CHEMICAL NEWS,}

April 15, 1910

Chemical Notices from Foreign Sources.

cautions were needed to allow of complete reduction and to prevent re-oxidation during filtration.

With magnalium the solution was reduced by allowing it to drop over pieces of the alloy contained in a tower, the reduced solution dropping directly into the ferric sulphate solution.

With zinc-aluminium alloy, reduction took place in a flask fitted with a Bunsen valve, free sulphuric acid being present, and the reduced solution was filtered as quickly as possible into acid ferric sulphate contained in a flask from which the air had previously been driven out by carbon dioxide.

The method is also applicable to solutions containing iron and titanium, the iron being estimated in one portion, and the total iron and titanium in another portion.

The method is especially useful, and has been applied to the analysis of rocks and minerals, and is found to compare favourably with Gooch's standard gravimetric method for quantities where the final amount of titanium dioxide to be weighed exceeds a tenth of a grm. For quantities smaller than this, the reduction method is to be preferred, as by Gooch's method the titanium is either incompletely precipitated or brings dowr. some aluminium along with it, which has to be removed by a somewhat troublesome process.

"Influence of Solvents on the Drying of Linseed Oil." By W. E. F. POWNEY.

With the object of determining the relative utility of turpentine and turpentine substitutes, the author has conducted several series of drying tests upon raw and boiled linseed oil, both alone and mixed in equal volume.

The solvents used were (a) genuine American turpentine distilled between 160° and 170° C., (b) a turpentine substitute composed entirely of petroleum hydrocarbons, and

CORRESPONDENCE.

HALLEY'S COMET.

179

To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIR, It is not easy to follow Mr. Hanssen's explanation of the tail of the comet. If the effect is due to sunbeams illuminating space, then the crowd of meteorites all round the comet should be illuminated. Even if the nucleus be partially permeable to light, it should cast a shadow rather than have a bright area on the side opposite the sun. May it not be that the effect is electrical in a very rare atmosphere or nebula in which the solid particles of the comet are included? The temperature will be lower, and electrical conditions different on the side away from the sun, and may give rise to phenomena analogous to our aurora borealis. May not this also account for observed variations in the tails of comets, as well as to their occasional disappearance ? J. RUTHERFORD HILL, Ph.C. Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (North British Branch),

36, York Place, Edinburgh, April 8, 1910.

CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM FOREIGN
SOURCES.

NOTE.-All degrees of temperature are Centigrade unless otherwis expressed.

Zeitschrift für Anorganische Chemie.
Vol. lxv., No. 4, 1910.

Metallic Titanium.-Ludwig Weiss and Hans Kaiser.

(c) a turpentine substitute containing approximately 17 per-Potassium titanium fluoride, which served as the initial cent of a and 83 per cent of b by volumes.

Equal volumes (weighed quantities) of oil and solvent were mixed in shallow dishes, and weighed at intervals during their exposure to the atmosphere.

By means of blank experiments made with non-drying oil of similar specific gravity to the linseed oil, the approximate amount of each solvent retained by the oil at any given time was determined, and deducted from the gross increase in weight, the nett figures so adduced representing the actual increase in weight (i.e., the amount of oxidation)

of the oil in every case.

The results indicate that

1. Except in the case of raw oil, neither solvent accelerates the drying to any marked degree; but since the addition of a solvent is necessary in practice (as the oil cannot be used alone), turpentine is, on the whole, the

most suitable.

2. Suitable turpentine substitutes (such as the mixture of petroleum hydrocarbons and turpentine used in the experiments) may possess such relatively high efficiency as to warrant their employment for many purposes in place of

pure turpentine.

"Extraneous Mineral Matter in Rice." By F. W. RICHARDSON.

The author deals with the general question of the "facing" of rice, and describes a process for determining the amount of extraneous siliceous mineral matter which has certain advantages over the method of Krzizan. Numbers are given showing the results obtained by the author's process, and also indicating the amount of natural and extraneous mineral matters obtained from various kinds of rice.

Secret Commissions and Bribery Prevention League (Incorporated).-At the Annual Meeting of the League, Mr. David Howard was re-elected Vice-President, and Mr. J. F. L. Brunner, M.P., Mr. Charles Charleton, Mr. J. T. C. Winkfield, and Mr. W. Wotherspoon were elected members of the Council.

in

material in this research, was prepared by dissolving TiO2
tion, filtering off the salt formed, and re-crystallising. It could
pure hydrofluoric acid, adding concentrated potash solu-
with acid potassium fluoride. By fusing potassium titanium
also be prepared more cheaply and quickly by fusing rutile
fluoride with aluminium in a graphite crucible aluminides
of titanium were obtained. The initial material was then
twice reduced with sodium, treated with alcohol, and then
with water.
metric, titrimetric, and volumetric methods were employed.
To analyse the material thus obtained gravi-
It was found that in order to determine titanium in presence
of iron it was best first to estimate the iron alone, and then
the iron and titanium together. To separate titanium and
aluminium, titanium, iron, and aluminium were first pre-
cipitated with ammonia, acetic acid was added, and after
warming the insoluble titanium precipitate was separated
off. Aluminium and titanium could also be separated by
titrimetric method of determining titanium was also em-
fusion with equal parts of soda and borax. Newton's
ployed in the analysis, and the well known colorimetric
method was found very rapid, if rather wanting in accuracy.
The results of the analyses showed that after two reduc-
tions the material contained about 86 per cent of titanium.
Technical material contained about 82 per cent, and the
aluminides an average of 54 per cent.
In order to prepare
fused titanium the material was forced by great pressure
into the form of a rod, and fused in the electric arc by
means of a small current (15-20 amp.). Thus a hard
silver grey melt was obtained. The fused substance is
soluble only in aqua regia on warming; it reacts with
hydrofluoric acid and mixtures of this acid with nitric acid
and hydrochloric acid. By fusion with potassium bisul-
phate a clear solution can be obtained. It burns with a
white flame in chlorine, and explodes on warming with
oxidising agents. The fragments and powder are good
conductors of electricity. It is not attacked by alkalis.
On burning in oxygen it takes up 29.85 per cent of oxygen
(TiO2 contains 39'93 per cent). The nitride obtained by
heating in nitrogen contains 21 95 per cent N (calculated
for TiN 22:58. The atomic heat is 6.83.

(Fourn. Am. Chem. Soc., xxxi., 390), having a "constant"
boiling point is capable of use as a basis for volumetric
work.
distilling, a point is soon reached where the degree of
Starting with an acid of almost any strength, and
acidity in the retort and that condensed holds the same
strength of acid. At 760 mm. pressure the density (at
25° C.) is 10962, and the strength 20-242 per cent HCl,
or 180 17 grms. of distillate will contain 36 47 grms. HCI.
The boiling-point is 108.54° C. The variations due to
changes of barometric pressure likely to occur are not
The table given is :-
great.

Barometric

pressure.

Starting with an acid of specific gravity 110 after distilling over three-fourths, the succeeding distillate will not vary over one part in 1000 from the above figures.-Chemical Engineer, xi., No. 2.

phuric acid on warming. The authors have obtained three chlorides of osmium:-(1) OsC14, prepared by heating osmium in chlorine at a low temperature, and slowly cooling the yellowish brown vapours thus formed. It is a hygroscopic powder, which is hydrolysed by water. (2) OsCl3, formed on heating osmium in chlorine to a higher THURSDAY, 21st.-Royal Institution, 3. "The Himalayan Region," by temperature, and rapidly cooling the gaseous chloride. It is a brown exceedingly hygroscopic powder, which is very soluble in water. (3) OsCl2, obtained by heating the trichloride to 500° in an atmosphere of chlorine at 350 mm. pressure or in vacuo. It is a dark brown insoluble powder

Standard Hydrochloric Acid Solutions.-Standard SATURDAY, 23rd.-Royal Institution, 3. 'Bells, Carillons, and hydrochloric acid solutions, according to Hulett and Bonner

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Mdme. CURIE'S Thesis

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RADIO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES.

REPRINTED from the CHEMICAL NEWS.

CONTENTS.

Introduction.-Historical.-Chap. I. Radio-activity of Uranium and Thorium; Radio-active Minerals.-Chap. II. Method of Research.-Chap. III. Radiation of the New Radio-active Substances.-Chap. IV. Communication of Radio-activity to Substances Initially nactive.-Nature and Cause of the Phenomena of Radio-activity.

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