- Email: [email protected]
Utilization of nitre-cake
CURREXT
Ike.,1919.1
TOPICS.
837
Factory-blown ware of this high quality obtainable from abroad. is now being made in seven American factories that were in active operation for ordinary glass-making before the war. These manufacturers express confidence that they can maintain their industries without increase of the present duty of 45 per cent. ad valorem, but ask that the duty-free clause applicable to scientific institutions which are very large users of these forms of glassware owing to the students laboratories, be repealed and that all chemical glass-ware be made dutiable at the 45 per cent. rate. Here again, the expressions of chemists and officers of scientific Statistics show institutions are largely favorable to the repeal. that before the war the duty free importations amounted to about half of the value of the total imports based on the invoices. The Bureau of Standards has made thorough examinations of the American ware in comparison with the best foreign ware, and reports that all the former are superior to the Kavalier ware and equal or superior to the Jena ware for general laboratory use. H. L. GILBERT T. MORGAX. (Economic vol. ii, p. 238, IgIg.)-Nitrecake is the residue of the action of sulphuric acid upon sodium nitrate, and consists mainly of sodium acid sulphate. During the war British munition industries produced enormous quantities of this material, one factory alone having an output of over 200 tons per week, much of which was dumped into the sea. When the output was much smaller, as in peace-times, the material was utilized for the manufacture of salt-cake and hydrochloric acid, the former being employed in the Leblanc process for sodium carbonate. Some of the nitre-cake was converted into sodium sulphide, which is now used as a reducing agent in organic syntheses. Morgan sought for some methods which would utilize the su!phur as well as the sodium. He reviews the methods already known, and then describes a procedure devised by himself in wlhich the cake is used for the production of soda-lime and soda-lead glasses at one operation with recovery of the sullphur, either free or as sulphuric acid. It will suffice to describe briefly one of these procedures. Seventy-two grammes of nitre-cake, 100 grammes of sand, 20 grammes of limestone, and 4 grammes of wood charcoal, were heated in a fire-clay retort connected with a model of a leaden chamber. The fixed product was clear green glass, the volatile products were sulphuric acid, sulphur dioxide, and free sulphur. The heating was continued for twelve hours, but the bulk of the volatile products was evolved in the first two hours. The vdlatile products were then mixed with steam, air, and nitrous fumes for oxidation. The analytical figures show that over half the sul,phur can be recovered either as sulphuric acid or as the free element. Utilization
Proccediwgs,
of Nitre-Cake.
Royal
Dublin
Society,
H. L.
Ike.,1919.1
TOPICS.
837
Factory-blown ware of this high quality obtainable from abroad. is now being made in seven American factories that were in active operation for ordinary glass-making before the war. These manufacturers express confidence that they can maintain their industries without increase of the present duty of 45 per cent. ad valorem, but ask that the duty-free clause applicable to scientific institutions which are very large users of these forms of glassware owing to the students laboratories, be repealed and that all chemical glass-ware be made dutiable at the 45 per cent. rate. Here again, the expressions of chemists and officers of scientific Statistics show institutions are largely favorable to the repeal. that before the war the duty free importations amounted to about half of the value of the total imports based on the invoices. The Bureau of Standards has made thorough examinations of the American ware in comparison with the best foreign ware, and reports that all the former are superior to the Kavalier ware and equal or superior to the Jena ware for general laboratory use. H. L. GILBERT T. MORGAX. (Economic vol. ii, p. 238, IgIg.)-Nitrecake is the residue of the action of sulphuric acid upon sodium nitrate, and consists mainly of sodium acid sulphate. During the war British munition industries produced enormous quantities of this material, one factory alone having an output of over 200 tons per week, much of which was dumped into the sea. When the output was much smaller, as in peace-times, the material was utilized for the manufacture of salt-cake and hydrochloric acid, the former being employed in the Leblanc process for sodium carbonate. Some of the nitre-cake was converted into sodium sulphide, which is now used as a reducing agent in organic syntheses. Morgan sought for some methods which would utilize the su!phur as well as the sodium. He reviews the methods already known, and then describes a procedure devised by himself in wlhich the cake is used for the production of soda-lime and soda-lead glasses at one operation with recovery of the sullphur, either free or as sulphuric acid. It will suffice to describe briefly one of these procedures. Seventy-two grammes of nitre-cake, 100 grammes of sand, 20 grammes of limestone, and 4 grammes of wood charcoal, were heated in a fire-clay retort connected with a model of a leaden chamber. The fixed product was clear green glass, the volatile products were sulphuric acid, sulphur dioxide, and free sulphur. The heating was continued for twelve hours, but the bulk of the volatile products was evolved in the first two hours. The vdlatile products were then mixed with steam, air, and nitrous fumes for oxidation. The analytical figures show that over half the sul,phur can be recovered either as sulphuric acid or as the free element. Utilization
Proccediwgs,
of Nitre-Cake.
Royal
Dublin
Society,
H. L.