ON NITROGEN AND AMMONIA. A^ 



not be uniformly obtained in this simple form of the expe- 

 riment. I hud an apparatus made, in which the phenomena 

 of the process could be more rigorovisly examined. Pure 

 potash and charcoal, in the proportion of one to four in 

 weight, were ignited in the middle of a tube of iron, fur- 

 nished with a system of stopcocks, and connected with a 

 pneumatic apparatus, in such a manner, that the mixture 

 could be cooled in contact with the gas produced during 

 the operation ; and that water exhausted of yir , couid be 

 made to act upon the cooled mixture, and afterward distil- 

 led from it; figures of this apparatus, and an account of 

 the manner in which it was used, are annexed to this paper. 

 In this place I shall state merely the geneial results of the 

 operations, which were carried on for nearly two months, 

 a variety of precautions being used to prevent the inter- 

 ference of nitrogen frouii the atmosphere. 



In all cases, in which the water was brought into contact Ammonia pro- 



with the mixture of charcoal and potash when it was per- "c*-'^'™"^. 



' _ ^ the same mix- 



fectly cool, and afterwards distilled from it by a slow heat, ture 3 or 4 



it was found to hold in solution small quantities of lun- '^'"^^^» 

 monia-, when the operation was repeated upon the same mix- 

 ture ignited a second time, the proportion dimiiiished; in a 

 third operation it was sensible, but in the fourtli barely 

 perceptible. The same mixture, however, by the addition and again on 

 of a new quantity of potash, again gained the power of ^^^^^'^'"o" ^'^ 

 producing ammonia in two or three successive operations; 

 and when any mixture had ceased to give ammonia, the 

 power was not restored by cooling it in contact with air. 



Ammonia was produced in a case in which more than 200 More ammo- 

 cubical inches of g^s had passed over from the action of "? P'^°7'"*^*^> 

 water upon a mixture, and when the last portions only were ture \b cooled 



preserved in contact with it during: the cooline. In a com- '" contact with 

 ^ . . . the atmo. 



parative trial it was however found, that considerably more sphere. 



ammonia was produced, when a mixture was cooled in con- 

 tact with the atmosphere, than when it was cooled in con- 

 tact with the gas developed in the operation. 



I shall not attempt to draw any conclusions from these Perhaps no hi- 

 processes. It would appear from some experiments of Mr. ^[ofeTin'this 

 Bertholletj that nitrogen adheres very strongly to charcoal*, process, 



* Mem d'Arcueil, Tom. II. p.ig;? 4S5. 



The 



