Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 77 



black fused mass remaining in the crucible was treated with water: 

 this took away the chloride of calcium with much chloride of iron; 

 but the residue was not pure titanate of iron ; the greater part of 

 the titanate of iron was converted into a black substance composed 

 of small verj' brilliant crystalline needles. It was digested in con- 

 centrated muriatic acid, to remove the undecomposed titanate of 

 iron, as well as the lime, and it was afterwards washed with water ; 

 the crystalline needles are of a very fine steel blue colour, ex- 

 tremely brilliant, and perfectly opaque. They are often more than 

 a line in length, but they are so extremely slender, that two only 

 of their faces can be seen, the others, so to speak, having disap- 

 peared. They are not attracted by the magnet, and if they appear 

 to be, it is only owing to an admixture of titanate of iron. 



This substance is not altered by calcination in contact with the 

 air, nor does it lose any of its lustre. It is equally unalterable by 

 calcination in chlorine gas. It does not dissolve either in muriatic 

 or sulphuric acid, even when they are concentrated and boiling ; 

 but it easily dissolves at a red heat in supersulphate of potash ; it 

 then becomes of a yellow colour, and does not yield any sensi- 

 ble quantity of sulphurous acid. The mass is totally soluble in 

 water ; titanic acid and oxide of iron are found in the solution. 

 From these properties it appears that the crystalline substance pro- 

 duced at the same time as the chloride of iron by fusion with the 

 chloride of calcium is pertitanate of iron, derived from the peroxide 

 which is always mixed in large quantity with the native prototi- 

 tanate of iron. The prototitanate of iron employed in these ex- 

 periments was partly from Egersund in Norway, and partly from 

 Ilmensee in Siberia; the latter was crystallized. If charcoal be 

 added to the mixture of the mineral with chloride of calcium, it 

 appears that all the iron which combines with the chlorine is re- 

 duced to the metallic state, for the fused mass dissolves in muriatic 

 acid, with the evolution of much hydrogen; it then leaves as a re- 

 sidue a crystalline powder of a reddish brown colour, which is im- 

 pure titanic acid. 



NEW SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Just published. 



The Domestic Chemist ; comprising Instructions for the Detec- 

 tion of Adulterations and Poisons : forming the 2nd volume of the 

 Polytechnic Library. 



Mr. Taylor will shortly publish, in a pocket volume, Useful Geo- 

 metry, practically exemplified in a series of diagrams, with clear 

 and concise instructions for working them; showing the forma- 

 tion, inscribing, circumscribing, division, proportions, &c. of plane 

 figures; intended to assist all who use the rule, the square and the 

 compasses: with Notes, and a Vocabulary explaining in familiar 

 words the meaning of upwards of six hundred technical terms. 



MST 



