35G 



A NEAV VARIETY OF ASPHALT. 



into the flask. This method of solution proposed by Mansfeld as an easy mode of attack- 

 ing the resins was found of little avail for the substance under experiment. A deep brown 

 solution was at length obtained, but requiring a longer time than by subsequent methods. 

 If the substance be powdered ordinarily fine, the solution is more readily effected by oil of 

 turpentine; — and the solution is still more easy if it be pulverized extremely fine and passed 

 through bolting cloths. The successive additions of turpentine are all coloured. If, after 

 treating once with oil of turpentine, oil of peppermint be added to the residue, a fresh 

 quantity appears to enter into solution ; and if coal naphtha be added to this residue, another 

 portion of the asphalt will be dissolved. E. Durand, of this city, obtained for the solubility 

 of Cuban asphalt, thirty-four parts in ether — sixty in oil of turpentine, and six residue; and 

 of melan-asphalt in ether four, in turpentine thirty, and residue sixty-six. 



Dr. A. A. Hayes, in two experiments, obtained from two hundred parts of melan-asphalt, 

 by action of oil of turpentine, seven and three-tenth parts, and five and seven-tenth parts, 

 dissolved. Dr. Hayes tried the action of other solvents, the residue from which, without 

 further examination, he pronounced coal. The residue, from my experiments with solvents, 

 when examined under the microscope with moderate powers, presents all the brilliancy of 

 lustre and transparency on the thin edges with brown colour, of the original substance. If 

 the finely powdered asphalt be examined with the microscope before action with solvents, 

 particles will be observed here and there of such fineness as to transmit brown light ; 

 mingled with these are others, thick, of brilliant black colour, and opaque, but on the edges 

 of some, thin enough to be transparent. If the residue be examined during the action of 

 the several solvents, these fine fragments will be observed to disappear gradually, until at 

 last the coarser ones alone remain, and which are here and there thin enough at the edges 

 to be transparent. The experiments of solution are beautifully exhibited on thin scrapings 

 in a watch glass with the solvent in the field of the microscope. In the case of the very 

 minute particles, an almost invisible skeleton of the earthy constituents is left. Compa- 

 rative experiments with asphalt from Cuba and with melan-asphalt gave the following 

 reactions. The substance was not very finely powdered. The shades were deeper in the 

 case of the Cuban asphalt. 



With Naphtha, 



Oil of Vitriol, . 

 Caustic Potassa, 

 Cold Nitric Acid, 

 Boiling Nitric Acid, 



Deep brown solution. 



Deep brown solution. 



Slightly yellow. 



No action. 



Light yellow resulting liquid. 



Mr. William Rice, manufacturer of marine paint in this city, states, in a letter to the 

 late Richard C. Taylor, that he found the asphalt in question to dissolve in coal tar, coal 

 tar pitch, coal naphtha and turpentine, with the formation of a beautiful varnish. 



Organic Analysis. — The combustion of melan-asphalt with oxide of copper gave for 

 0-858 grammes; carbonic acid 2-707, and water 0*6925. For nitrogen, by Erdman and 

 Marchand's method, 0.589 gave twenty-three cubic centimetres of moist nitrogen, at 12°C. 

 and 7G;M millimetres barometric pressure, for which the usual corrections were made. 



