REPORT OF CHEMIST. 1089 
1 or 3 
IPOS GUC R renee ee ec eran eee Cees OE Oe ota ccnGcacesbeceeins 8.70 7.20 7.20 
Volatile combustible matter.......... 3 5 ESOS SEER CRCECEEEEARG 28.30 28.95 33.02 
SUR CCEC ATWO Meee ste cise cea Sc eo Ee eee teecosenale wees craminn 58.80 59.22 55.15 
TNEVDY SS ac Boer COBRA EE LEER OAS RE tr Ore EAR ar ane 4.20 4.63 4.63 
A OK PU | des sestthes es RE aN aE Uren is as RO A 100.00 100.00 100.00 
The sample had dried a little from keeping, but otherwise was’ 
unaltered. Dr. Wormley’s method will hence show about 4 per cent. 
more ‘fixed carbon” than the present. The difference appears to be 
due to the fact that the heat attainable in a tube fails to expel the last 
traces of hydrocarbons, or else the vapors “crack” or split up into 
carbon and lighter gases in the tube more than in the crucible. The first 
supposition appears more probable from the following experiment: One 
gram of the same coal was treated by the present method, but weighed 
before heating with the blast lamp. It gave fixed carbon, 59.78 per 
cent., or nearly the same as when heated in a tube, showing that 
probably some of the vapors are only expelled at a very high heat. 
I haye discussed this at length, so as to explain the constantly 
lower result in fixed carbon shown by the present series of analyses. 
The “fixed carbon” is so entirely dependent upon the method of analysis 
that it is important that only results by the same method be compared. 
The method used was adopted as being, besides more convenient, at 
present, perhaps the most usual, and also representing more nearly the 
yield of coke in the large way. 
SULPHUR IN COALS. 
Two methods were used for the determination of sulphur. 1st. The 
method by fusing the coal with sodic nitrate and carbonate. Taking 
one gramme of the finely pulverized coal or coke, mixing intimately 
with 8 grammes of sodic nitrate and 8 grammes of sodic carbonate, 
then deflagrating carefully in a large platinum crucible, extracting the 
fused mass with water, evaporating to dryness with hydrochloric acid, 
taking up again in acidulated water, and in this solution, precipitating 
the sulphuric acid with baric chloride. This method was finally given 
69 G. 
