Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/62

1820.] the fluid, and renders it yellow. Having proceeded thus far, by the careful application of a lamp and blowpipe, the bent part of the tube may be separated from that within the furnace, and the end closed, so as to form a small retort; and on distilling the fluid four or five times from one angle to the other, all the chlorine may be driven off without any loss of the substance, and it becomes limpid and colourless. It still, however, always contains some per chloride, which has escaped decomposition; and, to separate this, I have boiled the fluid until the tube was nearly full of its vapour, and then closing the end that still remained open, by a lamp and blowpipe, have afterwards left the whole to cool. It is then easy, by collecting all the fluid into one end of the tube, and introducing that end through a cork into a receiver, under which a very small flame is burning, to distil the whole of the fluid at a temperature very little above that of the atmosphere. The solid chloride being less volatile does not rise so soon, and the pure proto-chloride collects at the external end of the tube. To ascertain its purity, a drop may be placed on a glass plate; it will immediately evaporate, and if it contains per chloride, that substance will be left behind; otherwise, no trace will remain on the glass. The presence or absence of free chlorine may be ascertained by dissolving a little of the fluid in alcohol or æther, and testing by nitrate of silver.

The pure protochloride of carbon is a highly limpid fluid, and perfectly colourless. Its specific gravity is 1.5526. It is a non-conductor of electricity. I am indebted to Dr. Wollaston for the determination of the refractive power of this chloride, and for the approximation to the refractive power given of the per chloride. In the present case it is 1.4875, being very nearly that of camphor. It is not combustible. except when held in a dame, as of a spirit-lamp, and then it burns with a bright yellow light, much smoke, and fumes of muriatie acid.

It does not become solid at the zero of Fahrenheit's scale. When its temperature is raised under the surface of water to between 160° and 170°, it is converted into vapour, and remains in that state until the temperature is lowered. When heated more highly, as by being passed over red-hot rock crystal in a glass tube, a small portion is always decomposed;