Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlviii. (1904), No. 10. 



XVI. Note on the Union of Hydrogen with Sulphur, 

 Selenium and Tellurium. 



By Francis Jones, M.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.C.S. 



Received and read April 12th, 1^04. 



The direct union of hydrogen with sulphur has been 

 investigated by many chemists and repeatedly affirmed. 

 At the end of the eighteenth century Scheele stated that 

 when sulphur was heated to the subliming point in an 

 atmosphere of hydrogen, or when hydrogen was passed 

 over melted sulphur, combination took place between the 

 two elements and that the volume of gas remained 

 unaltered. This was confirmed by Corenwinder^, Cossa^, 

 and by Merz and Weith^ who found that sulphuretted 

 hydrogen was formed abundantly by passing hydrogen 

 through boiling sulphur, and Chevrier* obtained the same 

 gas by passing induction sparks through a mixture of 

 sulphur vapour and hydrogen. On the other hand 

 Myers^ finds that carefully purified hydrogen, when 

 passed over boiling sulphur, yields mere traces of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen and attributes the contradictory 

 results of other chemists to the presence of hydro-carbons 

 or moisture in the hydrogen they employed. Further, he 

 found that sulphuretted hydrogen is decomposed at a 

 temperature of 400*^0. and concludes that its synthesis at 

 the temperature of boiling sulphur is incredible. 



It is impossible to reconcile these conflicting state- 

 ments ; hydrogen either combines directly with sulphur 



^Anit. der Chem. tmd Pharvi, vol. 84, p. 225, 



-Ber. Chem. Gesellsch. 1868 p. 117. 



^Ibid 1869 p. 341. 



*'Covipf. Rend. vol. 69, p. 136. 



'^Covipt. Rend. vol. 74, p. 195. 



May gth, igo4. 



