384 ^ CHEMISTRY. 



era! atmospheres; cooling to SS^* tlie color became three or four times 

 darker. Indeed a tube a meter long, lilled with the ozonized oxygen at 

 the ordinary pressure, showed a sky-blue color when looked through at 

 a white surface. By adding carbon dioxide, and then compressing, a 

 blue liquid layer was obtained not differing in shade from the gas above 

 it. Moreover, on compressing the products of the silent discharge upon 

 carbon dioxide, the blue color/leveloped and the excess of CO2 liquified 

 and became blue. {Bull. Soc. Chim., January, 188, III, xxxv, 2; Am. 

 J. ScL, March, 1881, III, xxi, 233.) 



Claesson has shown that when ferric chloride is added to a solution 

 of a sulphhydrate a deep red color is produced, varying from red-brown 

 to red-violet. {Ber. Berl Chem. Ges., March, 1881, xiv, 411.) 



Bernthsen has examined the composition of sodium hyposulphite. 

 By converting it into sulphate by means of iodine, determining both the 

 iodine used and the sulphuric acid formed, it appeared that each sul- 

 phur atom in the hyposulphite required three atoms of iodine to convert 

 it into sulphuric acid. The state of oxidation in this acid is therefore 

 represented by the formula S2O3. From the estimation of the ratio 

 of bases present, there api:)eared to be one of base to one of sulphur. 

 While the simplest formula would be NaS02, the author thinks the 

 dibasic character of the sulphur acids requires a doubling of the for- 

 mula, H2S2O4. {Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., March, 1881, xiv, 438.) 



Johnson has observed the direct synthesis of ammonia by passing a 

 mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen gases over hot spongy platinum, to 

 the extent of 24 milligrams per hour in one experiment. But if tlie 

 nitrogen before mixing with the hydrogen be passed through a red-hot 

 tube, the formation of ammonia is entirely arrested. This the author 

 thinks is proof that nitrogen exists in an active and inactive state, the 

 latter produced from the former by heat. {J. Chem. 80c., March, 1881, 

 xxxix, 128.) 



Warington has confirmed a statement made by Schfinbein that ni- 

 trite of ammonium is produced whenever water is evaporated. Since 

 no nitrous acid was produced when the evaiioration was conducted in 

 close vessels, the air must be the source of the contamination. A liter 

 of water evaporated over a gas-jet gave ^V milligram of nitrogen, while 

 a second liter evaj^orated by steam gave only ^-^ milligram; hence the 

 combustion of the gas produced nitrous acid ; but on exposing a third 

 liter of water to the air for the time required for the evaporation of the 

 second, the nitrous acid reaction was obtained. For ordinary purposes 

 water may then be evaporated in a steam bath, but for extremelj^ accu- 

 rate work the evaporation must be done in close vessels. The test used 

 was the naphthylamine test proposed by Griess, which is delicate enough 

 to show one part of nitrogen as nitrous acid in one thousand million 

 parts of water. {J. Chem. Soc, May, 1881, xxxix, 229.) 



Kraut has experimented to settle the question whether nitric acid will 

 ignite ordinary combustibles. A wooden box filled with straw, saw- 



