216 BESEAECHES UPON THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF GASES. 



The same salt in solution is slowly and incompletely reduced by hydrogen, 

 although it is rapidly reduced by olefines and carbon monoxide. Similar tests with 

 palladium chloride, both dry and in soliTtion, made at the wells, in the cases of all 

 the localities mentioned in the table l^o. I, from 1 to 14, have led to similar results. 

 Ifatural gas from Vancouver and from Kokomo, Ind., could not be tested at the 

 wells. Tests made in the laboratory, of the samples received from those localities, 

 gave the same negative results. 



Another method of testing for hydrogen has been employed. As is well known, 

 a jet of hydrogen is immediately ignited by platinum asbestos. Natural gas under 

 similar conditions is not ignited, even when the gas jet and the platinum sponge are 

 mounted in an oven kept at a temperature approaching 300°. In order to ascertain 

 the effects of different proportions of hydrogen and natural gas, a gasometer con- 

 taining the gas mixture to be tried was connected with a jet in form of a drawn-out 

 glass tube, above which some platinum asbestos was fixed. The gas pressure could 

 be so regulated as to produce a pointed flame one inch long. By momentarily shut- 

 ting off the gas by pinching the hose, the flame could be extinguished, and the gas,, 

 being turned on again, played against the platinum asbestos. The length of the 

 flame when the gas stream from the jet was ignited was therefore a measure of the 

 gas flow. The gas was ignited by the platinum asbestos or not according as the 

 proportion of hydrogen in the natural gas was greater or less. The ignition of the 

 gas was also dependent upon the temperature of the oven in which the jet and the 

 platinum asbestos were fixed. 



Mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas produced glowing of the platinum and 

 ignition of the gas at the following temperatures, when the experiment was made in 

 a large iron oven whose temperature could be readily measured. The gas pressure 

 was the same in all trials. 



PROPORTION OF HYDROGEN AND NATDKAL GAS. TEMPERATURES OF THE OVEN AT WHICH THE GAS 



INFLAMES AS IT STRIKES THE PLATINUM ASBESTOS. 



Natural gas 95 ) 40^-50- 



Hydrogen 5 ( 



Natural gas 97.5 ) 80^-9(P 



Hydrogen 2.5 ^ 



Natural gas 99 ) j^goo 



Hydrogen 1 ^ 



Natural gas 99.5 ) ^ 210°-22(P 



Hydrogen 0.5 ^ 



Natural gas 99.75 ) 270° 



Hydrogen 0.25 ^ 



Pure natural gas 270O-290O 



The observed temperatures naturally vary with the pressure, size of jet, etc., 



