154 



CHEMISTRY. (NEW PKOCESSES.) 



out decomposition at a much higher tempera- 

 ture. From heptyl iodide, treated in the same 

 way, was obtained diheptyl, a colorless mobile 

 oil, boiling at 245, and solidifying at 6. From 

 a mixture of ethyl and cetyl iodides was ob- 

 tained ethyl-cetyl, as a colorless oil boiling at 

 about 312. Cetane was prepared by reducing 

 the iodide by concentrated iodine solution in 

 presence of phosphorus, and by digesting the 

 iodide with zinc and hydrogen chloride. It is 

 an oil which boils at 278, and solidifies at from 

 18 to 20. 



Mr. J. T. Brierley described, at the British 

 Association, a series of new vanadium com- 

 pounds of which he defined the sodium, po- 

 tassium, and ammonium salts as being well- 

 defined crystalline salts of a purple or dark- 

 green color, possessing a metallic luster, and 

 containing both the oxides VaO4 and VaOe, 

 and which may be regarded as vanadate vana- 

 dites. These salts are formed by adding hypo- 

 vanadic sulphate to a solution of an alkaline 

 metavanadate. 



Munz and Marcano have described a new 

 sugar obtained from the seeds of the Laurus 

 Persea, from which it is extracted by boiling 

 alcohol and cooled, when it crystallizes. Its 

 composition is represented by the formula da 

 HuOu, and it is isomeric with mannite. A 

 mixture of strong nitric and sulphuric acids 

 with it gives a trinitro-perseite which deto- 

 nates violently by a blow and spontaneously 

 decomposes. 



Jfew Processes. Morton Liebschutz has de- 

 scribed a process of saponification which may 

 be applied with advantage to the examination 

 of butter and the detection of oleomargarine. 

 After the glycerine has been extracted, dried, 

 and the constant weight noted, it is heated 

 and burned. The weight of the ash is de- 

 ducted from the total weight. The difference 

 is pure glycerine. The percentage of ash com- 

 pared with the percentage of glycerine is of 

 itself an important factor, as glycerine derived 

 by this mode of treatment from pure butter 

 gives 5 per cent, of ash, whereas the glycer- 

 ine of oleomargarine and other similar fats 

 leaves only from 0-3 to 0'6 per cent. By this 

 method the author has found, after deduc- 

 tion of the ash, 3'75 per cent, of glycerine 

 in pure butter, and 7 per cent, in oleomar- 

 garine. 



^ Prof. Engel, of Montpellier, France, has de- 

 vised a new process for the manufacture of 

 carbonate of potash, which is based on the dis- 

 covery that if one takes a solution of potassium 

 chloride holding in suspension either magnesia 

 or magnesium carbonate, and treats it by car- 

 bon Dioxide, with constant agitation, he will 

 obtain a solution of magnesium chloride hold- 

 ing in suspension a double carbonate of mag- 

 nesium and potassium. This double carbonate 

 is a crystalline powder, capable of being sep- 

 arated from its mother-liquor readily and com- 

 pletely by any of the ordinary methods of filtra- 

 tion. While quite insoluble in solution of mag- 



nesium chloride, and not at all attacked thereby 

 in the cold, it is decomposed by pure water. 



A new process for the purification of sewage 

 has been tried at Buxton, England, with much 

 success. It consists in applying as a precipi- 

 tant a mineral water derived from the lower 

 coal-formations near the town. This water con- 

 tains a small proportion of ferrous carbonate 

 held in solution by carbonic acid. On exposure 

 to the air the carbonic acid escapes, and the 

 iron, taking up more oxygen, subsides in the 

 state of ferric hydroxide in combination with 

 a considerable part of the organic impurities, 

 suspended and dissolved. By this method of 

 treatment the amount of free ammonia in the 

 sewage is reduced from 11*74 to 4 parts per 

 million, and the albuminoid ammonia from 1*60 

 to 0-30. The only unsatisfactory point noticed 

 in the report of the results is that the effluent 

 is stated to be " distinctly alkaline." 



Berthelot and Vieille have adopted an im- 

 proved method for determining the heat of 

 combustion of carbon and other organic com- 

 pounds, in which the difficulties arising from 

 the length of time required and from the in- 

 completeness of the oxidation are obviated. 

 They effect the combustion in oxygen com- 

 pressed to about seven atmospheres, in a calori- 

 metric bomb, using a weight of combustible 

 such that the oxygen consumed by it does not 

 exceed from 30 to 40 per cent, of the whole 

 quantity. The operation does not require more 

 than three or four minutes, and is applicable 

 to all substances whose vapor tension at the 

 ordinary temperature is inconsiderable. 



L'Hote recommends, for the purification of 

 arseniferous zinc, the projection into the melt- 

 ed metal of 1 per cent, of anhydrous mag- 

 nesium chloride. On stirring, white fumes of 

 zinc chloride, mixed with arsenious chloride, 

 are evolved. If now the metal be poured into 

 water to granulate it, the zinc obtained is free 

 from arsenic. The same process will free zinc 

 from antimony. 



Ville and Engel have proposed two new 

 indicators for alkalimetry, which, not being 

 affected by carbonates, are available for the 

 volumetric determination of the free bases in 

 the presence of alkali carbonates. One of 

 them is sulphindigotic acid, which is prepared 

 by neutralizing with calcium carbonate the 

 solution of indigo in fuming sulphuric acid. 

 It is turned yellow by caustic alkalies, while 

 upon being neutralized its color changes back 

 to blue, passing through an intermediate green. 

 The other substance is the soluble blue C. 4 

 B. of Poirier, the solution of which is even 

 more sensitive than the sulphindigotic acid. 

 It becomes red under the influence of the 

 free bases. 



Atomic Weights. Prof. T. S. Humpidge has 

 computed the atomic weight of glucinum from 

 determinations of its specific heat, and fixes it 

 at 9-1, or at the figure required by the peri- 

 odic law. This conclusion was confirmed by 

 the author's determinations of the vapor-densi- 



