120 



CHEMISTRY. (CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS.) 



In an investigation of the influence of certain 

 inorganic salts on the rate of oxidation of sulphu- 

 rous acid Mr. S. L. Bigelow observed that the 

 oxidation of a sodium-sulphite solution by a cur- 

 rent of air is hindered to a remarkable extent by 

 the presence of a small quantity of alcohol. One 

 part of alcohol in 10,000 of a one hundredth normal 

 solution of sodium sulphite had a perceptible in- 

 fluence. In another case it was found that the ad- 

 mixture of immnitol with sodium sulphite in the 

 proportion of one molecule to 800 diminished the 

 rate of oxidation 50 per cent. Great difficulty was 

 experienced in obtaining constant results, and it 

 was found that the small quantities of impurity in 

 the water used as solvent produced very large vari- 

 ations, and perfectly constant conditions could not 

 be obtained. 



Pure crystallized calcium, as prepared by M. 

 Moissan. has a melting point at 760 C. The metal 

 can be cut, but is much less malleable than sodium 

 or potassium, as it can be broken and shows a 

 crystalline fracture. When wholly free from iron 

 nitride its color is brilliantly white, recalling that 

 of silver. The density is about 1.85, and the metal 

 is hard enough to scratch lead but not calcium 

 carbonate. Neither chlorine, bromine, nor iodine 

 attacks calcium in the cold, though the correspond- 

 ing haloid salts are formed at higher temperatures. 

 Calcium burns brilliantly in oxygen, and the tem- 

 perature resulting from the combustion is so high 

 that a part of the quicklime produced is melted 

 and volatilized. When burned in air, the calcium 

 unites with both of its constituents together and 

 nitride and oxide are simultaneously formed. At 

 a dull-red heat the metal combines with carbon 

 with great energy, forming CaC a . The reducing 

 power of calcium at high temperatures is remark- 

 able, oxygen being readily removed by its action 

 from sulphur dioxide, phosphoric anhydride, boron 

 trioxide, silica, and the oxides of carbon. 



Mr. Albert Granger has published an important 

 research on the metallic phosphides, in which he 

 reviews the different methods of preparing com- 

 pounds of the metals with phosphorus and describes 

 a number of them. He has found as general char- 

 acteristics that phosphides are solid bodies, usually 

 possessed of a metallic luster ; that they are all 

 more or less easily decomposable by heat, so that 

 they almost all partly yield to heating in a current 

 of gas. Chlorine and bromine attack them energet- 

 ically and oxygen transforms them into phosphates. 

 Some phosphides, such as the sesquiphosphides of 

 iron, nickel, and cobalt, are oxidized with difficulty, 

 and resist the action of aqua regia. Melted potash 

 and bromide potash oxidize all the phosphides. 

 The author attempted to prepare alkaline phos- 

 phides, but was stopped by the impossibility of 

 separating the phosphide formed, either from the 

 excess of phosphorus or the excess of metal. These 

 impure phosphides, prepared by direct action, are 

 brownish iKxlies, waxy in consistence, very inflam- 

 mable, and decomposed by moisture. Electrolytic 

 methods were used with success for the separation 

 of phosphoric acid from the metals. 



W. A. Shenstone and W. T. Evans have observed 

 that when air is submitted to the silent electrical 

 discharge it first contracts to a remarkable extent 

 and then re-ex pands rapidly until it very nearly 

 occupies its original volume. The residue contains 

 a trace of nitric peroxide. Among the conclusions 

 arrived at from the study of these phenomena are, 

 that oxygen, when diluted in nitrogen, as in the 

 air, yields a very largo proportion of ozone ; that 

 from 80 to 85 per cent, of the oxygen present may 

 readily be ozonized in the presence of moisture, and 

 if great care be taken, as much as 98 per cent, of the 

 oxygen may be converted into ozone. If the ozo- 



nizing of the oxygen be not pressed too far, no nitric 

 peroxide will be formed, but at a certain stage, 

 which probably coincides or nearly coincides with 

 the point at which the amount of ozone is at its 

 greatest, that substance appears. In the presence 

 of nitric peroxide, ozone is rapidly destroyed by 

 the silent discharge, and its destruction is accom- 

 panied by a considerable destruction of nitric per- 

 oxide. The presence of watery vapor promotes the 

 formation of ozone, but retards that of nitric per- 

 oxide. It was found to be impossible to ozonize 

 the oxygen of air in the presence of a trace of nitric 

 peroxide. 



Carborundum, a compound of carbon and silicon 

 in equal atomic proportions, having a hardness in-, 

 ferior only to that of the diamond, is prepared by 

 electrically heating a mixture of powdered coke 

 and sand, to which a little sawdust and salt are 

 added to make the mass more porous, in a furnace 

 through the end walls of which bundles of carbon 

 rods are inserted and connected inside the furnace 

 by a cylindrical core of small pieces of coke. The 

 core is surrounded on all sides by the mixture of 

 sand and coke. The passage of the current through 

 the core gives rise, as Mr. Thomas Ewan describes 

 it, to a cascade of small arcs between the pieces of 

 coke, which soon raise the whole core to a very 

 high temperature ; and this is communicated to the 

 surrounding charge. The carborundum is obtained 

 in the form of steel gray to brownish green crys- 

 tals, the coloration of which is due to iron. It 

 is a valuable abrasive, cutting the hardest steel 

 without destroying its temper, and is largely used 

 in place of emery. 



Prof. Noel Hartley and Mr. Hugh Ramage hav- 

 ing found gallium to be a very widely distributed 

 element in the earth, and to be present also in me- 

 teoric bodies, it was natural that they should in- 

 quire if it was also to be found in the sun. By the 

 use of the photographic process and the radiating 

 spectroscope they determined the wave length of 

 the two principal lines and found it to correspond 

 with that of two lines in Rowland's map of the so- 

 lar spectrum, one of which had been recorded as an 

 aluminum line. It is pointed out that gallium is 

 present in every bauxite and shale examined by the 

 authors, who therefore believe that this line in the 

 spectrum of aluminum is really a gallium line. 

 The two gallium lines are therefore regarded as 

 identical with these two lines in the solar spectrum. 



An account of the presence of titanic oxide in a 

 cinderlike mass found near Monticello, Va., and in 

 the soil was published by P. P. Dunnington in the 

 " American Journal of Science" for December, 1891. 

 The mass proved to contain 5.4 per cent, of titanic 

 oxide, and subsequently, upon analysis, to be of 

 identical composition with the soil upon which it 

 was found ; and the special formation of the ma-s 

 was supposed to be the result of lightning. Oilier 

 soil in the neighborhood was examined for titanic 

 oxide, and it was found in all: and subsequently it, 

 was found in as many as eighty specimens of soil in 

 different parts of the globe. Since the publication 

 referred to, Mr. Dunnington has obtained samples 

 of soil from parts of the earth's surface not then rep- ! 

 resented, and in them he has estimated the amounts 

 of titanic oxide as a percentage of the original soil 

 and also of the ignited soil, which latter figures 

 should be compared with what is found in igneous 

 rocks. Among these soils he specifies red and dark- 

 gray loatns from Brazil ; gray sandy loam from Li- 

 beria ; gray-brown loam from St. Helena ; dark-gray 

 and light-brown clays from Cerraloo, Mexico ; light- 

 brown and white clays from Sydney, Austral in; 

 brown-yellow loam from Launceston, Tasmania; 

 brown-gray loam from Auckland, New Zealand; 

 light-yellow clay from Arako, and dark-gray loam 



