268 
OBSERVATIONS ON ETHERIFICATION. 
exposed to a temperature ranging from 284° to 352° (140° to 
178° C.) for one hour. 
No charring occurred, but the liquid measured on cooling 5.25 
inches in the tube, and divided into two columns, the upper occu- 
pying 1.75 inches, and the lower 3.5 inches of the tube. The 
former was perfectly transparent and colorless, and on opening the 
tube, was found to be ether, so entirely free from sulphurous acid, 
that it did not affect the yellow color of a drop of the solution of 
bichromate of potash. The lower fluid had a slight yellow tint, 
but was transparent. It contained some ether, but was princi- 
pally a mixture of alcohol, water, and sulphuric acid. The salt 
formed by neutralizing this acid fluid with carbonate of soda, did 
not blacken when heated, from which we may infer that little or 
no sulphovinic acid w 7 as present. 
The principal points to be observed in this experiment are its 
entire success as an etherizing process, without distillation, with- 
out sensible formation of sulphovinic acid, and with a large pro- 
portion of alcohol in contact with the acid, namely, two equiva- 
lents of the former nearly, to one of the latter. When the pro- 
portion of the alcohol was diminished, the results were not so 
favorable. 
Expt. 2. — A mixture of one volume of oil of vitriol and two 
volumes of alcohol, sealed up in a glass tube, was heated in the 
same manner as the last. The liquid afterwards appeared of an 
earthy-brown color by reflected light, and was transparent and 
red by transmitted light. Only a film of ether was sensible after 
tw^enty-four hours, floating upon the surface of the dark fluid. 
Expt. 3. — With a still smaller proportion of alcohol, namely, 
one volume of oil of vitriol with one volume of alcohol, which 
approaches the proportions of the ordinary etherizing process, a 
black, opaque liquid was formed at the high temperature, thick 
and gummy, without a perceptible stratum of ether, after standing 
in a cool state. 
Crystals of bisulphate of soda, containing a slight excess of 
acid, were found to etherize about twice their volume of alcohol 
in a sealed tube quite as effectually as the first proportion of oil 
of vitriol, when heated to the same temperature. The two liquids 
found in the tube were colorless, no sulphurous acid appeared, 
and only a minute quantity of sulphovinic acid. Crystals of bi- 
