72 ChemUtry, 



has also made s?vfr.il experinients, in the hope of awakening In 

 ice an electro-motive power, l)v associating it with the metals 

 and- other bodies of a natnre opposite to its ow n, but without suc- 

 cess. He thinks that t!ie qualities of ice strongly resemble tliose 

 of sulphur. 



'^ M. Zamboni has modified the dry pile so as to obtain from 

 it violent shocks and strong sparks. 1 shall send you by and by 

 a description and drawing of his improved a])paratus. 



" In Germany some chemists have succeeded in uniting borax 

 with carbon, by treating both bodies in a platina crucible, A 

 strong crackling and swelling up was observed, and a hoivre (>f 

 (//?7'o/Mvas obtained, shining and striated. The boras had in fact 

 a strong resemblance to the carbon ; it btcamc fixed in the fire, 

 it had the same colour, was hisohible in the alkalies, refused to 

 combine with the oxygenated acids, it was incombustible at a 

 black heat, it had an evident aflinity for a single metal, and a 

 metal a bad conductor of caloric, and susceptible of becoming of 

 a bright red before melting, having a great intensity of oxida- 

 tion ; besides its oxide, of a feel)le intensity, having scarcely the 

 physical characters of aciditv, forming alkalescent salts, uniting 

 itself with dry fluoric acid, as the carbonic acid unites with the 

 dry muriatic acid, &"c. : the combination between borax and car- 

 bon completes this par;dlel of their properties, and this union 

 may be compared to the analogies between sulphur and phos- 

 phorus, and between iodine and chlorine. With respect to the 

 latter conibination (that between iodine and chlorine) we have 

 ."■ucceeded, by a strong and rapid heat, in extricating oxygen 

 from it ; after which it sustains, a red heat without being decom- 

 .posed. This fact is very curious and important, on account of 

 the great number of new bodies to which the double hyperoxy- 

 genated acid gives birth." 



M. Vauquelin, in a recent number of the ^4v>7'ile-i de Chimie, 

 thus relates an accident which happened on mixing the chlorine 

 of l)arytes with acetate : " I had purposed j)reparing a great 

 quantity of chloric acid in order to form combinations and study 

 their properties. With this view I followed the process of M. 

 Chenevix, which consists in making the chlorine of barytes act 

 on the )jliosphate of silver : but this action being very slow, 1 

 made use of a small quantity of acetic acid to accelerate it, as 

 recommended by M. Ciienevix. The operation then took place 

 with the greatest facility, particularly when a slight heat was 

 applied. 



" When I had carefully separated the chlorine of barytes from 

 the chlorate, I evaporated the latter to dryness ; and after hav- 

 ing rcdissolved it in watery i set aside a part of the solution, 



and 



