FOURCROY, VAUQUELIN & SEGUIN. - THE SYNTHESIS OF WATER.

Mémoire sur la Combustion du Gaz Hydrogene. Lu à l'Academie Royale des Sciences, le 21 Mai 1790.

Paris, Rue et Hotel Serpente, 1791. 8vo. Contemporary half calf. Gilt spine. In: "Annales de Chimie: ou Recueil de Mémoires Concernant la Chimie et les Arts qui en Dépendent. Par MM. de Morveau, Lavoisier, Monge, Berthollet, De Fourcroy, le Baron de Dietrich, Hassenfratz & Adet." Tome Huitieme. (2),336 pp. The entire volume offered. The paper: pp. 230-308. A few scattered brownspots. Small stamps on verso of titlepage.

First appearance of the paper in which the authors records a series of experiments on the combustion of hydrogen, the aim of which was to confirm Lavoisier's large scale experiments on the synthesis of water. They finally proved that water only contains hydrogen and oxygen, and found the approximate ratio of their weights.

"In May 1790 Séguin read to the Académie des Sciences the report on the larg-scale synthesis of water carried out in Fourcroy’s laboratory by himself, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin. The purpose of this experiment was to establish finally that water is composed only of hydrogen and oxygen and that the weight of water is fully accounted for by the weights of the two gases. They also sought to determine accurately the combining ratio of the components of water, an especially important constant in oxygen chemistry. They found that the ratio hydrogen: oxygen is 2.052:1 by volume and 14.338:85.662 by weight. (The discrepancies from the true figure probably arose from the difficulties of weighing the gases.)"(DSB).

Apart from other importent chemical papers by Fourcroy, Seguin, Klaproth etc., the volume contains Joseph Black's famous letter to Lavoisier, where Black gives up his phlogistic theory and accepts the new chemistry, lead by Lavoisier. "Copie d'une Lettre de M. Joseph Black a M. Lavoisier", pp. 225-229.

Order-nr.: 46011