f50 ACTION OF POTASSIUM ON AMMONIA. 



procured the remaining two fifths, by adding water to the 

 residuum, which after this operation was found to be potash. 

 No notice is taken of the properties of this residuum, which, 

 as the details seem to relate to a single experiment, proba- 

 bly was not examined ; nor as moisture was present at the 

 beginning of their operations could any accurate knowledge 

 of its nature have been gained. 

 Fropertfcscf I have made the residuum of the fusible substance after 

 «^te fusible lt has been ex P 0be(1 to a dull red heat, out of the contact of 

 substance after moisture, an object of particular study, and I shall detail its 



SJu Ure l ° S eneral P r °P ert ies. 



It was examined under naphtha, as it is instantly destroy- 

 ed by the contact of air. 



1. Its colour is black, and its lustre not much inferior to 

 that of plumbago. 



2. It is opaque even in the thinnest films. 



3. It is very brittle, and affords a deep gray powder. 



4. It is a conductor of electricity, 



5. It does not fuse at a low red heat, and when raised to 

 this temperature, in contact with plate glass, it blackens the 

 glass, and a grayish sublimate rises from it, which likewise 

 blackens the glass. 



6. When exposed to air at common temperatures, it 

 usually takes fire immediately, and burns with a deep red 

 light. 



7. When it is acted upon by water, it heats, effervesces 

 most violently, and evolves volatile alkali, leaving behind 

 nothing but potash. When the process is conducted under 

 water, a little inflammable gas is found to be generated. A 

 residuum of eight grains giving in all cases about f^ of a 

 cubical inch. 



8. It has no action upon quicksilver. 



9. It combines with sulphur and phosphorus by heat, 

 without any vividness of effect, and the compounds are 

 highly inflammable, and emit ammonia, and the one phos- 

 phuretted and the other sulphuretted hidrogen gas, by the 

 action of water. 



A compound As an inflammable gas alone, having the obvious propeiv 

 of nitrogen ties of hidrogen, is given off during the action of potassium 

 with suboxide U p 0n ammonia, and as nothing but gasses apparently the 



§ame 



