SECT. II.] 
PROPERTIES OF STEAM. 
77 
Of the Elastic Force of the Vapour of Sulphuret of Carbon. 
109. There is a remarkable compound of sulphur with carbon, which is 
usually distinguished by the name sulphuret of carbon, but is sometimes called 
carburet of sulphur. It is liquid, and as transparent and colourless as water. It 
has an acrid and pungent taste, somewhat aromatic : its smell is nauseous and 
peculiar: its specific gravity is 1*272, and it boils briskly and distils at from 110° 
to 116°, depending on its purity. When heated to about 680° or 700° in the air, it 
takes fire and burns with a blue flame. It is scarcely soluble in water. It appears 
to be a compound of 
Sulphur - - 84*21 
Carbon - - 15*79 
100*00 
It may be prepared by mixing about 10 parts of well-calcined charcoal in 
powder with 50 parts of pulverized native pyrites, and distilling the mixture from 
a retort into a tubulated receiver surrounded by ice : somewhat more than one part 
of sulphuret of carbon may be obtained from the above quantities. 
110. It appears to me that it might be used in a steam engine with some 
advantage, provided it does not act too much on the metallic parts, nor undergo a 
change by the continued transition from heat to cold; for it has a high elastic 
force at a low temperature, being equal to about 4 atmospheres at 212°, and 
therefore the advantage of a high pressure engine might be obtained without the 
inconvenience of a high temperature. 
Experiments on the Elastic Force of Vapour from Sulphuret of Carbon. 
Force in inches of mercury. 
Temperature. 
Observed. 
Calculated by for 
mula, page 78. 
53°-5 
7-4 
11-73 
72-5 
12-55 
16-35 
110 
30-00 
30-00 
These experiments I have attempted to represent by calculation : as the rule by 
which the numbers were calculated was formed from the experiments in the fol-