On the red color of jlame as affected by certain minerals. 26 1 



Art. Vn. — On the red color of flame as produced by Strontianand 

 as characteristic of minerals of that genus ; by Lieut. Baddeley, 

 R. En. Up. Can. 



TO PROFESSOR SILilMAN. 



Kingston, (U. C.) April 19, 1830. 

 Dear Sir — The object of this letter is to point out to such miner- 

 alogical students as may not have acquired a more intimate acquaint- 

 ance with chemical phenomena than myself, an error into which they 

 are liable to fall, when consulting mineralogical writers on the distin- 

 guishing characters of the natural strontians, as most of the authors 

 on mineralogy, appear to make the reddening of flame a character 

 peculiar those minerals. Bakewell, indeed says, that it not only 

 distinguishes strontian from barytes but from every other earthy 

 mineral. Should the mere mineralogist dissolve a little carbon- 

 ate of lime in muriatic acid, and apply, by means of a small 

 piece of stick, a litde of the solution to the wick of a lighted can- 

 dle he will instantly perceive, that a portion of the flame, gener- 

 ally towards the edges, is colored of a beautiful rose red and this 

 without the assistance of any alcohol, the intensity of color appearing 

 to increase as the solution approaches saturation. Meeting with this 

 character, for the first time, in a mineral under his examination, would 

 he not. influenced by the works he consults, be induced to suspect 

 the presence of strontian ; ignorant perhaps that the carbonate of 

 lime, an earthy mineral, when so treated, is converted into a muriate 

 of lime, a salt of too soluble a character to occur native in a concrete 

 state ; and ignorant also, that the salt thus formed, has the character 

 of giving a red color to flame. Thomson, Parkes, and other chem- 

 ical writers mention this latter fact. Parkes says, " Pulverize some 

 of this salt and throw a little of it into a spoonful of burning alcohol ; 

 this will produce a beautiful red flame, the color of which may be 

 rendered still more intense by agitating the mixture during the inflam- 

 mation. I have tried this experiment by dropping powdered carbon- 

 ate of lime into an inflamed mixture of muriatic acid and alcohol, 

 and found it to succeed perfectly. It answers equally well, if the 

 powder be added before the mixture is inflamed, but I always found 

 the presence of the muriatic acid necessary, although not of the alco- 

 hol, as the candle will answer almost as well. The raagnesian car- 

 bonates of lime, when so treated, exhibit the same phenomenon, but 

 the pwe carbonates of magnesia do not ; hence is derived a very ready 

 if not delicate test for distinguishing them. 



