Like, did someone just come across helium one day, not knowing what it was, and decided to start collecting it in containers? What about neon, hydrogen, and all the others? How did they know where to look, and even when found, how did they collect it without all the gas escaping into the air around them?
In: Earth Science
Not an expert, but the way i see it the easiest way would be to try and isolate it. So for instance, find a substance that, when heated, should give off only one gas (Lets take chlorine for example, which exists in gas form on earth unless bound to something else) and find a liquid that that substance is inert in. Then, submerge it in that liquid and start heating it, and wait for the gas to rise to the top, displacing the liquid in the process. If you now have a vent to fill the gas into, say, a balloon, from the container you isolated it in, you can now start experiments, like weighing it, describing its color, writing some about its properties (Is it corrosive? Is it heavier or lighter than air? etc.)
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