Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
The Second Edition

Reissued in its 1776 second edition, Volume 2 of this three-volume collection presents groundbreaking early investigations into gases.

Joseph Priestley (Author)

9781108063968, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 September 2013

470 pages, 3 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.59 kg

By the late eighteenth century, scientists had discovered certain types of gas, such as 'fixed air' (carbon dioxide), but their composition was little understood. Relatively few investigations into gases had taken place, and so the polymath Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was able to make major breakthroughs in the field using a range of experimental techniques. While living near a brewery, he found that it was possible to outline the shape of the gas above fermenting beer with smoke, and that fire would burn with varying strength depending on the composition of the air. This three-volume collection first appeared between 1774 and 1777. Following the international interest and new discoveries prompted by the publication of its predecessor, Volume 2 - reissued here in its corrected 1776 second edition - includes accounts of further experiments, Priestley's paper on the conducting power of charcoal, and, most significantly, notes on what he calls 'dephlogisticated air' (oxygen).

Preface
Introduction
1. Of vitriolic acid air
2. Of vegetable acid air
3. Of dephlogisticated air
4. A more particular account of some processes for the production of dephlogisticated air
5. Miscellaneous observations on the properties of dephlogisticated air
6. Of air procured from various substances by means of heat only
7. Of air produced by the solution of vegetable substances in spirit of nitre
8. Of air produced by the solution of animal substances in spirit of nitre
9. Miscellaneous experiments relating to nitre, the nitrous acid and nitrous air
10. Some observations on common air
11. Of the fluor acid air
12. Experiments and observations relating to fixed air
13. Miscellaneous observations
14. Experiments and observations on charcoal
15. Of the impregnation of water with fixed air
16. An account of some misrepresentations of the author's sentiments
17. Experiments relating to some of the preceding sections
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]