

DECOMPOSITION OF BORACIC ACID. g(Jl 



matter taken out. The following are the phenomena ob- 

 served in this experiment. 



When the temperature is about 150° [302" F.], the mix- Phenomena 

 Jure on a sudden grows highly red, as may be seen in a °^7imenu * 

 striking manner by using a glass tube. There is even 50 

 much heat produced, that the glass tube partly melts, and 

 sometimes breaks, and the air of the vessels is almost al? 

 ways expelled with force. From the beginning of the 

 experiment to the end, nothing is disengaged but atmo- 

 spheric air, and a few bubbles of hidrogen gas, not an- 

 swering to a fiftieth part of what the metal employed would 

 give out by means of water. All the metal constantly dis- 

 appears in decomposing part of the boracic acid; jyid the 

 two substances are converted by their reciprocal action into 

 an olive gray matter, which is a mixture of potash and the 

 radical of the boracic acid. This mixture is extracted from 

 the tube by pouring in water, and heating it gently; and 

 the boracic radical is separated by repeated washing with 

 warm or cold water. Before this washing it is advisable tq 

 saturate the alkali contained in the mixture with muriatic 

 acid : for it appears, that the boracic radical can become 

 oxided, and then dissolve in the alkali, .to which it gives a, , 



very deep colour. What does not dissolve is the radical it- 

 self, which possesses the following properties. 



It is of a greenish brown colour, fixed, and insoluble in Properties af 

 water. It has no taste ; and no action on infusion of litmus the b f se <*f* 

 or sirup of violets. Mixed with oximurate of potash, or ni- 

 trate of potash," and projected into a red hot crucible, a 

 vivid combustion ensues, one of the products of which is the 

 boracic acid. When it is treated with nitric acid, a great 

 effervescence takes place, even in the cold : and when the 

 fluid is evaporated, a great deal of the boracic acid is ob- 

 tained. But of all the phenomena produced by the bora- 

 cic radical in its contact with different substances, the 

 most curious and mpst important are those it exhibits with 

 oxigen. 



On projecting 3 decig. [A\ grs.] of boracic radical into a -j^is ba?e 

 silver crucible scarcely at a dull red heat ; and covering the heated in oxi- 

 crucible with ajar holding about a litre [a wine quart], till- gen ** S> 

 *d wish oxigen gas, and placed over mercury ; a combus* 



tion 



