I 
172  NEW  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  SODA. 
The  chlorocarbon  can  be  made  from  chloroform  by  action  of 
chlorine  upon  that  liquid,  and  Geuther  has  shown  that  the  pro- 
cess may  be  also  reversed,  and  chloroform  produced  from  chloro- 
carbon, by  treating  it  in  an  appropriate  vessel  with  zinc  and  dilute 
sulphuric  acid,  and  thus  exposing  it  to  the  action  of  nascent 
hydrogen.  The  most  common  way  hitherto  adopted  of  forming 
bichloride  of  carbon  consists  in  passing  the  vapor  of  bisulphide 
or  bisulphuret  of  carbon,  together  with  chlorine,  through  a  red 
hot  tube,  either  made  of  porcelain  or  containing  within  it  frag- 
ments of  porcelain.  There  result  from  this  process  chloride  of 
.sulphur  and  bichloride  of  carbon,  the  latter  being  easily  separated 
from  the  former  by  the  action  of  potash. 
The  bichloride  of  carboti  or  chlorocarbon  is  a  transparent, 
colorless  fluid,  having  an  ethereal  and  sweetish  odor,  not  unlike 
chloroform.  Its  specific  gravity  is  great,  being  as  high  as  1*56, 
chloroform  is  1*49.  It  boils  at  170°  F.,  the  boiling  point  of 
*  chloroform  being  141°.  The  density  of  this  vapor  is  5-33,  that  of 
chloroform  being  4-2.- — Lond.  Ghent.  News,  Jan.  26,  1866. — 
Extracted  from  a  paper  by  Dr.  Simpson. 
NEW  PROCESS  OF  MAKING  SODA. . 
Mr.  A.  G.  Hunter,  of  Rockcliffe  Hall,  near  Flint,  has 
achieved  a  discovery  which  seems  likely  to  lead  to  a  most  valua- 
ble modification  in  the  process  of  making  soda.  It  has  long  been 
known  that  caustic  baryta  will  separate  the  sulphuric  acid  from 
a  solution  of  sulphate  of  sodium,  forming  therewith  an  insoluble 
precipitate  of  sulphate  of  barium,  and  leaving  caustic  soda  in 
solution.  The  decomposition  of  sulphate  of  sodium  by  caustic 
baryta  is  thus  a  far  simpler  and  readier  process  than  its  decom- 
position by  Leblanc's  method ;  but  caustic  baryta  has  hitherto 
been,  and  is  still,  far  too  costly  to  permit  of  its  use  for  the  de- 
composition of  sulphate  of  sodium  on  the  great  scale.  Many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  obtain  it  at  a  cheap  rate  from  sul- 
phate of  barium,  or  "  heavy  spar,"  which  is  a  sufficiently  abundant 
natural  product,  but  they  have  all  been  utter  failures,  and  iience 
inventors  have  sought  sedulously  for  some  other  and  cheaper  re- 
agent, capable  of  acting,  as  regards  sulphate  of  sodium,  in  the 
