922 EKPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



that I should enter into details concerning- the one substance of all 

 others cai)able of absorbing most heat in its transference from the liquid 

 to the gaseous state. All other agents have, in America, practically 

 given way in practice to ammonia, whether as hquid or aqueous ammonia 

 in the Carre mtichines, or anhydrous ammonia compressed by mechanical 

 meanSj used mostly by infringers of the Ch. Tellier jDatent. 



N.— OiT AMMOJflA. 



This agent, Icnown to the early alchemists as spirltus salis urince, in the 

 form of carbonate, was procured by Basil Valentine from sal ammoniac by 

 the action of an alkali. Geber first imported sal-armoniacum from Asia 

 to Europe in the seventh century, and, hke sul^ihate of ammoiiia, it was 

 obtained as a deposit in the immediate proximity of volcanoes as well 

 as with the boric acid of the Tuscan Maremme. The origin of ammonia 

 fi'om the effete organic matter constantly poured off by the excreta of 

 animals, or in the rotting of vegetable matter, explains its universal diftu- 

 sion. Whereas we now obtain ammoniacal Uquor, supi)lymg commerce 

 with this article, from gas-works where the remains of extinct plants are 

 being burned, centuries since Europe depended on Egypt for the material 

 distilled j).-om the soot of burning camels' dung. Later on, human urine 

 was employed in Europe ; and before tlie era of gas-works animal refuse 

 of all kinds, such as hoofs, horns, bones, &c., furnished the spirits of 

 hartshorn, aji aqueous solution, named in Latin sjyirUus volatUis sails 

 ammoniaci. After Stephen Hales's exi^eriment in 1727 by heating limo 

 with sal-ammoniac, liquid ammonia was obtained which we find Cullen 

 calling the quick-lime spirit of sal ammoniac, and he placed it at the head 

 of the list of agents calculated to depress the thermometer by their 

 volatibty. In 1774, Priestley discovered what he called alMline air, 

 and Berthollet, in 17S5, determined the nature of the gases composing it 

 by the aid of the electric spark, and found them to be hydrogen and 

 nitrogen. 



Dr. Angus Smith, in a recent article in the Chemical ISTews (July 

 26, 1878), says : "Ammonia must ever be one of the most interesting of 

 chemical substances." 



" It is now many years," saj's Dr. Smith, " since Liebig first surprised 

 me by saying that iron ores and aluminous earths were capable of tak- 

 ing up ammonia, and if they were breathed ui)ou we were able even to 

 smell that substance." . . . "If you piclc uf a stone in a city, and 

 wash off the matter on the surface, yxni will find the water to contain 

 ammonia. If you wash a chair or a table, or anything in a room, you 

 will find ammonia in the washing ; and if you wash your hands you 

 will find the same ; and your paper, your i3en, your table-cloth, and 

 clothes all show ammonia f and even the glass cover to an ornament has 

 retained some on its surface. You will find it not to be a permanent 

 part of the glass, because you require only to wash with pure water once 



