Atmospheres and gas - Volta Temple

Airs and gases - Volta Temple

This section includes the apparatuses used in research regarding inflammable gases as they were developed in the second half of the 18 th century. Alexander Volta designed the eudiometer, useful to the study of the combustion of gases, designed and realised a few application and was the first to collect and study a new gas: methane.

Volta's Eudiometer.
Volta continued Landriani's ideas, and having observed that it was possible to identify a decrease in the volume of common air in the combustion of combustible air, strong in his knowledge about electrical sparks, he realised a new combustible gas audiometer. Basically it was a glass jar, which, filled with water, was immersed upside-down in a basin full of water: in the first configuration, it is simply about a glass cylinder closed at one extreme with a cork, holding two metal points which faced each other inside the cylinder.

Eudiometer Applications.
Volta, having achieved the ignition of a gas mixture in a closed jar with an electric spark, came up with a few applications: such as the remotely operated pistol, an original application which utilises the detonation of the thundering mixture in order to shoot a projectile, or the combustible gas oil lamp - made up of a glass jar, containing the combustible gas, screwed onto a copper funnel base; a second jar, positioned above the first, containing water and is attached with a tap to the lower one, creating a sort of water hourglass. When the water is allowed to fall the combustible gas is pushed to exit by means of the spout openings and may be ignited in the air by a spark that is released in front of the opening.