P ig 
Perchlorate of the Ovide of Ethule, §c. 65 
of ether remaining at the bottom of the filter may be exploded, 
either by approaching it to an ignited body, or by the blow of a 
hammer. We are induced to believe that, in explosive violence, 
it is not surpassed by any substance known in chemistry. By 
the explosion of the smallest drop, an open porcelain plate will 
be broken into fragments, and by that of a larger quantity, be 
reduced to powder. In consequence of the force with which it 
_ projects the minute fragments of any-containing vessel in which 
it explodes, it is necessary that the operator should wear gloves, 
and a close mask, furnished with thick glass-plates at the aper- 
tures for the eyes, and perform his manipulations with the inter- 
vention of a movable wooden screen.* 
_ In common with other ethers, the perchlorate of ethule is in- 
soluble in water, but soluble in alcohol; and its solution in the 
latter, when sufficiently dilute, burns entirely away without ex- 
plosion, It may be kept for a length of time unchanged, even 
when in contact with water; but the addition of this fluid, when 
employed to precipitate it from its alcoholic solution, causes it 
to be partially decomposed. Potassa, dissolved in alcohol, and 
added to the alcoholic solution, produces, immediately, an abun- 
dant precipitate of the perchlorate of that base, and, when added 
in sufficient quantity, decomposes the ether entirely. It would 
ear, therefore, impracticable, to form either perchlorovinates or 
perchlorovinic acid. 
We have subjected the perchlorate of ethule to the heat of 
boiling water without explosion or ebullition. 
It may be observed that this is the first ether formed by the 
combination of an inorganic acid containing more than three 
atoms of oxygen with the oxide of ethule, ind that the chlorine 
and oxygen in the whole compound are just sufficient to form 
chlorohydric acid, water and carbonic oxide with the hydrogen 
and carbon. 
The existence of a compound of the oxide of ethule with an 
acid containing seven atoms of oxygen, led us to attempt to com- 
bine, by the same method, this base with nitric acid. For this 
purpose we subjected a mixture of sulphovinate and nitrate of 
barytes to the same treatment as described above, but the reac- 
* Having s suffered severely on several occasions from the unexpected ‘explosion 
of this substance, w we would derseetly cheng the Bt oid not & oe eed 
ioned above. 
Vol. xi, No. 1.—Oct.-Dec, 1841. 9 
