CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 217 



Palm oil melts at 30 Centigrade ; after the action of sulphuric acid at 

 38 ; after the washing with water at 44.5 Centigrade ; after the distil- 

 lation at 46. The first product of distillation liquefies at 53.5, the 

 point of liquefacation then sinks, and the product comes gradually 

 more and more to have a tendency to crystallize. If the entire pro- 

 duct be pressed together, the mass has a melting point of 54.5, the 

 same as that which first passed over. Some fats, however, present 

 considerable differences in these respects. 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS. 



SOME improvements have been recently patented in England, by 

 Messrs. Barlow and Gore for the manufacture of gas, which are highi^ 

 spoken of by the London Mining Journal. The processes are based, 

 1st, upon an improved method of rendering luminous the gases result- 

 ing from the perfect decomposition of water or steam ; and, 2d, upon 

 the conservative influence which hydrogen exercises in protecting 

 the matter upon which the illuminating power of gas depends from 

 decomposition by heat. The first has been often attempted, with 

 duljfous and disputed success. The failures are all traceable to the 

 same sources first, to the impossibility of securing the complete 

 decomposition of water or steam by any of the means employed, and 

 to the consequent production of a large quantity of vapor, exercising 

 a fearfully destructive influence over the carbonaceous matter under- 

 going decomposition for the purpose of rendering the water gases 

 luminous ; and, secondly, to the presence in the water gases of from 

 10 to 15 per cent, of carbonic acid, the injurious effects of which upon 

 the flame need not be alluded to, and the expenses of abstracting which 

 by any of the ordinary methods are so considerable as materially 

 to augment the cost of manufacture, besides diminishing the volume of 

 saleable gas. The present patentees propose to obviate these difficul- 

 ties by first condensing the water gases, so as to deprive them of all 

 excess of vapor, and then to pass them through a heated retort con- 

 taining carbonaceous matter, by which the whole of the carbonic acid 

 gas will be converted into twice its bulk of carbonic oxide gas, and the 

 pureliydrogen and the carbonic oxide gases in equal volumes, free from 

 carbonic acid, are afterwards admitted in regulated quantities into 

 retorts where carbonaceous matter is undergoing distillation or decom- 

 position, and by which they are rendered highly luminous. The con- 

 servative effect of hydrogen upon olefiant gas has not, we believe, 

 hitherto been noticed by chemists. It may, however, be demonstrated 

 by the following very simple experiment : - - If olefient gas be passed 

 through a red hot tube, the carbon will be deposited, and the gas be 

 thereby converted into light-carl mretted hydrogen, a gas of very low 

 illuminating power. If, however, hydrogen be added to the olefiant 

 gas, the same process may be repeated without causing any deposition 

 of carbon, and 

 mixed gases, due 

 hydrogen. 



with only a diminution of illuminating power in the 

 to the increased volume of the non-illuminating ga^ 



