Home › Chemical Receipts › Miscellaneous (Explode After these tests)

Miscellaneous (Explode After these tests)

explode. After these tests the remains of the same powder were sifted, and the glass cleared from it, when, at the slightest touch of a match, the whole compound went off at a flash. But the most remarkable of the experiments was the placing of a four-pound keg of prepared gunpowder on the top of a small portable furnace, in full process of ignition. Under ordinary circumstances, such an attempt would have produced a terrible explosion; but here in a very few minutes it was seen to be perfectly harmless. The hoops of the keg soon fell apart and the powder dropped in the fire, almost extinguishing it.

The addition of ground glass has no chemical effect, but it acts mechanically. The glass separates the grains of powder, and prevents continuous combustion. Each grain is consumed by itsself, and does not communicate sufficient force to its neighbor to render the latter dangerous. Mixed in heavier proportions, the gunpowder will scarcely burn; and by uniting four parts of ground glass with one of gunpowder, the latter is rendered as incombustible as a stone.

The importance of this discovery can scarcely be estimated. It is one of the greatest safeguards of human life ever discovered. It will render the powder magazine harmless, and prevent those frequent and terrible events resulting in the loss of life, which have sent misery and woe through many communities. This discovery was made by Mr. James Gale, of Plymouth, England, a blind man, who, in happier days, ere vision was denied him, had been extensively engaged in scientific pursuits.

To prevent and correct Rancidity in Vegetable and Animal Oils.

A small quantity of nitric ether ("sweet spirits of nitre") mixed with the crude oil, carries off all the disagreeable odor of rancidity, whilst by subsequently warming the oil so treated, the spirituous ingredient is removed and the oil becomes sweet and limpid. A few drops of nitric ether added to a bottle of oil when first opened serves as a constant preventive to rancidity.

Fatty bodies in a globular state may be kept a long time without becoming rancid. This peculiar state can be imparted to fatty matters by melting them at 130° Fahr. and adding a small quantity of yolk of egg, or bile, or albuminous substances, or best, a solution of alkali, composed of 5 to 10 parts for every 100 of oil, at the same temperature. The whole is then agitated for some time to bring the fatty matter into a globular condition.

A New Hydraulic Cement.

At a sitting of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, December 4, 1865, it was announced that a very valuable hydraulic cement may be obtained by heating dolomite, commonly known as "magnesian limestone," to between 575° and 750° Fahr., or below a dull redness, powdering the calcined mass, and making it into a paste with water. This forms under water a stone of extraordinary hardness, which, when once set, is not affected in the slightest degree either by fresh or sea-water. He also found that a mixture of magnesia with powdered chalk or marble-dust forms with water a plastic mass, which, by exposure in water for some time, becomes converted into a kind of extremely hard artificial marble.

Clay for Modelling and Luting. ence of plasticity, being neither hardened by cold nor softened by heat.