charcoal 4 volumes of a gas consisting of hydrogen and carbonic oxide (H 2 + CO) are formed. This mixture of combustible gases is called water gas . But aqueous vapour (and only when strongly superheated, otherwise it cools the charcoal) only acts on charcoal to form a large amount of carbonic oxide at a very high temperature (at which carbonic anhydride dissociates); it begins to react at about 500°, forming carbonic anhydride according to the equation C + 2H 2 O = CO 2 + 2H 2 . Besides this, carbonic oxide on splitting up forms carbonic anhydride, and therefore water gas always contains a mixture in which hydrogen predominates, the volume of carbonic oxide being comparatively less, whilst the amount of carbonic anhydride increases as the temperature of the reaction decreases (generally it is more than 3 per cent.)
Metals like iron and zinc which at a red heat are capable of decomposing water with the formation of hydrogen, also decompose carbonic anhydride with the formation of carbonic oxide; so both the ordinary products of complete combustion, water and carbonic anhydride, are very similar in their reactions, and we shall therefore presently compare hydrogen and carbonic oxide. The metallic oxides of the above-mentioned metals, when reduced by charcoal, also give carbonic oxide. Priestley obtained it by heating charcoal with zinc oxide. As free carbonic anhydride may be transformed into carbonic oxide, so, in precisely the same way, may that carbonic acid which is in a state of combination; hence, if magnesium or barium carbonates (MgCO3 or BaCO3) be heated to redness with charcoal, or iron or zinc, carbonic oxide will be produced—for instance, it is obtained by heating an intimate mixture of 9 parts of chalk and 1 part of charcoal in a clay retort.
Many organic substances33 on being heated, or under the action of various agents, yield carbonic oxide; amongst these are many organic or carboxylic acids. The simplest are formic and oxalic acids. Formic acid, CH2O2, on being heated to 200°, easily decomposes into carbonic oxide and water, CH2O2 = CO + H2O.34 Usually, however, carbonic oxide is prepared in laboratories, not from formic but from oxalic acid, C2H2O4, the more so as formic acid is itself prepared from oxalic acid. The latter acid is easily obtained by the action of nitric acid on starch, sugar, &c.; it is also found in nature. Oxalic acid is easily decomposed by heat; its crystals first lose water, then partly volatilise, but the greater part is decomposed. The decomposition is of the following nature: it splits up into water, carbonic oxide, and carbonic anhydride,35 C2H2O4 = H2O + CO2 + CO. This decomposition is generally practically effected by mixing oxalic acid with strong sulphuric acid, because the latter assists the decomposition by taking up the water. On heating a mixture of oxalic and sulphuric acids a mixture of carbonic oxide and carbonic anhydride is evolved. This mixture is passed through a solution of an alkali in order to absorb the carbonic anhydride, whilst the carbonic oxide passes on.36
In its physical properties carbonic oxide resembles nitrogen; this is explained by the equality of their molecular weights. The absence of colour and smell, the low temperature of the absolute boiling point, -140° (nitrogen, -146°), the property of solidifying at -200° (nitrogen, -202°), the boiling point of -190° (nitrogen, -203°), and the slight solubility (Chapter I., Note 31), of carbonic oxide are almost the same as in those of nitrogen. The chemical properties of both gases are, however, very different, and in these carbonic oxide resembles hydrogen. Carbonic oxide burns with a blue flame, giving 2 volumes of carbonic anhydride from 2 volumes of carbonic oxide, just as 2 volumes of hydrogen give 2 volumes of aqueous vapour. It explodes with oxygen, in the eudiometer, like hydrogen.37 When breathed it acts as a strong poison, being absorbed by the blood;38 this explains the action of charcoal fumes, the products of the incomplete combustion of charcoal and other carbonaceous fuels. Owing to its faculty of combining with oxygen, carbonic oxide acts as a powerful reducing agent, taking up the oxygen from many compounds at a red heat, and being itself transformed into carbonic anhydride. The reducing action of carbonic oxide, however, is (like that of hydrogen, Chapter II.)