Chemical news and Journal of physical science: Chemical news and Journal of physical science

Crookes, William

Bibliografische Daten

Zeitschrift

Persistenter Identifier:: 1695194465359

Titel:: Chemical news and Journal of physical science

Erscheinungsort:: London

Erscheinungsverlauf:: 18XX

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften

Lizenz:: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/deed.de

Band

Persistenter Identifier:: 1695194465359_39_1879

Titel:: Chemical news and Journal of physical science

Herausgeber:: Crookes, William

Jahrgang/Band:: Volume 39, 1879 (January - June)

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1879

Sprache:: englisch

Strukturtyp:: Band

Standort:: Universitätsbibliothek Stuttgart

Signatur:: XIX/98.8-39/40,1879

Lizenz:: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/deed.de

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften

Ausgabe

Titel:: No. 1007 (March 14, 1879)

Strukturtyp:: Ausgabe

Starch 16,195." } THE CHEMICAL NEWS. ENew Chemical Industry 107 This ammonia water contains about 15 per cent. of ammonia ; hence the total quantity of the volatile alkali obtainable from the gasworks in England amounts to some 9000 tons per annum. A singular difference is observed between the dry listillation of altered woody fibre as we have it in coal, and woody fibre itself. In the produés of the first opera- tion we chiefly find in the tar the aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, whilst in the second we find acetic acid and methyl alcohol are predominant. The year 1848 is a memorable one in the annals of re- volutionary chemistry, for in that year Wurtz proved that ammonia is in reality only one member of a very large family. By a&ing with caustic potash on the nitrates of the alcohol radicals he obtained the first series of the large class of compound ammonias the primary monamines, If these methylamine is the first on our list :— CH CH OK G03 | N+2KOH = mn + CO 19% The years that followed, 1849 to 1851, were prolific in ammoniacal discoveries. Hofmann pointed out that not only one atom of hydrogen in ammonia can be replaced Jy its equivalent of organic radical, but that two or all the chree atoms of the hydrogen in ammonia can be likewise replaced, giving rise to the secondary and tertiary amines, by the following simple reactions :— H CH, 1. CHRI+ HI N=HI4 H J H H CH; «CH; 2. CH3I+H n-ne] N H H CH, CH; 3. CH3I+ CH; N= it] N H CH, Vor, XXXIX. No. 1007. A NEW CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, ESTABLISHED BY M. CAMILLE VINCENT.* By Prof. ROSCOE, LL.D..F.R.S. “ AFTER I had made the discovery of the marine acid air, which the vapour of spirit of salt may properly enough be called, it occurred to me that, by a process similar to that by which this acid airis expelled from the spirit of salt, an alkaline air might be expelled from substances containing the volatile alkali. Accordingly I procured some volatile spirit of sal-ammoniac, and having put it into a thin phial and heated it with a flame of a candle, [ presently found that a great quantity of vapour was discharged from it, and being received into a basin of quicksilver it continued in the form of a transparent and permanent air, not at all condensed by cold.” These words, written by Joseph Priestley rather more than one hundred years ago, describe the experiment by which ammonia was first obtained in the gaseous state. Unacquainted with the composition of this alkaline air, Priestley showed that it increased in volume whenZele@ric sparks are passed through it, or when the alkaline air ‘ammonia) is heated the residue consists of inflammable air (hydrogen). Berthollet, in 1783, proved that this increase in bulk is 1ue to the decomposition of ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen, whilst Henry and Davy ascertained that two volumes of ammonia are resolved into one volume of aitrogen and three volumes of hydrogen. The early history of sal-ammoniac and of ammonia is very obscure. The salt appears to have been brought into Europe from Asia in the seventh century, probably from volcanic sources. An artificial mode of producing the ammoniacal salts from decomposing animal matter was soon discovered, and the early alchemists were well acquainted with the carbonate under the name of Spiritus salis urine. In later times sal-ammoniac was obtained from Egypt, where it was prepared by colle@ing the sub- imate obtained by burning camels’ dung. Althouglf we are constantly surrounded by an atmo- sphere of nitrogen, chemists have not yet succeeded in ‘nducing this inert substance to combine readily, so that we are still dependent for our supply of combined nitrogen, whether as nitric acid or ammonia, upon the decomposi- tion of the nitrogenous constituents of the bodies of plants and animals. This may be effe@ed either by natural decay, giving rise to the ammonia which is always con- tained in the atmosphere, or by the dry distillation of the same bodies, that is, by heating them strongly out of con- ta@t with air; and it is from this source that the world derives the whole of its commercial ammonia and sal- ammoniac. Coal, the remains of an ancient vegetable world, con- tains about 2 per cent. of nitrogen, the greater part of which is obtained in the form of ammonia when the coal undergoes the process of dry distillation. In round num- bers two million tons of coal are annually distilled for the manufacture of coal gas in this country,and the ammo- niacal water of the gasworks contains the salt of ammo- aium in solution. According to the most reliable data x00 tons of coal were distilled so as to yield 10,000 cubic feet of gas of specific gravity o0'6, giving the following produéts, in ONS 1 Gas. Tar, Ammonja Water. Coke, 22°25 85 9'5 59°75 average. * A Discourse given at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Fridav, February 21, 187g. To these bodies the names of methylamin, di-methyl. amin, and tri-methylamin were given. They resemble ammonia in being volatile alkaline liquids or gases, which combine with acids to form crystalline and well-defined salts. Hitherto these compound ammonias have been chemical curiosities ; they have, however, recently become, as has so often been the case in other instances, of great com. mercial importance, and are now manufactured on a large scale. We are all well aware that the French beet-root sugar ndustry is one of great magnitude, and that it has been argely extended in late years. In this industry, as in the nanufacture of cane sugar, large quantities of molasses or treacle remain behind after the whole of the crystallisable sugar has been withdrawn. These molasses are invariably employed to yield alcohol by fermentation. The juice of the beet, as well as that of cane-sugar, contains, in addition to the sugar, a large quantity of extractive and aitrogenous matters, together with considerable quantities of alkaline salts. In some sugar-producing districts the waste-liquors or spent-wash from the stills—called vinasses in French—are wastefully and ignorantly thrown away, nstead of being returned to the land as a fertiliser, and ‘hus the soil becomes impoverished. In France it has long been the custom of the distiller to evaporate these liquors (vinasses) to dryness, and to calcine the mass in a reverberatory furnace, thus destroying the whole of the organic matter, but recovering the alkaline salts of the beet-root. In this way 2000 tons of carbonate of potash are annually produced in the French distilleries. For more than thirty years the idea has been entertained of colle¢ting the ammonia-water, tar, and oils which are ziven off when this organic matter is calcined, but the practical realisation of the projec has only quite recently oeen accomplished, and a most unexpected new field of chemical industry thus opened out, through the persevering and sagacious labours of M. Camille Vincent. of Paria.

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