Mr. Faraday on fluid chlorine. 161 
filled with a bright yellow atmosphere, and, on examination, 
was found to contain two fluid substances : the one, about 
three-fourths of the whole, was of a faint yellow colour, hav- 
ing very much the appearance of water ; the remaining fourth 
was a heavy bright yellow fluid, lying at the bottom of the 
former, without any apparent tendency to mix with it. As 
the tube cooled, the yellow atmosphere, condensed into more 
of the yellow fluid, which floated in a film on the pale fluid, 
looking very like chloride of nitrogen ; and at 70° the pale 
portion congealed, although even at 32 ° the yellow portion 
did not solidify. Heated up to ioo° the yellow fluid appeared 
to boil, and again produced the bright coloured atmosphere. 
By putting the hydrate into a bent tube, afterwards herme- 
tically sealed, I found it easy, after decomposing it by a heat 
of ioo°, to distil the yellow fluid to one end of the tube, and 
so separate it from the remaining portion. In this way a 
more complete decomposition of the hydrate was effected, 
and, when the whole was allowed to cool, neither of the fluids 
solidified at temperatures above 34 0 , and the yellow portion 
not even at o°. When the two were mixed together they 
gradually combined at temperatures below 6 o°, and formed 
the same solid substances as that first introduced. If, when 
the fluids were separated, the tube was cut in the middle, the 
parts flew asunder as if with an explosion, the whole of the 
yellow portion disappeared, and there was a powerful atmo- 
sphere of chlorine produced ; the pale portion on the contrary 
remained, and when examined, proved to be a weak solution 
of chlorine in water, with a little muriatic acid, probably 
from the impurity of the hydrate used. When that end of 
the tube in which the yellow fluid lay was broken under 
mdcccxxiii. Y 
