64 



NA TURE 



[May i6, 1901 



RESEARCHES ON ORGANIC PEROXIDES. 

 T N the latest number of the Bcrichte, v. Baeyer and ViUiger have 

 a number of interesting communications. The preparation 

 of ethyl hydrogen peroxide, QIIdO.OH is described. It is 

 obtained by treating diethylsulphate with a solution of hydrogen 

 pero.xide in alkaline solution. The liquid is then acidified and 

 distilled, when the new compound passes over between 90° and 

 100' mixed with alcohol and water. By further treatment a solu- 

 tion may be obtained boiling at 47-49° at 100 mm. and containing 

 80 per cent, of the peroxide. At the ordinary pressure it boils 

 about 95°. It is soluble in water, alcohol and ether. It has a 

 smell of both bleaching powder and acetaldehyde. A drop on 

 the skin produces inflammation. It is relatively stable and may 

 be kept for many weeks with very slight alteration. By super- 

 heating the vapour in a test-tube, a moderate detonation occurs. 

 Dropped on finely divided silver it decomposes with a sharp 

 explosion. It is a weak acid of about the strength of a phenol 

 and gives salts with alkalis and alkaline earths. It is a strong 

 oxidising agent. In studying the action of ethyl hydrogen per- 

 oxide with difi'erent reagents, the authors find that whereas 

 nitrous acid yields nitric acid with hydrogen peroxide, alkyl 

 nitrites do not give alkyl nitrates, but nitric acid and alcohol. 

 On the other hand, ethyl hydrogen peroxide and nitrous 

 acid or ethyl hydrogen peroxides and alkyl nitrites give in 

 both cases the alkyl nitrate. These reactions are explained 

 on the assumption that an additive compound is first formed 

 from which either water or alcohol is subsequently removed. 

 Moreover, where there is a choice between the removal 

 of an " alko.'jyl " or " hydroxyl " group, the latter takes 

 precedence. This alone would not explain the behaviour 

 of ethyl nitrite and hydrogen peroxide, on the one hand, and 

 nitrous acid and ethyl hydrogen peroxide on the other, which 

 should yield the same product, viz., ethyl nitrate. 



0:N.OCoH5-fII.,0., = 0:N(OH),.OC.,H5 = OoN.OC„H5 4-H.,0 

 0:N.OH-)-C„H50.0H = 0:N(Ok)„OC»H5 



= aN.bC.,H5-hH„0. 

 But if the peroxides form additive compounds by separation 

 into H and 0.,H or OoCiH; ions, the apparently anomalous 

 changes are readily explained. 



OCM, 

 0:N.OC..H,+ H„0., = 0:N— H 



O'.OH 



0:N.OH-fC.,H,-,O.OH=0:N 



OH 

 H 

 O.OCH-, 



The nitrosoperoxide acid then by intramolecular rearrange- 

 ment passes into nitric acid or its ester. 



In the same journal, v. Baeyer and Villiger describe a hydrate of 

 sulphurylchoride, SO.^Cl.j-*- I5H._,0, which they prepare by pour- 

 ing the acid chloride on ice. The hydrate has the appearance 

 of camphor and remains undecomposed by ice-cold water for 

 hours at a time. 



The disputed question as to whether hydrogen peroxide and 

 silver oxide, when brought into contact, yield the oxygen of the 

 metallic oxide as well as an atom of oxygen of the peroxide, 

 which is Thenard's view, or whether, according to Berthelot, 

 the silver oxide acts as a catalysator by reducing the peroxide of 

 hydrogen to water, is determined by v. Baeyer and Villiger 

 in favour of Thenard. 



IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 



THE annual general meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 was held on May 8 and 9. Sir William Roberts- 

 .^uslen, K C.B.,the retiring president, announced that Andrew 

 Carnegie Research Scholarships, each of the value of 100/., 

 had been awarded to Dr. A. Stansfield (London), to Dr. J. A. 

 Mathews (New York) and to Mr. J. Goldberg (Leoben, 

 Austria). Mr. Carnegie announced his intention of doubling 

 his original donation for the purpose of founding these scholar- 

 ships. Mr. William Whitwell was then inducted into the 

 presidential chair. Having presented the Bessemer Gold 

 Medal for 1901 to Mr. John Edward Stead, in recognition of 

 the value of his investigations of the physical and chemical 

 properties of iron and steel, the president delivered his inaugural 

 address, in which he reviewed the .scientific and industrial 



achievements of the past reign, and enumerated some of the 

 most important problems in metallurgy that still await solution. 

 A vote of thanks to Ihe president for his admirable address was 

 proposed by Mr. Carnegie and seconded by Sir Lowthiaitt 

 Bell. 



The first paper read was by Mr. A. Greiner, of Seraing, 

 Belgium, on dust in blast-furnace gases, in which he described 

 the methods adopted to get rid of the du.st in blast-furnace gases- 

 used as motive power for blowing-engines. 



Mr. J. E. Stead then described some clearly defined idiomor- 

 phic crystals recently discovered in the hearth of a blast furnace 

 at Blaina, Monmouthshire. They were found in a cavity of the 

 sandstone foundation of a furnace, in which spiegeleisen andi 

 ferromanganese had been made. The crystals yielded on 

 analysis : manganese, 51 75 ; iron, 3576 ; silicon, y(>2 ; carbon, 

 371 ; oxygen, &c., 5"i6. They belong to the orthorhombic 

 system, and the results of measurements by Mr. H. Bauermai> 

 and by Mr. L. J. Spencer are given in the paper. The com- 

 pound is described as a carbo-silicide of manganese and iron. 



Mr. J. E. Stead and Mr. John Evans next read an important 

 paper on the influence of copper on steel rails and plates. It is 

 generally thought that copper has a very deleterious effect, and 

 engineers, when buying steel, frequently specify that it must be 

 absent. The authors clearly show, however, that the general 

 opinion is erroneous. They prove that between o"5 and I'J 

 per cent, copper has no deleterious effect on either the hot or 

 cold property of steel ; that a very large amount (2 per cent.) 

 makes the steel more liable to be over-heated ; and that in 

 small quantities it slightly raises the tenacity and the elastic 

 limit, but, unlike phosphorus, does not sensibly make the sleel 

 liable to fracture under sudden shock. Like carbon, it reduces 

 the power of the steel to extend under stress, but this is not 

 pronounced when the quantity is small. The effect is more 

 marked when large quantities are present. Lastly they prove 

 that if the evidence of the open-hearth steel trial can be con- 

 firmed, copper, instead of producing redshortne.ss, has the 

 contrary effect of changing redshort steel into steel which will 

 roll without cracking. 



Mr. William Garrett, of Cleveland, Ohio, submitted a com- 

 parison between American and British rolling-mill practice. 

 The paper was followed by an animated discussion, which was 

 resumed on Thursday. 



Mr. R. M. Daelen (Diisseldorf) described some recent de- 

 velopments of the use of hydraulic power in the manufacture of 

 iron and steel. 



Mr. Axel Sahlin discussed the economic significance of a high 

 percentage of silicon in pig iron for the acid steel processes. 

 The demand for high silicon in pig iron is, he considers, doing 

 much to hamper progress in a certain branch of the British iron 

 industry. 



The paper by Prof. J. O. Arnold on the properties of steel 

 castings embodied research work extending over six years. The 

 lessons taught by the data set forth in the preliminary experi- 

 ments detailed in this paper show that pure iron and carbon 

 steel is not a suitable material for fulfilling the modern specifi- 

 cations drafted by engineers for steel eastings. With iron and 

 carbon castings the ductility demanded can be ensured with 

 ease, but with such ductility it is impossible to correlate the 

 required tenacity. The latter property, it is true, can be 

 obtained from iron and carbon castings, but at the expense ci 

 an almost complete loss of ductility. Therefore, as has already 

 been remarked, excepting the nearly pure iron the series of 

 castings described have small manufacturing interests. Never- 

 theless they form the basis upon which the mechanical influence 

 of silicon and manganese can alone be scientifically measured. 



The remaining papers were taken as read. Among the.se the 

 paper by Mr. Axel Wahlberg, of Stockholm, on Brinell's 

 method of determining hardness and other properties of iron 

 and steel was an elaborate memoir of great importance. The 

 method consists in forcing, by means of pressure, a hardened 

 steel ball into the material to be tested so as to cause an impres- 

 sion, the diameter of which is then to be measured, in order to 

 obtain the spherical area of the concavity. The quotient 

 resulting from dividing the maximum pressure by this area will 

 then represent what is called by Brinell a hardness number, 

 indicating, according to him, the amount of pressure (kilograms 

 per square millimetre) to which the material so tested has been 

 subjected. With this method a number of researches have been 

 carried out, detailed particulars of which were given. They 

 relate to the determination of hardness of various metals, to 



NO. 1646, VOL. 64] 



