NOTICE FROM 1)R. ROBERT HARE. 
115 
ART. XVIII— NOTICE FROM DR. ROBERT HARE, PROFESSOR 
OF CHEMISTRY, &c, RESPECTING A NEW LIQUID HYPO- 
NITROUS ETHER, AND AN ETHEREAL GAS : ALSO A SE- 
RIES OF GASEOUS COMPOUNDS FORMED WITH THE ELE- 
MENTS OF WATER, WHEN IN THE ACT OF COMBINING 
EXPLOSIVELY. 
When nitric acid or sulphuric acid with a nitrate is em- 
ployed to generate ether, there must be an excess of two atoms 
of oxygen for each atom of the hyponitrous acid which enters 
into combination. This excess involves not only the con- 
sumption of a large proportion of alcohol, but also gives rise 
to several acids, and to some impurities. 
It occurred to me that for the production of pure hyponitrous 
ether, a hyponitrite should be used. The result has fully real- 
ized my expectations. 
By subjecting hyponitrite of potassa or soda* toalcohol and 
diluted sulphuric acid, I have obtained a species of ether which 
differs from that usually known as nitrous or nitric ether in 
being sweeter to the taste, more bland to the smell, and more 
volatile. It boils below 65° of F., and produces by its spon- 
taneous evaporation a temperature of 15° F. On contact 
with the finger or tongue, it hisses as water does with red hot 
iron. After being made to boil, if allowed to stand for some 
time at a temperature below its boiling point, ebullition may 
be renewed in it apparently at a temperature lower than that 
at which it had ceased. Possibly this apparent ebullition 
arises from the partial resolution of the liquid into an aeriform 
ethereal fluid, which escapes, both during the distillation of 
the liquid ether, and after it has ceased, even at a temperature 
* The hyponitrites of potash and soda which were employed in the pro- 
cess above mentioned, were extricated from the saline mass which remains 
after heating a nitrate of either of those bases, to obtain oxygen, so long as 
this gas does not contain more than three per cent, of impurity. This re- 
sidual mass has been found, to Dr. Hare's surprise, to consist of about two- 
thirds nitrate and one-third of hyponitrite. This latter being more soluble, 
may be separated by crystallization. 
