92 



CHEMISTRY. 



ing in the same direction. His process, how- 

 ever, had clearly the merit of being the first 

 that extracted great quantities of sulphur, and 

 did away with the waste nuisance. He found 

 the process a more expensive one in Eng- 

 land, where labor was dearer, than in Ger- 

 many. He found a difference in the English 

 waste and that which he had been formerly 

 accustomed to. In September of 1863 he took 

 out the new patent. He had previously ex- 

 perimented on tank waste, and had obtained 

 as much as 55 per cent, of sulphur. The first 

 to introduce his process on the Tyne was the 

 Tyne Chemical Company, at South Shields. 

 He believed that the waste of that district was 

 more suitable for using his process than that 

 of Lancashire, as being somewhat more porous. 

 Mr. Mond then explained, by means of a 

 diagram, the working of his process, and ex- 

 hibited specimens of the sulphur obtained from 

 the waste. He calculated that the cost of 

 extracting the sulphur from the waste would 

 be 1 per ton, but the profit to manufacturers 

 would be about 4 per ton (at Messrs. Hutchin- 

 son's, it cost 1 5s. 5d. + 15s. for royalty = 

 2, working on a comparatively small scale). 

 The cost of the apparatus he calculated to be 

 1,509, or (providing for all contingencies) 

 1,660. He thought that the alkali manufac- 

 turers ought to be satisfied with the process in 

 a mercantile point of view, and, also, as it 

 enabled them to remove a great nuisance. Mr. 

 Mond stated his belief that 40,000 tons of sul- 

 phur could be utilized from alkali waste in 

 England, in one year. The reading of the 

 paper gave rise to a discussion in which the 

 merits of Mr. Mond's discovery were fully 

 recognized, and a vote of thanks was tendered 

 to him. 



Seduction of Oxides by Hydrogen. Mr. M. 

 W. Miiller has made numerous experiments to 

 determine precisely the temperature at which 

 the oxides of metals begin to be reduced by 

 hydrogen gas, the results of which are present- 

 ed in Poggendorff's Annalen, and may be 

 summed up as follows : 



Oxide of iron, prepared by cautiously heat- 

 ing metallic iron in contact with air, was re- 

 duced at 285 C. ; the same oxide prepared 

 from nitrate of iron at 286; when rather 

 moist hydrogen was applied and the oxide of 

 iron prepared from oxalate of the protoxide, 

 the temperature of reduction was found to be 

 278. Oxide of copper prepared from the 

 sulphate of that metal and precipitated by 

 caustic soda, and previously heated to 300, 

 was reduced at 135 ; strongly ignited oxide 

 of copper, at 142 on an average of five ex- 

 periments; oxide of cobalt, at about 132; 

 oxide of zinc could not be reduced at a tem- 

 perature whereby glass became fused; oxide 

 of tin, about 174 ; oxide of lead, at from 310 

 to 315; peroxide of mercury, 230; oxide 

 of silver, at between 73 and 78. The ex- 

 periments have been extended to the chlorides 

 and sulphides of some metals. Chloride of 



gold does not appear to be acted upon below 

 200, but at a higher temperature an explosion 

 took place. The action with chloride of pla- 

 tinum was rather strong at 85, and rather vio- 

 lent at 165; reduction of the metal took 

 place. The chlorides of silver and lead are 

 not reduced below the boiling-point of mer- 

 cury, but require a red heat ; sulphide of gold 

 is reduced at 200, while sulphide of platinum 

 is reduced at the ordinary temperature, sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen gas being formed in both 

 cases. 



New Method, of extracting lo&ine. M. Lau- 

 roy, of France, has received a patent for a new 

 method of extracting iodine and treating the 

 salts derived from kelp. When the lixivium 

 has been freed from the less soluble salts, and 

 concentrated to a density varying between 45 

 and 55 Baume", it may contain free alkali, 

 carbonates, sulphites, sulphides, and hyposul- 

 phites of alkalies as well as alkaline iodides 

 and bromides. The treatment varies, accord- 

 ing as it is desired to separate the salts con- 

 tained, or to extract at once the iodine and 

 bromine. When it is desired to extract the 

 iodine and bromine at once, the liquid is satu- 

 rated with hydrochloric acid ; the deposit which 

 forms is separated, and the gaseous mixture 

 which is evolved in the reaction of nitric acid 

 on organic matters (as in the preparation of 

 oxalic acid, picric acid, etc.) introduced. When 

 these gases are principally formed of binoxide 

 of nitrogen, a quantity of air is admixed. The 

 application of the nitrous gases may be made 

 in several ways sulphuric acid, in which ni- 

 trous gases have previously been dissolved, 

 may be added to the liquid, or, when the 

 liquor contains sufficient alkali, nitrous acid 

 may be admitted as long as there is absorption, 

 and any acid whatever added afterward to 

 precipitate the iodine. In whatever way one 

 operates, the precipitation of the iodine is de- 

 termined by the reaction of the nitrous com- 

 pounds. The precipitation is complete, and 

 the bromine is not set at liberty. When the 

 iodine has been thus separated, the mother 

 liquor is submitted to treatment, and the bro- 

 mine extracted by the ordinary method. 



Crystallization of Metallic Oxides. The 

 Comptes Eendus for July 19th contains a con- 

 tribution by M. Lidot, in which he records a 

 number of experiments made by him in order 

 to obtain artificially-crystallized metallic ox- 

 ides, starting from the well-known fact that 

 most native oxides and sulphurets exhibit a 

 crystalline form. The author has been occu- 

 pied in researches with the view to obtain 

 these forms by artificial means, and has suc- 

 ceeded, in many instances, by simply submit- 

 ting some oxides for instance, the peroxide of 

 iron to long-continued and strong heat. By 

 this means, the said peroxide loses a portion 

 of its oxygen, magnetic oxide is formed and 

 simultaneously obtained in a crystalline shape ; 

 the sesquioxide of manganese, the oxides of 

 cadmium and zinc, have also been obtained in 



