Chemical Observations and Experiments on Air and Fire Quotes
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“Fire, that is so wonderful, cannot be generated without Air.”
“Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Joseph Priestley”
“Researches on Air... may furnish sufficient materials for new discoveries to every one who chuses to set about making Experiments.”
“It likewise appears that a given quantity of Air can be united to or saturated as it were only by a certain quantity of phlogiston...”
“These experiments seem to prove, that the transition of phlogiston into the air diminishes not always its bulk; which however other experiments clearly indicate...”
“I will prove, that by the union of air with the inflammable principle, a compound is formed, so subtle as to pass through the fine pores of the glass, and disperse all over the air.”
“Scheele, Carl Wilhelm Chemical Observations and Experiments on Air and Fire (1780) Tr. John-Reinold Forster”
“He [ Joseph Priestley ] still adhered to the old opinion that all pure alkalies and absorbent earths must effervesce with acids.”
“What we now are going to mention, demonstrates that the part of air, which unites with the inflammable, and is in a manner absorbed, is again restored by the re-extricated aerial acid (fixed air).”
“Certainly it is a remarkable circumstance to observe, that the phlogiston separated from bodies, either without or with a fiery motion, and united with air, always considerably diminishes the bulk of air.”
“Carl Wilhelm Scheele's d. Königl. Schwed. Acad. d. Wissenschaft Mitgliedes, Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer (1777) in German”
“Air is composed of two different fluids, the one of which attracts not the phlogiston, and the other has the quality of attracting it, and this latter fluid makes between a third and a fourth of the whole bulk of the air.”
“Hence if a fluid be exhibited similar in all external appearances to Air, but which upon examination wants the enumerated qualities, (should even only one be wanting,) I should think myself convinced, that it is not common air.”
“I take it as a certainty for granted, that pure water in itself can neither by art nor nature be changed into a dry substance, which shall have all the properties of a true earth. ...the white earth was nothing else than the most subtle powder of glass.”
“Surmises cannot determine any thing with certainty, and they will still less satisfy a chemical natural philosopher, who always wants demonstrative proofs. This clearly shews the necessity of making experiments, in order to elucidate this mystery of nature.”
“I presume in this Treatise.. to alledge proofs, that a kind of Air subsisting in our atmosphere is a true constituent part of Fire, and materially contributes to the existence and support of flame; for which reason I call this Air empyreal Air (Fire Air [oxygen]).”
“After a series of experiments, I observed, that Air really makes part of the compound of Fire, and is a constituent part of the fame and of sparks. I concluded, therefore, that a Treatise on Fire, could not be drawn up with any degree of accuracy, without an enquiry into Air.”
“These are the methods employed by me in my enquiries on air. I confess that they will not please every body, since they decide not to a nicety: but in my enquiries they have all proved satisfactory: and often people pretend to split even a hair, where there is no necessity to attend to minutiæ.”
“Substances undergoing either putrefaction or decomposition by Fire, diminish or as it were absorb part of the Air. Sometimes it happens that they considerably increase the bulk of the Air, and in other instances, these substances will neither increase nor diminish a certain given quantity of Air; all which are very remarkable phænomena.”