Note 5 — Chapter III · OXYGEN AND THE CHIEF ASPECTS OF ITS SALINE COMBINATIONS

The extraction of oxygen from water may be effected by two processes: either by the decomposition of water into its constituent parts by the action of a galvanic current (Chapter II.), or by means of the removal of the hydrogen from water. But, as we have seen and already know, hydrogen enters into direct combination with very few substances, and then only under special circumstances; whilst oxygen, as we shall soon learn, combines with nearly all substances. Only gaseous chlorine (and, especially, fluorine) is capable of decomposing water, taking up the hydrogen from it, without combining with the oxygen. Chlorine is soluble in water, and if an aqueous solution of chlorine, so-called chlorine water, be poured into a flask, and this flask be inverted in a basin containing the same chlorine water, then we shall have an apparatus by means of which oxygen may be extracted from water. At the ordinary temperature, and in the dark, chlorine does not act on water, or only acts very feebly; but under the action of direct sunlight chlorine decomposes water, with the evolution of oxygen. The chlorine then combines with the hydrogen, and gives hydrochloric acid, which dissolves in the water, and therefore free oxygen only will be separated from the liquid, and it will only contain a small quantity of chlorine in admixture, which can be easily removed by passing the gas through a solution of caustic potash.