270 Action of Sulphuric Acid on Alcohol. 



contact with water, at common temperatures, to the state 

 of bi-sulphate, by abandoning the portion of carbonated hy- 

 drogen which rendered it a neuter or double sulphate, which 

 carbonated hydrogen having experienced during combina- 

 tion, a condensation of its elements, preserves that form, even 

 after its separation from the compound of which it constitu- 

 ted a part, forming liquid carbonated hydrogen, (sweet oil 

 of wine,) and solid crystallised carbonated hydrogen. 



5. That the bi-sulphate of ether (sulpho-vinic acid,) is 

 transformed by ebullition in water, into sulphuric acid and 

 water, without any disengagement of gas. 



6. That the compounds which the bi-sulphate of ether is 

 susceptible of forming with bases, which in this case, replaces 

 carbonated hydrogen, compounds which have been called 

 sulpho-vinates, are double salts, which, also by ebullition in 

 water, are entirely transformed into alcohol and a sulphate 

 of the base with excess of acid. 



7. That the sweet oil of wine, and the crystalline matter 

 which it abandons by repose are formed, as M. Hennell has 

 stated, of hydrogen and carbon in the same proportions as 

 that in which these two bodies exist in bi-carbonated hy- 

 drogen. 



8. That the sulphuric ether, from the first period of its dis- 

 tillation contains bi-sulphate of ether, and at a later stage, 

 a greater or less quantity of neutral sulphate of bi-carbona- 

 ted hydrogen, products which are quickly isolated by the 

 evaporation of the ether. 



9. Finally — that a means of obtaining the neutral sul- 

 phate of carbonated hydrogen, and consequently, of sweet oil 

 of wine, is to decompose the sulpho-vinate of lime, as the 

 most economical mode of preparation, by heating it in a re- 

 tort, after having dried it, and collecting the product. — An- 

 nales de Chim. et de Phys. Oct. 1828. 



