Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/104

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100
THE VARIOUS FORCES OF NATURE.

other bodies to burn), we will now consider the other constituent of water; and, without embarrassing you too much with the way in which these things are made, I will proceed now to shew you our common way of making hydrogen. (I called it hydrogen yesterday—it is so called because it helps to generate water.)[1] I put into this retort some zinc, water, and oil of vitriol, and immediately an action takes place, which produces an abundant evolution of gas, now coming over into this jar, and bubbling up in appearance exactly like the oxygen we obtained yesterday.

Fig. 27.

The processes, you see, are very different, though the result is the same, in so far

  1. ῾δορ, "water," and γενναω, "I generate."