NEW METHOD OP ANALYSING AMMONIA. 3g3 



other. But a mixture of oxigen and ammoniacal gasses A mixture of 

 more than answered my expectations- When mingled in JJ^SJ 1 *** 1 

 proper proportions, these gasses, I have ascertained, may detonated cm-r 

 be detonated over mercury by an electric spark; exactly mercury ' 

 like a mixture of vital and inflammable air ; and the results 

 of the process, with due attention to the circumstances, 

 which will soon be stated, afford an easy and preeisemethod 

 of analyzing, in the space of a few minutes, considerable 

 quantities of the volatile alkali. With a greater proportion 

 of pure oxigen gas* to ammonia than that of three to one, 

 or of ammonia to oxigen than that of three to 1*4, the mix- 

 ture ceases to be combustible. When the proportions best 

 adapted to inflammation are used, oxigen gas may be diluted 

 ■with six times its bulk of atmospherical air, without losing 

 its property of burning ammonia. 



Atmospherical air alone docs not, however, inflame with Atmospherical 



ammonia, in any proportion that I have yet tried : though. air does no1 de " 



J ■ , r . -. ., i ' . . ' tonatewitham- 



by long continued electrization with air, ammonia is at monia, but <le- 



lenerth decomposed: its hidrogen uniting with the oxigen f com P ose s n b y 

 . i > • 7-i • Jong electnrus- 



the air and forming water, while the nitrogen of both com- tk>n. 



poses a permanent residuum. Forty-five measures of am- 

 monia being electrified with eighty-six of common air, the 

 total 131 became 136, and 135 after being washed with wa- 

 ter. Of 17-2 measures of oxigen, contained in the 86 mea- 

 sures of air at the outset, only 2-9 were left ; and these also 

 would probably have disappeared by continuing the opera- 

 sion. If a mixture of ammonia and atmospheric air, each, 

 previously dried by caustic potash, and then electrified, be 

 examined, the production of water is made sufficiently appa- 

 rent on applying ether to the containing vessel. In subject- 

 ing ammonia, therefore, to this test of the generation of 

 water by electricity, the purity of the gas from atmospheric 

 air should be carefully determined f. 



* Containing only three or four per cent nitrogen gas. 



f The result of this experiment shows, moreover, that, even 

 supposing oxigen to be a constituent of ammonia, we are not to ex- 

 pect its'evolution, in a separate form, by electricity ; since, when 

 electrified with ammoniacal gas, oxigen gas is deprived of its elas- 

 tic form, and its base is condensed into water, by union with 

 pascen,t hidrogen evolved from the alkali. 



The 



