Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 235 



SULPHATE OF CARBYLE. 



M. E. Magnus states, that when anhydrous sulphuric acid is ab- 

 sorbed by absolute alcohol, there are formed, under the influence of 

 particular circumstances, white silky crystals in the alcohol ; they 

 are a sulphate of carburetted hydrogen, to which M. Magnus gives 

 the name of sulphate of carbyle, from carbo and hydrogenium. The 

 method adopted was that of exposing the alcohol in a small tube to 

 anhydrous sulphuric acid in a stopped receiver. Crystals are rarely 

 formed immediately ; the tube must be put into a second receiver 

 containing sulphuric acid, and sometimes even into a third. For 

 the sulphuric acid in the receiver also absorbs alcohol, which causes 

 the cessation of the absorption of the acid by the alcohol which is 

 contained in the tube. The formation goes on without the disen- 

 gagement of sulphurous acid. 



The crystals which form in the alcohol tube are, it is true, sur- 

 rounded with fuming acid, but M. Magnus succeeded in isolating 

 them. In pouring off the liquid acid which filled the interstices, 

 they yield abundant vapours : they rapidly attract humidity from the 

 air and deliquesce; to dry them they were placed upon a plate of 

 baked clay, slightly heated in the air-pump over sulphuric acid until 

 they yielded no more vapour. 



When aether was employed instead of alcohol, no crystals were 

 obtained ; it [is possible, however, that under some circumstances 

 they might be formed ; the experiment confirms the previous state- 

 ment of M. Magnus, that when aether is absorbed by anhydrous 

 sulphuric acid, heavy oil of wine is always produced, which is never 

 the case with absolute alcohol. This may be regarded as one of 

 the strongest objections against the opinion that alcohol is a hy- 

 drate of aether ; for if this were the case, the sulphuric acid ought 

 to remove the water, and then act upon it as if it were aether, which 

 evidently does not occur. 



When these crystals are cautiously heated, they fuse without de- 

 composition, and on cooling become a crystalline mass. They com- 

 bine with water and alcohol with the disengagement of heat, and 

 by evaporation they do not separate from the solution. The 

 aqueous solution, saturated with barytes, yields soluble salts with 

 a little sulphate of barytes. The quantity of sulphuric acid ob- 

 tained was variable, and appeared to be eliminated by the action of 

 the water. 



The soluble barytic salts are ethionate of barytes and a little 

 isethionate, and it appears to be the conversion of ethionic into 

 isethionic acid, which produces the sulphuric acid. 



By analysis sulphate of carbyle appears to be composed of 



Sulphuric acid 84*930 



Carbon 12*955 



Hydrogen 2*115 



100 

 It is therefore a sulphate of carburetted hydrogen, or 1 equivalent 



