Report of proceedings Volume 9 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 Excerpt: ... caustic potash, and disulphide of carbon, thus: (C2HHO + HKO + CSS = HS0 + (C,H5) KO.CS, or (C,H5)KCOS2. I can illustrate to you the formation of this salt very readily. I take some spirit of wine or alcohol, dissolve in it a little caustic potash, then add to it some disulphide of carbon, and agitate the whole for a minute or so. The xauthate is now formed; and on pouring out a little of the liquid into water, and then adding some sulphate of copper solution, I get thrown down the characteristic orange-yellow precipitate of xanthate of copper, from the production of which the acid acquires its name of xanthic, meaning yellow. Now if you take ordinary coal gas and pass it slowly through an alcoholic solution of caustic potash, you will find the gas to be deprived in great measure of its sulphur, and xanthate of potassium to be formed in the liquid. And the formation of xanthate of potassium under these circumstances, will be another evidence to you of the existence of the sulphur contained in the original gas, in the form of disulphide of carbon. But in practice, we cannot, of course, resort to alcoholic potash as a purifying agent, but must content ourselves with sulpbydrated ammonia or sulpbydrated lime, that is to say, with gas liquor or foul lime in a particular condition; and, having been consulted by certain gas companies, to help them out of the difficulty they were in with regard to the large proportion of disulphide of carbon which continued to exist in their gas, despite every attempt to effect its reduction, my attention has of late been especially directed to the subject of sulphur purification; and I believe I am now in a position to point out to you the proper mode of using the agents of which I have just spoken, so as to produce a uniformly ...