REMOVAL OF SAL AMMONIAC IN MINERAL ANALYSIS. 271 



and evaporating to dryness over the water-bath; at the end 

 of the operation the heat can be increased to four or five hun- 

 dred degrees. 



By this operation, which requires no superintendence, one 

 hundred grammes of sal ammoniac may be separated as easily 

 and safely as one gramme from five milligrammes of alkalies, 

 and no loss of the latter be experienced. 



The following are some experiments made with given quan- 

 tities of sal ammoniac and nitric acid, heated thus in a capsule 

 over a water-bath : 



5 grammes of sal ammoniac.. 



5 



5 



5 



The decomposition commences before the temperature reaches 

 140° Fah. The results of the decomposition were fully ex- 

 plained in a note to an article of mine published in the Amer. 

 Jour, of Science and Arts, March, 1853. It results principally 

 in the formation of protoxide of nitrogen and chlorine, the 

 former constituting over seven eighths of the gas formed. 



Nitric Acid. 



Sal Ammoniac 



5 c. cent. left. 



7 



10 

 13 



3.190 grammes, 

 2.610 



.790 



.010 



