of chlorine will enable us to construct them of a much more con- 

 venient and portable form than has yet been given to them. 



Arseniuretted Hydrogen. This is a gas which it is said has 

 been condensed so long since as 1805. The experiment was 

 made by Stromeyer, and was communicated, with many other 

 results relating to the same gas, to the Gottingen Society, Oct. 

 12, 1805. See Nicholson's ' Journal,' xix. 382 ; also Thenard, 

 'Traitd de Chimie,' i. 373; Brande's ' Manual,' ii. 212 ; and 

 ' Annales de Chimie/ Ixiv. 303. None of these contain the 

 original experiment ; but the following quotation is from 

 Nicholson's * Journal.' The gas was obtained over the pneu- 

 matic apparatus, by digesting an alloy of fifteen parts tin and 

 one part arsenic, in strong muriatic acid. " Though the arseni- 

 cated hydrogen gas retains its aeriform state under every known 

 degree of atmospheric temperature and pressure, Professor 

 Stromeyer condensed it so far as to reduce it in part to a liquid, 

 by immersing it in a mixture of snow and muriate of lime, 

 in which several pounds of quicksilver had been frozen in the 

 course of a few minutes." From the circumstance of its being 

 reduced only in part to a liquid, we may be led to suspect that 

 * Philosophical Transactions, 1823, p. 198 or page 95. 



