New Theory of the Constitution of mixed Gases elucidated extracted from The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 1802, pp. 169-173
1802. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING EXTRACT OF A PAPER IN WHICH JOHN DALTON CLARIFIES A NUMBER OF POINTS IN HIS IMPORTANT ‘EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS’.
In 1800, John Dalton presented his important series of four papers, generally referred to as his “Experimental Essays”. Fully titled, "Experimental Essays on the constitution of mixed gases; on the force of steam or vapour of water and other liquids in different temperatures, both in Torricellian vacuum and in air; on evaporation; and on the expansion of gases by heat", the papers were published by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. In those essays, Dalton proposed “that particles of an elastic fluid or gas were in fact elastic only with particles of their own kind” – an important observation that enunciated the law of the expansion of gases (stated some months later by Gay-Lussac) and extended Boyle’s law to mixtures of gases (Koehler, The Atom Man, ACS).
The paper offered here is not a reprint of one of the original four, but is from the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. It is the first printing of an important paper in which Dalton clarifies points that his colleagues found unclear in his four famous essays.
In the paper offered, Dalton announces his intentions: "I propose therefore (after some misunderstanding from Thomson and others), 1st, To state, in as clear a point of view as the subject will admit, the principles which I assume: 2d, To show that the consequences which I have deduced from them are legitimate; and, particularly, that mixed elastic fluids ought not to arrange themselves according to their specific gravity: and, 3d, To demonstrate that the supposition of the gases constituting the atmosphere being held in a state of equal diffusion by chemical affinity, is not only inconsistent with the phaenomena, but is completely absurd" (Dalton, Phil Mag 14, 1802, 170). Item #805
CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Alexander Tilloch. Extract. (8.5 x 5.5 inches; 213 x 138mm). pp. 169-173. Very minor foxing; largely very clean and bright. Very good condition.
Price: $75.00