Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/433

418 warm rays are reflected by gold, in preference to the others contained in white light.

The supernatant fluid in specimens that had stood long and deposited, was always ruby; yet because it showed no dissolved gold, because it showed the illuminated cone by the lens, and because by standing ruby clouds settled in it, there was every reason to believe that the gold was there in separated particles, and that such specimens afforded cases of extreme division, which by long standing would form deposits of the finest kind.

Those fluids which on standing gave abundance of deposits, transmitting blue light, consisted in the first instance of particles transmitting a ruby light, and in these cases it would seem that the particles at their first separation were always competent to transmit this ruby light; and if the preparation were not too rich in gold, the ruby condition appeared to be retained, the division being then most extreme. But purple or amethystine fluids could be procured, which, containing no colouring particles other than suspended gold, still retained them in suspension for many months together, so that they must have been as light or as finely divided as those in the ruby fluids. When the phosphorous ether was employed for the reduction of the gold, such fluids occurred; also when the solution of the phosphorus in sulphide of carbon was used, provided the solution of gold had a very little chloride of sodium contained in it. They appear to show that the mere degree of division is not the only circumstance which determines the aptitude to transmit in preference this or that ray of light.

Considering the fluids as owing their properties to diffused particles, it may be observed, that many of them which in small quantities in the dark tube transmit an amethystine light, send forward a ruby light when the quantity is increased; and this appears to be the general progression. I have not found any which by increase in quantity tended to transmit the blue rays in preference to the red.

Elevation of temperature had an effect upon these fluids which is advantageous in their preparation. On boiling an apparently clear ruby fluid for some time, its colour passed a little towards amethystine, and on boiling a like amethystine fluid, its tint passed towards blue. The separation of the gold particles was also facilitated, for now they would settle in three