VOL. LVII.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 49I 



experiment was tried the 11th of November, when the barometer was at 30 

 inches. In order to make this experiment succeed, it is of the utmost conse- 

 quence to lute well the vessels. 



On the Marine j^tker. — ^The Marquis de Courtenveau, of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences of Paris, has published a very curious memoir in their 

 Transactions, on the making of marine aether, by distilling spirit of wine with 

 the * liquor fumans of Libavius; but no one has succeeded in making it with 

 the pure spirit of salt. It was natural to conclude, from the extremely great 

 acidity of the fumes of spirit of salt, that aether might be made by saturating 

 rectified spirits of wine with them, and on trial it was found to answer, though 

 not in a large quantity. The spirit of wine, charged with the acid vapours, 

 must be distilled and cohobated, and then rectified with a slow degree of fire. -|- 



The method that Mons. Beaume of Paris proposed to make this aether, and 

 which did not succeed with him on account of his not being able to condense 

 the fumes, answered well with Mr. W., and it consists of combining the vapours 

 of spirit of salt with those of spirit of wine. The apparatus he made use of 

 for this purpose is described at fig. 4, and the process is as follows: 8 lb. of 

 sea salt was put into the retort b, and 2 quarts of rectified spirit of wine into 

 the retort d ; 3 pints of the same spirits of wine were put into each of the glass 

 vessels i and k, in order to condense the fumes, one not being sufficient; all 

 being well luted and secured, the spirits of wine in d were made to boil, and then 

 7 lb, of oil of vitriol was poured on the salt in the retort b, at 10 or 12 

 different times, 7 minutes between each time, lest the mixture should boil over; 

 then a fire was made under this retort, and both fires kept up till the operation 

 was over. The quantity of liquor in the vessels i and k, increases considerably, 

 from the vapours that condense there; and the vessel i in particular grows very 

 hot, and being highly charged with vapour, is rendered incapable of condensing 

 any more ; the vapours then pass on to the vessel k, and heat that also. 



The liquor then that was distilled into the vessel f, was mixed with the liquor 

 of the vessels i and k, then being \ distilled, cohobated, and rectified slowly with 

 slacked lime, produced a very subtile penetrating aether: it is very remarkable, 

 that this, though free from acid, on mixing it with water, caused a violent ebullition. 



• The liquor fumans is made by distilling mercury sublimate with tin, and is composed of the 

 acid of salt united with tin. — Orig. 



t As I have shown before, that the vapours of the acid of salt, which condense in water, are 

 free from the acid of vitriol, we may be certain, that the acid of vitriol did not contribute to form 

 this ather. — Orig. 



X Spirit of wine was used likewise here to condense the vapours; and though the distillation was 

 conducted with a very slow fire, yet the spirit of wiue grew very hot. Spirit of wine was likewise 

 used to condense the vapours in the cohobation, but they did not grow hot. This liquor without 

 cohobation afTordi aether, but not so great a quantity, — Orig. 



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