it was rather the moisture of the gas that was condensed than the gas itself; a conjecture which is strengthened in my mind from finding that a pressure of three atmospheres was insufficient to liquefy the gas at a temperature of 0° F.
Chlorine.—The most remarkable and direct experiments I have yet met with in the course of my search after such as were connected with the condensation of gases into liquids, are a series made by Mr. N orthmore, in the years 1805–6. It was expected by this gentleman "that the various affinities which take place among the gases under the common pressure of the atmosphere, would undergo considerable alteration by the influence of condensation;" and it was with this in view that the experiments were made and described. The results of liquefaction were therefore incidental, but at present it is only of them I wish to take notice. Mr. Northmore's papers may be found in Nicholson's 'Journal,' xii. 368, xiii. 232. In the first is described his apparatus, namely, a brass condensing pump; pear-shaped glass receivers, containing from three and a half to five cubic inches, and a quarter of an inch thick; and occasionally a siphon gauge. Sometimes as many as eighteen atmospheres were supposed to have been compressed into the vessel, but it is added, that the quantity cannot be depended on, as the tendency to escape even by the side of the piston, rendered its confinement very difficult.
Now that we know the pressure of the vapour of chlorine, there can be no doubt that the following passage describes a true liquefaction of that gas:—" Upon the compression of nearly two pints of oxygenated muriatic acid gas in a receiver, two and a quarter cubic inches capacity, it speedily became converted into a yellow fluid, of such extreme volatility, under the common pressure of the atmosphere, that it instantly evaporated upon opening the screw of the receiver; I need not add that this fluid, so highly concentrated, is of a most insupportable pungency .... There was a trifling residue of a yellowish substance left after the evaporation, which probably arose from a small portion of the oil and grease used in the machine," &c., xiii. 235.
Muriatic Acid.—Operating upon muriatic acid, Mr. Northmore obtained such results as induced him to state he could liquefy it in any quantity; but as the pressure of its vapour at
