Ofl Ihe Alkalies of Commerce, 215 



liquor in order to saturate the proved potash, we are evi- 

 dently well founded in saving that this alkali has absorbed 

 a quantity of sulpliuric acid equal to ob hundredths of its 

 weight. 



Each trial, however, is made without calculation ; a single 

 weight is sufficient, and the instrument finishes the rest al- 

 most alone. 



In son)e countries from which potash is exported there are 

 inspectors of this article; but they have not had, until this 

 moment, anv method of inspection which could he com- 

 pired with that described in iliis memoir*. 



Alkali -metrical Trials of Sodas, Natron, Tartar AJies, 

 Tobacco Ashes, &^c. 



It requires but a very slight modification in this process 

 to apply it to the trial of sodas ; in place of one decigramme, 

 i. e, ten grammes, we must put about ten and a half, or, if 

 we please, three drachms, in a middle-sized metal mortar, 

 and pound them strongly for five minutes, so as to produce 

 a fine powder, of which we must weigh exactly one deci- 

 gramme, or, what is very near that quantity, two drachms 

 and forty-four grains and two-thirds of a grain, which we 

 afterwards put in the water, as is said above of potash. 



Sicilian ashes, or the ashes of the rocket plant, and other 

 siiDilar alkaline substances, are tried like sodas, 



^Natron, tartar ashes, tobacco ashes, Sec. also require to 

 W. bruised before weighing the ten grammes for the trial. 



Ordinary Alkali-metrical Results. 



The various alkaline substances present the alkali-me- 

 trical degrees marked in the following table: these marks 

 are the results of several thousand trials, which I have had 

 occasion to make for these five-and-twenty years, 



• I might here discuss some appearances nf uncertainty observed at the 

 time of my allcali-nietrical trials, upon some potashes and sodas, containing 

 both juiphurets and sulphites; but they do not prevent mc from asscrtinp-, 

 that, in general, the alkali-meter I now propose points out sufficiently for tlic 

 chemical arti the comparative value of the alkalies of commerce. — Xolc by the 



0^3 American 



