472 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



recently decided to send a Commissioner to Europe to study 

 the processes actually at work with a view to the establish- 

 ment of similar industries in America. Judging from their 

 lack of initiative our own Government have not yet realised 

 the fundamental importance of the establishment in this 

 country of corresponding industries. Let us hope that wiser 

 counsels will soon prevail if we are to maintain our rightful 

 place in chemical industry. 



In this connection the work of Zenghelis (Compt. rend. 

 1 916, 162, 914) on the synthesis of ammonia at low pressure is 

 worthy of consideration. Zenghelis has obtained positive 

 results by passing a correctly proportioned mixture of hydrogen 

 and nitrogen through a tube containing a small amount of 

 acidulated water maintained at 90 C. along with such 

 hydrogen " atomisers " as platinum sponge and platinum 

 black, and colloidal forms of platinum, palladium, silver, 

 gold, mercury, and copper. 



When hydrogen is passed through solutions evolving nitrogen, 

 e.g. sodium nitrate and ammonium chloride, the results were 

 again positive. Nascency or an " atomised " condition of the 

 nitrogen is therefore a factor in the synthetic reaction. 



Finally when both elements are present in the " atomised " 

 state the results obtained were much more positive than when 

 one only was specifically reactive. Thus when hydrogen was' 

 passed through a solution evolving nitrogen and to which 

 metallic catalysts had been added, yields of ammonia exceeding 

 40 per cent, of theory were obtained. 



Constitutional. — Datta and Dhar (/. Amer. Chem. Soc. 1916, 

 38, 1303) have applied the methods of molecular solution 

 volume and molecular refractivity to the problem as to whether 

 the constitution of chromic acid is correctly expressed by the 

 formula H 2 Cr0 4 or H 2 Cr 2 7 . Their evidence obtained with 

 the potassium salts is all in favour of the dichromate formula 

 for the parent acid. 



A considerable addition has been made to our knowledge 

 of the intramolecular arrangement of water of hydration by 

 the infra-red spectroscopic investigations of Schaefer and 

 Schubert (Am. Physik. 1916, iv. 50, 283, 339). 



In the course of their examination of the specific refection 

 maxima of crystalline sulphates and carbonates in the infra-red, 

 these authors have found that with hydrated dichroitic and 





