162 



CHEMISTEY. 



Fig. 6T. 



dropped into a vessel of chlorine gas, it will fall in a show- 

 er of fire, and the vessel will 

 be filled with a white smoke 

 which is made up of small par- 

 ticles of chloride of antimony. 

 (Fig. 67.) If a fine brass wire, 

 with a little bit of tinsel fast- 

 ened to its end, be introduced 

 into a vessel of chlorine gas, the 

 wire will burn briskly, the tin- 

 sel of course taking fire first and 

 kindling the wire, as shavings 

 do wood. In this combustion 

 the zinc and copper, of which 



brass is composed, unite with chlorine to form chlorides of 



zinc and copper. 



215. Attraction for Hydrogen. Fill a jar with chlorine 

 water, and invert it in a vessel of water. If this be kept in 

 the dark no change will occur ; but if it be exposed to the 

 sun for a few days there will collect a colorless gas in the 

 upper part of the jar, and the water will be found to have 

 lost its chlorine and to have become sour. This is because 

 the chlorine in the solution has decomposed some of the 

 water by taking to itself its hydrogen to form hydrochloric 

 acid, while the other constituent of the water, oxygen, has 

 collected in the upper part of the jar. That this gas is oxy- 

 gen can be readily proved by setting the jar upright and 

 introducing into it a taper which is merely in a glow, and 

 not in a flame. It will burst into a bright flame at once. 



Water. Chlorine. Hydrochloric acid. Oxygen. 



H 2 O + C1 2 2HC1 + O 



216. Bleaching. The powerful attraction between chlo- 

 rine and hydrogen, and the consequent decomposition of 

 water, furnish us the explanation of chlorine bleaching. The 



