Oxygen is prepared in the laboratory by various methods, these including the heating of chloride of lime and peroxide of cobalt mixed in a retort, the heating of chlorate of potash, and the separation of water into its elements, hydrogen and oxygen, by the pa.s.sage of an electric current. While the last process is used on a large scale in commercial work, the others are not practical for work other than that of an experimental or temporary nature.
This gas is a colorless, odorless, tasteless element. It is sixteen times as heavy as the gas hydrogen when measured by volume under the same temperature and pressure. Under all ordinary conditions oxygen remains in a gaseous form, although it turns to a liquid when compressed to 4,400 pounds to the square inch and at a temperature of 220 below zero.
Oxygen unites with almost every other element, this union often taking place with great heat and much light, producing flame. Steel and iron will burn rapidly when placed in this gas if the combustion is started with a flame of high heat playing on the metal. If the end of a wire is heated bright red and quickly plunged into a jar containing this gas, the wire will burn away with a dazzling light and be entirely consumed except for the molten drops that separate themselves. This property of oxygen is used in oxy-acetylene cutting of steel.
The combination of oxygen with other substances does not necessarily cause great heat, in fact the combination may be so slow and gradual that the change of temperature can not be noticed. An example of this slow combustion, or oxidation, is found in the conversion of iron into rust as the metal combines with the active gas. The respiration of human beings and animals is a form of slow combustion and is the source of animal heat.
It is a general rule that the process of oxidation takes place with increasing rapidity as the temperature of the body being acted upon rises.
Iron and steel at a red heat oxidize rapidly with the formation of a scale and possible damage to the metal.
_Air._--Atmospheric air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen with traces of carbonic acid gas and water vapor. Twenty-one per cent of the air, by volume, is oxygen and the remaining seventy-nine per cent is the inactive gas, nitrogen. But for the presence of the nitrogen, which deadens the action of the other gas, combustion would take place at a destructive rate and be beyond human control in almost all cases. These two gases exist simply as a mixture to form the air and are not chemically combined. It is therefore a comparatively simple matter to separate them with the processes now available.
_Water._--Water is a combination of oxygen and hydrogen, being composed of exactly two volumes of hydrogen to one volume of oxygen. If these two gases be separated from each other and then allowed to mix in these proportions they unite with explosive violence and form water. Water itself may be separated into the gases by any one of several means, one making use of a temperature of 2,200 to bring about this separation.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 7.--Obtaining Oxygen by Electrolysis]
The easiest way to separate water into its two parts is by the process called electrolysis (Figure 7). Water, with which has been mixed a small quant.i.ty of acid, is placed in a vat through the walls of which enter the platinum tipped ends of two electrical conductors, one positive and the other negative.
Tubes are placed directly above these wire terminals in the vat, one tube being over each electrode and separated from each other by some distance.
With the pa.s.sage of an electric current from one wire terminal to the other, bubbles of gas rise from each and pa.s.s into the tubes. The gas that comes from the negative terminal is hydrogen and that from the positive pole is oxygen, both gases being almost pure if the work is properly conducted. This method produces electrolytic oxygen and electrolytic hydrogen.
_The Liquid Air Process._--While several of the foregoing methods of securing oxygen are successful as far as this result is concerned, they are not profitable from a financial standpoint. A process for separating oxygen from the nitrogen in the air has been brought to a high state of perfection and is now supplying a major part of this gas for oxy-acetylene welding. It is known as the Linde process and the gas is distributed by the Linde Air Products Company from its plants and warehouses located in the large cities of the country.
The air is first liquefied by compression, after which the gases are separated and the oxygen collected. The air is purified and then compressed by successive stages in powerful machines designed for this purpose until it reaches a pressure of about 3,000 pounds to the square inch. The large amount of heat produced is absorbed by special coolers during the process of compression. The highly compressed air is then dried and the temperature further reduced by other coolers.
The next point in the separation is that at which the air is introduced into an apparatus called an interchanger and is allowed to escape through a valve, causing it to turn to a liquid. This liquid air is sprayed onto plates and as it falls, the nitrogen return to its gaseous state and leaves the oxygen to run to the bottom of the container. This liquid oxygen is then allowed to return to a gas and is stored in large gasometers or tanks.
The oxygen gas is taken from the storage tanks and compressed to approximately 1,800 pounds to the square inch, under which pressure it is pa.s.sed into steel cylinders and made ready for delivery to the customer.
This oxygen is guaranteed to be ninety-seven per cent pure.
Another process, known as the Hildebrandt process, is coming into use in this country. It is a later process and is used in Germany to a much greater extent than the Linde process. The Superior Oxygen Co. has secured the American rights and has established several plants.
_Oxygen Cylinders_.--Two sizes of cylinders are in use, one containing 100 cubic feet of gas when it is at atmospheric pressure and the other containing 250 cubic feet under similar conditions. The cylinders are made from one piece of steel and are without seams. These containers are tested at double the pressure of the gas contained to insure safety while handling.
One hundred cubic feet of oxygen weighs nearly nine pounds (8.921), and therefore the cylinders will weigh practically nine pounds more when full than after emptying, if of the 100 cubic feet size. The large cylinders weigh about eighteen and one-quarter pounds more when full than when empty, making approximately 212 pounds empty and 230 pounds full.
The following table gives the number of cubic feet of oxygen remaining in the cylinders according to various gauge pressures from an initial pressure of 1,800 pounds. The amounts given are not exactly correct as this would necessitate lengthy calculations which would not make great enough difference to affect the practical usefulness of the table:
Cylinder of 100 Cu. Ft. Capacity at 68 Fahr.
Gauge Volume Gauge Volume Pressure Remaining Pressure Remaining
1800 100 700 39 1620 90 500 28 1440 80 300 17 1260 70 100 6 1080 60 18 1 900 50 9 1/2
Cylinder of 250 Cu. Ft. Capacity at 68 Fahr.
Gauge Volume Gauge Volume Pressure Remaining Pressure Remaining
1800 250 700 97 1620 225 500 70 1440 200 300 42 1260 175 100 15 1080 150 18 8 900 125 9 1-1/4
The temperature of the cylinder affects the pressure in a large degree, the pressure increasing with a rise in temperature and falling with a fall in temperature. The variation for a 100 cubic foot cylinder at various temperatures is given in the following tabulation:
At 150 Fahr........................ 2090 pounds.
At 100 Fahr........................ 1912 pounds.
At 80 Fahr........................ 1844 pounds.
At 68 Fahr........................ 1800 pounds.
At 50 Fahr........................ 1736 pounds.
At 32 Fahr........................ 1672 pounds.
At 0 Fahr........................ 1558 pounds.
At -10 Fahr........................ 1522 pounds.
_Chlorate of Potash Method._--In spite of its higher cost and the inferior gas produced, the chlorate of potash method of producing oxygen is used to a limited extent when it is impossible to secure the gas in cylinders.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 8.--Oxygen from Chlorate of Potash]
An iron retort (Figure 8) is arranged to receive about fifteen pounds of chlorate of potash mixed with three pounds of manganese dioxide, after which the cylinder is closed with a tight cap, clamped on. This retort is carried above a burner using fuel gas or other means of generating heat and this burner is lighted after the chemical charge is mixed and compressed in the tube.
The generation of gas commences and the oxygen is led through water baths which wash and cool it before storing in a tank connected with the plant.
From this tank the gas is compressed into portable cylinders at a pressure of about 300 pounds to the square inch for use as required in welding operations.
Each pound of chlorate of potash liberates about three cubic feet of oxygen, and taking everything into consideration, the cost of gas produced in this way is several times that of the purer product secured by the liquid air process.
These chemical generators are oftentimes a source of great danger, especially when used with or near the acetylene gas generator, as is sometimes the case with cheap portable outfits. Their use should not be tolerated when any other method is available, as the danger from accident alone should prohibit the practice except when properly installed and cared for away from other sources of combustible gases.
ACETYLENE
In 1862 a chemist, Woehler, announced the discovery of the preparation of acetylene gas from calcium carbide, which he had made by heating to a high temperature a mixture of charcoal with an alloy of zinc and calcium. His product would decompose water and yield the gas. For nearly thirty years these substances were neglected, with the result that acetylene was practically unknown, and up to 1892 an acetylene flame was seen by very few persons and its possibilities were not dreamed of. With the development of the modern electric furnace the possibility of calcium carbide as a commercial product became known.
In the above year, Thomas L. Willson, an electrical engineer of Spray, North Carolina, was experimenting in an attempt to prepare metallic calcium, for which purpose he employed an electric furnace operating on a mixture of lime and coal tar with about ninety-five horse power. The result was a molten ma.s.s which became hard and brittle when cool. This apparently useless product was discarded and thrown in a nearby stream, when, to the astonishment of onlookers, a large volume of gas was immediately liberated, which, when ignited, burned with a bright and smoky flame and gave off quant.i.ties of soot. The solid material proved to be calcium carbide and the gas acetylene.
Thus, through the incidental study of a by-product, and as the result of an accident, the possibilities in carbide were made known, and in the spring of 1895 the first factory in the world for the production of this substance was established by the Willson Aluminum Company.
When water and calcium carbide are brought together an action takes place which results in the formation of acetylene gas and slaked lime.
CARBIDE
Calcium carbide is a chemical combination of the elements carbon and calcium, being dark brown, black or gray with sometimes a blue or red tinge. It looks like stone and will only burn when heated with oxygen.
Calcium carbide may be preserved for any length of time if protected from the air, but the ordinary moisture in the atmosphere gradually affects it until nothing remains but slaked lime. It always possesses a penetrating odor, which is not due to the carbide itself but to the fact that it is being constantly affected by moisture and producing small quant.i.ties of acetylene gas.
This material is not readily dissolved by liquids, but if allowed to come in contact with water, a decomposition takes place with the evolution of large quant.i.ties of gas. Carbide is not affected by shock, jarring or age.
A pound of absolutely pure carbide will yield five and one-half cubic feet of acetylene. Absolute purity cannot be attained commercially, and in practice good carbide will produce from four and one-half to five cubic feet for each pound used.
Carbide is prepared by fusing lime and carbon in the electric furnace under a heat in excess of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. These materials are among the most difficult to melt that are known. Lime is so infusible that it is frequently employed for the materials of crucibles in which the highest melting metals are fused, and for the pencils in the calcium light because it will stand extremely high temperatures.
Carbon is the material employed in the manufacture of arc light electrodes and other electrical appliances that must stand extreme heat. Yet these two substances are forced into combination in the manufacture of calcium carbide. It is the excessively high temperature attainable in the electric furnace that causes this combination and not any effect of the electricity other than the heat produced.