CHAPTER XXI 

 SULPHUR AND HYDROGEN SULPHIDE 



SULPHUR, the compounds of which have been so often men- 

 tioned, provides us, in sulphuric acid, with a substance which has 

 more extensive and more important applications in commerce 

 than any other chemical. The element sulphur, itself, enters, 

 with potassium nitrate and charcoal, into gunpowder. Vulcanite 

 is a compound of caoutchouc (rubber) and sulphur. Sulphur is 

 employed to destroy fungi on grape-plants, and furnishes sulphur 

 dioxide for bleaching and disinfecting. 



Sources. The greater part of tne sulphur of commerce come? 

 from Sicily, Lnuiaifl.rm. a.TTf^JTVms In Sicily, free sulphurjs 

 mixed with_pumice and other rocks. When the lumps of rock, 

 obtained by mining or quarrying, are heated by setting fire to the 

 sulphur (there is no coal in Italy), the sulphur melts and runs to 

 the bottom of the kiln. This product is far from pure, and is dis- 

 tilled from iron retorts. The vapor is condensed in chambers of 

 brick, and the liquid is run into moulds, giving roll sulphur. The 

 first vapor condensed, while the chambers are -cold, yields flowers 

 of sulphur. 



In Louisiana the sulphur occurs in a deposit over half a mile in 

 diameter, below 900 feet of clay, quicksand, and rock. It is 

 obtained by means of borings, which permit four pipes, one within 

 the other, to reach the deposit. Water, previously heated under 

 pressure to a temperature of 170, is pumped down the two outside 

 pipes (6 and 8 inches in diameter). After time has been allowed 

 for the melting of a quantity of the sulphur (it melts at 114.5), 

 compressed air is pumped down through an inner, one-inch pipe. 

 The melted sulphur, alone, has twice the specific gravity of the 



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