503.]
For such a series of reactions a _comparatively_ few molecules of water
would suffice, and the change produced by their alternate reduction and
oxidation would come under the old term of "catalytic action," inasmuch
as the few water molecules present at the beginning are found in the
same state at the completion of the reaction.
The truth of this hypothesis has since been confirmed by experiments I
have made on the incomplete combustion of mixtures of carbonic oxide and
hydrogen; and on the velocity of explosion of carbonic oxide and oxygen
with varying proportions of aqueous vapor. I therefore thought a
description of the more convenient methods lately devised as lecture
experiments for showing the influence of water on the combustion of
carbonic oxide would not be uninteresting to the Section.
A glass tube from 18 inches to 2 feet long, closed at one end, and
provided with platinum wires, is bent near its open end so that the
shorter arm makes an angle of about 60 deg. with the longer arm. The tube,
held by a clamp, is heated in a Bunsen flame, and is then filled with
mercury heated to about 130 deg. C. The mixture of gases is then made to
displace a portion of the mercury by forcing it through a fine tube,
which is connected by a steel cap to the eudiometer of McLeod's gas
apparatus, and passes down through the mercury in the shorter arm of the
experimental tube.
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