INDUSTKIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1873. xxxix 



considerable study. Donkin, by the action of induced elec- 

 tricity upon nitrogen and hydrogen, mixed in the proper pro- 

 portions, has succeeded in performing the synthesis of the gas, 

 obtaining it, however, only in very small quantities. Gore 

 has investigated the solvent properties of anhydrous lique- 

 fied ammonia upon about two hundred and fifty substances. 

 Among many other bodies, potassium, sodium, iodine, sul- 

 phur, and phosphorus were found to be soluble. It will be 

 remembered that several years ago much interest was awak- 

 ened by Graham's discoveries concerning the occlusion of 

 hydrogen by palladium. Graham thought that a definite al- 

 loy was produced ; but Roberts and Wright have recently 

 shown that the supposition was incorrect. These chemists 

 have determined the specific heat of palladium charged with 

 hydrogen, and have shown that the latter element can not be 

 regarded as existent in the palladium in the solid form. In 

 this connection, Troost and Hautefeuille's experiments upon 

 the solution of gases in iron, cast iron, and steel must be noted. 

 These metals, at high temperatures, have long been known 

 to absorb various gases, emitting them again upon cooling. 

 But the authors above named have shown that the disengage- 

 ments of gases often noticed in making large castings are not 

 due to this cause alone, and that the phenomena are some- 

 times attended by a change in the composition of the metal. 

 For example, they found that when iron rich in carbon Avas 

 kept fused in a highly silicious crucible, the silica of the cru- 

 cible was partially reduced, the iron becoming richer in sili- 

 con, while carbonic oxide w'as evolved. Troost and Haute- 

 feuille also made an analysis of the gases contained in a sam- 

 ple of pig-iron weighing five hundred grammes. This sample, 

 heated to 800 C, in vacuo, for 190 hours, gave off 16.7 cubic 

 centimeters of gas, consisting of carbonic acid, 0.6; carbonic 

 oxide, 2.8 ; hydrogen, 12.3 ; and nitrogen, 1. 



In addition to the work already described, a vast amount 

 of detail work has been accomplished by chemists all over 

 the world. A variety of papers upon ozone have been pub- 

 lished, and an immense number of inorganic compounds de- 

 scribed. In our own country,Wolcott Gibbs has put forward 

 some important work upon the ammonio -cobalt bases, and 

 Messrs. Carrington Bolton and Morton, of New York, have 

 carried out some quite elaborate investigations upon the flu- 

 orescent spectra of many uranium compounds. 



