326 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



indications, among others the want of the usual degree of colour, 

 in order to test it exposed leaves of a thin metal called Dutch 

 gold leaf, to a jet of this gas, as he had previously done repeatedly, 

 without any ill consequence; to his astonishment an explosion took 

 place, which burst the apparatus and produced a detonaiion as loud 

 as if one of the explosive compounds of chlorine and oxygen had 

 been generated. Yet the only agents employed were peroxide of 

 manganese and chloro-hydric (muriatic) acid. It was the deficiency 

 of intensity in the colour which led him to test it by means of the 

 leaf metal. The colour of the protoxide is known to be of a deeper 

 yellow than that of chlorine. 



SYNTHESIS OF AMMONIA. BY R. HARE, M.D. 



Understanding that the synthesis of ammonia had been effected 

 by the reaction between nitric oxide and hydrogen promoted by 

 the presence of platina sponge, Dr. Hare, having no knowledge of 

 the process as performed in Europe, succeeded in the following 

 manner in the attainment of that highly interesting result. 



Two volumes of nitric oxide and five of hydrogen were intro- 

 duced into a bell glass with a perforated neck furnished with a cap 

 and cock. At the bottom of a tubulated glass retort, capable of 

 holding about four ounce measures of water, a small heap of platina 

 sponge was made. A leaden pipe communicating with the cock of 

 the bell at one end, and at the other terminating in a copper or 

 glass tube, having a bore about as large as a knitting-needle, was 

 passed through the tubulure so that the orifice of the tube was 

 nearly in contact with the metallic heap. The pipe was made to 

 form an air-tight juncture where it entered the tubulure, and the 

 beak of the retort was recurved so as to be beneath the surface of 

 some water in a wine-glass. The bell being depressed below the 

 surface of the water in the pneumatic cistern, the cock was opened 

 as as to allow the gaseous mixture to enter the retort and displace 

 the atmospheric air. As soon as this was known to have taken place, 

 by the disappearance of the red fumes resulting from the reaction 

 of the nitric oxide and atmospheric oxygen, the gas being still al- 

 lowed to pass slowly in bubbles through the water in the wine-glass, 

 an incandescent coal was held near the part of the retort supporting 

 the sponge. The metal being thus heated became ignited, and 

 fumes appeared in the cavity of the retort. An absorption of the 

 water in the wine-glass followed, which was however immediately 

 checked by a supply of gas from the bell sufficient to cause the 

 bubbling to recommence and continue. Under these circumstances 

 the water in the wine-glass acquired the odour of ammonia, and gave 

 with copper the well known blue colour. 



In a subsequent experiment a small lump of the sponge was se- 

 cured in a coil of platina wire and fastened to the tube so as to re- 

 ceive the jet of the mixed gases. 



Dr. Hare published the fact, some years since, that asbestus 

 soaked in a solution of chloride of platinum and ignited, would cause 

 the inflammation of hydrogen with oxygen. He finds asbestus, si- 



