href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@18763@[email protected]#Footnote_1_8" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">⁸ like Betelli, extracts the fusel oil from alcohol by means of chloroform, and by oxidation converts it into valeric acid. From the quantity of barium valerate found he calculates the amount of amyl alcohol present in the original solution; 150 c.c. of the spirit, which has been diluted so as to contain 12 to 15 per cent. of alcohol, are shaken up thoroughly with 50 c.c. of chloroform, the aqueous layer drawn off, and shaken with a fresh portion of chloroform. This treatment is repeated several times. The extracts are then united, and washed repeatedly with water. The chloroform, which is now free from alcohol and contains all the fusel oil, is treated with a solution of 5 grammes of potassium bichromate in 30 grammes of water and 2 grammes of sulphuric acid, and then heated in a closed flask for six hours on a water bath at 85°. The contents of the flask are then distilled, the distillate saturated with barium carbonate, and the chloroform distilled; the residue is evaporated to a small volume, the excess of barium carbonate filtered off, and the filtrate evaporated to dryness and weighed. The residue is dissolved in water, a few drops of nitric acid added, and the solution divided into two portions. In the first portion the barium is determined; in the second the barium chloride. The total per cent. of barium minus that of barium chloride gives the amount present as barium valerate, from which is calculated the per cent. of amyl alcohol. By this process the author has determined one part of fusel oil in ten thousand of alcohol. To detect very minute quantities of fusel oil, the chloroform extracts are treated with several drops of sulphuric acid and enough potassium permanganate to keep the solution red for twenty-four hours. If allowed to stand in a test tube, the odor of valeric aldehyde will first be noticed, then that of amyl valerate, and lastly that of valeric acid.—Amer. Chem. Journal.

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ON SILICON.

It is known that platinum heated in a forge fire, in contact with carbon, becomes fusible. Boussingault has shown that this is due to the formation of a silicide of platinum by means of the reduction of the silica of the carbon by the metal. MM. P. Schützenberger and A. Colson have produced the same phenomenon by heating to white heat a slip of platinum in the center of a thick layer of lampblack free from silica.

The increase in weight of the metal and the augmentation of its fusibility were found to be due, in this case also, to a combination with silicon. As the silicon could not come directly from the carbon which surrounded the platinum, MM. Schützenberger and Colson have endeavored to discover under what form it could pass from the walls of the crucible through a layer of lampblack several centimeters in thickness, in spite of a volatility amounting to almost nothing under the conditions of the experiment. They describe the following experiments as serving to throw some light upon the question:

1. A thin slip of platinum rolled in a spiral is placed in a small crucible of retort carbon closed by a turned cover of the same material. This is placed in a second larger crucible of refractory clay, and the intervening space filled with lampblack tightly packed. The whole is then heated to white heat for an hour and a half in a good wind furnace. After cooling, the platinum is generally found to have been fused into a button, with a marked increase in weight due to taking up silicon, which has penetrated in the form of vapor through the walls of the interior crucible.

2. If, in the preceding experiment, the lampblack be replaced by a mixture of lampblack and rutile in fine powder, the slip of platinum remains absolutely intact, and does not change in weight. Thus the titaniferous packing recommended by Sainte-Claire Deville for preventing the access of nitrogen in experiments at high temperatures also prevents the passage of silicon. A mixture of carbon and finely divided iron is, on the contrary, ineffectual. These facts seem to indicate that nitrogen plays a part in the transportation of the silicon, as this is only prevented by the same means made use of in order to prevent the passage of nitrogen.

3. The volatility of free silicon at a high temperature is too slight to account for the alteration of the platinum at a distance. This can be shown by placing several decigrammes of crystallized silicon on the bottom of a small crucible of retort carbon, covering the silicon with a small flat disk of retort carbon upon which is placed the slip of platinum. The crucible, closed by its turned cover, is then enveloped in a titaniferous packing and kept at a brilliant white heat for an hour and a half. The metal is found to have only very slightly increased in weight, and its properties remain unaltered. This experiment was repeated several times with the same result. If, however, the crystallized silicon be replaced by powdered calcined silica, the platinum, placed upon the carbon disk, fuses and increases in weight, while the silica loses weight. The theory of these curious phenomena is very difficult to establish on account of the high temperatures which are necessary for their manifestation, but it may be concluded, at present, that nitrogen and probably oxygen also play some part in the transportation of the silicon across the intervening space, and that the carbosilicious compounds recently described by MM. Schützenberger and Colson also take part in the phenomenon.—Comptes Rendus, xciv., 1,710.—Amer. Chem. Journal.

STANNOUS NITRATES.

At the Royal Powder Works at Spandau, Prussia, frequent ignition of the powder at a certain stage of the process led to an examination of the machinery, when it was found that where, at certain parts, bronze pieces which