COMBINATIONS OF OXIMURIATIC GAS AND OXIGEN. l]Q 



It may be asked, whether part of the water evolved in None of the 

 , . , ^ , , 1 1 1- ^i I water from the 



these processes might not have been produced trorn tlie "O- boracic acid. 



racic acid, or formed in consequence of its agency ; but the 



following experiments show, that this can not be the case in 



any sensible degree. 



I heated 8 grains of potassium, with about 50 grains of Proofs. 

 boracic acid, to redness in a tube of platina, connected with 

 a glass tube, kept very cool ; but I found that no moisture 

 whatever was separated in the process. I mixed a few* 

 grains of potassium with red oxide of mercury, and ignited 

 the mixture in contact with boracic acid, but no elastic pro- 

 duct, except mercury, was evolved. 



J made some potash by the combustion of potassium in a 

 glass tube, and ignition of the peroxide ; I added to it dry 

 boracic acid, and heated the mixture to redness. Subborate 

 of potash was formed, and there was not the slightest indi- 

 cations of the presence of moisture*. 



It 



♦ These processes must not however be considered as showing, that Boracic acid 



boracic acid that has been heated to whiteness is entirely free from "^^.^^ ^ 



, , . , . «, , whiteness not 



w^aterj they merely prove, that such an acid gives ott no water by jy^g from wa- 



combiuation with pure potash at a red heat. I have found, that bo- t«r. 

 racic acid in perfect fusion, and that has been long exposed to the 

 bla.'t of a forge, and that has long ceased to effervesce, gives globules 

 of hidrogen, when dry iron filings are made to act upon it. I added 

 to 54 grains of boracic acid in complete fusion, in a crucible of pla- 

 tina, 75 grains of flint glass that had been previously heated to white- 

 ness, and immediately reduced into powder in a hot iron mortar; by 

 raising the heat so as to produce combination, a copious effervescence 

 was produced ; and after intense ignition for half an hour, the^^xtqr^ 

 vas found to have lost three grains and a quarter. 



The combinations of boracic acid with potash and soda, that have 

 been heated to redness, I find lose weight when their temperature i^ 

 raised to a much higher degree. Thus, in an experiment made in the 

 laboratory of my friend John George Children, Jlsq., and in which 

 Mr. Children was so kind as to cooperate, 71 grains of hydrat of 

 potash, mixed with 96 of boracic acid that had been heated as 

 strongly as possible in a blast furnace, lost by fusion together in a red 

 Jneat 11 grains, but on raising the temperature to whiteness the loss 

 increased to above 13 grains. 55 5 grains of hydrat of soda, mixed 

 vrith 80 of boracic acid, examined at intervals in a process of thit 

 )riud, continued to lose weight for half an hour, during which time , 

 they were frequently heated to whiteness ; at the end of this period 

 tUe w^ale lost was 14 grains, of which at least one grain and a half 



may 



