The Bakerian Lecture. On the composition and analysis of the inflammable gaseous compounds resulting from the destructive distillation of coal and oil, with some remarks on their relative heating and illuminating powers

• Published in: Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1833
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1815.0118; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspl.1815.0118

This paper is divided into two sections: in the first, the author’s object is to show that no other compound of carbon and hydrogen can be demonstrated to exist except that usually termed olefiant gas , consisting of one proportion of carbon and one of hydrogen; and that the supposed compound of one of carbon and two of hydrogen, generally called light hydrocarbonate , is in reality a mere mixture of hydrogen and olefiant gases. In proof of this opinion he details a series of analytical experiments upon the gases from coal, oil, acetate of potash, moist charcoal, &c., conducted chiefly by detonation with oxygen, by heat alone, and by the action of sulphur at high temperatures, and obtains results analogous to those afforded by mixtures of hydrogen and olefiant gas, of the same specific gravities. Of the gases above-mentioned, however, the specific gravity, combustibility, and intensity of light during combustion, are often much interfered with by the presence of carbonic oxide and carbonic acid. Of the products obtained by the destructive distillation of coal and oil, Mr. Brande thinks that some are of what may be termed secondary formation; that is, that they result from the mutual action of the first formed gaseous products at high temperatures. Thus a peculiar compound of hydrogen and carbon, volatile and odorous, resembling tar in appearance, but having the characters of resin, is formed by passing pure olefiant gas through a tube of red-hot charcoal; and sulphuret of carbon is formed by the mutual agency of carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen gases at high temperatures. To the latter compound the author refers the production of sulphurous acid, by the combustion of coal gas in cases where, by the test of acetate of lead, it is shown to be free from sulphuretted hydrogen. In this section of the paper the author further details some processes for the analysis of complex gaseous mixtures, which he thinks afford more accurate results, and are easier of performance than those usually practised, and which ...