Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, 8fc. 317 



myself that it consisted of somewhat variable proportions of hy- 

 drogen and of atmospheric air, or rather of the constituents of 

 atmospheric air in relative quantities, also somewhat variable. 

 The conclusion which I drew from this result was, that the gas 

 evolved from the negative pole under the proper galvanic influ- 

 ence, was pure hydrogen, and that the oxygen and azote had been 

 simply held in solution by the alcohol, and had been liberated 

 along with the hydrogen in the manner which is known to occur 

 when a gas is passed through a liquid holding another elastic 

 fluid in solution. 



Accordingly, I found that when the experiment was made 

 without the contact of atmospheric air in a close tube, as Fig. 1, 

 the proportion of atmospheric air mixed with the hydrogen was 

 much diminished ; and by acting on only a dram and a-half of 

 fluid inclosed in a small tube, Fig. 2, and exposing the liquid, 

 before commencing the galvanic action, to the vacuum of an air- 

 pump, to separate the common air, I obtained a gas which, when 

 mixed with half its bulk of oxygen, and fired by the electric spark, 

 left no sensible residue after the explosion, and was therefore 

 pure hydrogen. By placing the foils side by side in the manner 

 done in this latter experiment, the quantity of gas liberated is 

 considerably increased. 



Precisely the same result was obtained by employing alcohol 

 of sp. gr. .7928, at 66°F., as had been got with alcohol of sp. 

 gr. 830. A dram and a-half of alcohol, sp. gr. .7928, having in 

 solution from ¥ ^ to ¥ | ? of potash, yielded, when acted on in the 

 tube, Fig. 2, by seventy pairs of four-inch plates, the poles being 

 of platinum foil, and placed side by side at a short distance, a 

 cubic inch of gas from the negative pole in less than a quarter of 

 an hour, and 2^ cubic inches in 2\ hours from the commence- 

 ment. The action was so intense, that the liquid boiled in a 

 short time, although the lower part of the tube was kept plunged 

 in cold water. The liquid also acquired a reddish colour soon 



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