12 ABSTRACTS OF CHEMICAL PAPERS PUBLISHED IN BRITISH AND FOREIGN JOURNALS. General and Physical Chemistry. Measurement of the Chemical Action of Solar Light. By E. MARCHAND (J. Pharm. Chim. [4] xviii 417421). THE author believes that the method of Bunsen and Roscoe for measuring the chemical intensity of light by its action on chlorine and hydrogen leads to an exaggerated conception of the amount of chemical energy in the solar rays since tho work accomplished in this reaction is far greater than the total heat-force of the rays. He has devised an apparatus in which light acts on a solution of ferric chloride and oxalic acid. The chemical energy of the light is measured by the volume of carbonic anhydride evolved. This he states is strictly pro-portional to the energy expended 1C.C.of carbonic anhydride being equivalent to *0013X6 calometric degree. The rays most effective are those between 3' and G. [With chlorine and hydrogen the maximum effect is between G and H.] From his experiments at Fkcamp under a cloudless sky he has calculated the chemical energy of the sun for various seasons and latitudes. It appears that at the summer solstice the total energy per square meter in the twenty-four hours is for the equator 479 for the twenty-fifth parallel of latitude 657 and for the pole 498 calometric degrees. At the equinox the mean energy is at the forty-first parallel and amounts to 345'. Perfect transparency of the atmosphere is assumed. At Fdcamp the actual chemical energy received is reduced nearly one-half by imperfect transparency.No details are given. R.W. The Fluorescent and Absorption Spectra of the Uranium. Salts. By H. MORTON BOLTON and H. CARRINGTON (Chem. News xxviii 47 113 164). WHILE the present investigation was proceeding a memoir v as pub-lished by Becquerel in which he anticipated the authors hy recording the measurements of the spectra of many uranium salts. The authors therefore while publishing their work as an independent research lay no claim to aoy of the results previously obtained by t,he above-men- tioned physicist. A ray of light after passing through a tank containing a solution of ammonio-cupric sulphate was allowed to fall upon a test-tube or bottle containing a solution of the substance to be examined.The dispersed light was then observed by the spectroscope. Solid substances such its cr~stalsand powders were examined in a similar manner special GENERAL AND PHYSICAL CHEXTSTRT. arrangements being adopted to facilitate observation. The spectra both of fluorescence and absorption of 80 uranium compounds have been carefully measured and mapped the measurements detailed in the present paper being accompanied by drawings representing the appear- ance and position of some of the most characteristic spectra. The character of any one band is as a rule a type of all the bands in the same spectrum but different salts invariably give different spectra the latter being constant as long as the composition of the salt remains unaltered.A permanent change of appearance in the.spectrum was indeed so uniformly concomitant with change in composition that the authors in studying the action of heat upon a salt were enabled to predict by the persistency of the altered spectrum when a new salt of definite composition was obtained. The absorption-spectra of uranium salts (of which there are two kinds one related to the fluorescence and one not) were examined either b; throwing a pura spectrum upon a screen of the substance in question or upon the vertical side of a tank containing a solution. The latter method was considered the more accurate but some excel- lent results were obtained with a prepared screen 5y operating in the following manner :-A pinhole was made in the screen and the position of the latter adjusted in such a manner that the centre of the band fell on the pinhole ; the refrangibility of the light passing through the hole was then measured by a spectroscope placed behind the screen and the exact position of the centre of the band was thus obtained.From the fact that while the absorption-spectra of uranium acetate and of the double acetates vary greatly when examined in the solid but in solution present an identical spectrum the authors conclude that no double acetate can exist in solution in water but that they break up into their constituent salts. A similar coiiclusion was also drawn in the case of other salts such as the double sulphates and oxgchlorides. The effects produced by the application of heat were also studied.It was observed that in all cases it temporarily and in some cases per- manently modified fluorescent action. With many salts it caused a depression of some or all of their absorption-bands an effect which was most strikingly illustrated in the case of the double carbonates. This displacement of the absorption-bands by heat was measured in connection with seven salts and the results were tabulated. The addition of a little ether alcohol glucose sucrose or glycerin greatly reduces the fluorescence of a solution and a very small quari tity of hydrochloric acid destroys it entirely. The remainder of this lengthy memoir does not admit of useficl abstraction. Each uranium compound is examined singly and in detail ; the appearance of its spectrum aiid the best mode of observ- ing it is described; arid the measurements of the position of the bands both of fluorescence and absorption are tabulated.The neces- sary preparation of the pure uranium salts is also fully detailed. J. W. ABSTRACTS OF CHEMICAL PAPERS. Fluorescent Relations of certain Solid Hydrocarbons found in Petroleum Distillates. By HENRY (Phil. Mag. MORTON [.PI xlvi 89-1@2). INa former paper (p. 235 of this volume) the author refers to a hydro- carbon to which he gives the name “thallene.” When a beam of sunlight after passing through a cell containing ammonio-cupric sulphate falls upon solid thallene a fluorescent ligbt is emitted which gives a spectrum having the following characteris- tics:-There is a broad bright space in the orange and yellow then two green spaces separated by more or less brilliant bauds and finally a blue space.This spectrum differs from that of impure an thracene or chrysogen. The absoiaption spectrum of solid thallene differs from that of com-mercial anthracene in showing a double band near G and a third band at a much lower point than that shown by anthracene. When a sunlight spectrum is thrown on a card part of which is covered with filter-paper rubbed over with thallene the extra-violet spectmm as far as and even beyond H which is invisible on the white card appears very distinctly upon the greeii ground of the thalleiie-covered paper. Below F there is no fluorescent action. The spectrum on the thallene is not uniformly bright.The maxima of brightness are shown to correspond exactly with the absorption-bands before noticed. Thallene thus absorbs rays nearly all of which are converted into fluo-rescent not into heat motions. Thallene in solution fluoresces with a blue colour. The change from the green fluorescence of the solid is explained by the fact that all the bands are moved towards the more refrangible end of the spectrum? those bands which occupied the positions 6.8 8.4 and 9.8 (on Bunsen’s millimeter scale) being moved to 7.2 8.9 and 10.7 respectively in the spectrum of a solution in benzene. In an ethereal solution the bands are even more displaced that marked 6.8 in the solid having moved to 7.3. In a turpentine solution this displacement is not so great still less in olive oil less in benzene and least of all in carbon disulphide solution.The absorption-bands exhibit a similar displacement when a sunlight spectrum is thrown on the side of a crystal tank filled with solution of thnllene in benzene ; long trails of light are then seen running through the solution. There is a very faint olive-green trail (a)about E a very bright vivid green (6) at F a bright sky-blue (c) between F and G and a trail of an indigo tint (d) at G running into violet towards H. The light from the trails c and d examined by a hand spectroscope shows an upper blue band at. 10.7 which is wanting in the spectra of (b) this latter trail being placed at 9-9.15. This is in accordance with Stokes’s law. When thallene in solution is exposed to sunlight it loses its lower bnnd in five minutes and its upper double band in thirty minutes.Xxposed in a hot sollition for ten minutes near the focus of a large lens and allowed to cool thnllene deposits crystals of a light greyish- white colour. This substance called “petrollucene ” by the author GENERAL AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. exhibits a spectrum whose bands occur in positions only slightly more elevated than those of an ethereal solution of thallene. M. M. P. M. Onthe Chemical Action of the Galvanic Current and on the Distribution of the Free Electricity on the Surface of the Conductors. By E. EDLUND (Pogg. Ann. cxlix 87-99). THE author develops his hypothesis that the electrical current is essen- tially a movement of the ether.He deduces from it that the power of chemical decomposition is proportional to the intensity of the current and independent of the cross section of the electrolysed liquid. From the property which the ether has in common with gases to propagate pres-sure equally in all directions it can be deduced that the current inten- sity is proportional to the electromotive force and indirectly proportional to the resistance. The following'are the fundamental ideas of the author with regard to the part which the ether plays in electrical phenomena:-From our knowledge of the native of light we conclude that all bodies possess the power of attracting the ether-molecules and condensing them in their interior until the attraction of the body for the external ether is in eqtii- librium witk the repulsioii of the condensed against the external ether- molecules.Under ordinary circumstances the molecules of matter do not exert any influence upon the ether surrounding them. When dif- ferent atoms containing different quantities of ether unite the ether of both is equally distributed over the molecule one of the atoms losing and the other gaining a portion of ether. That atom which now con- tains less ether than in the free state will be attracted by external ether-molecules whilst the other will be repelled. In accordance with this is the phenomenon that whenever two heterogeneous bodies come into contact with each other one of them becomes positively and the other negatively electric. In a weak electrical current traversing an electrolyte we niay have merely a rearrangement of' the ether-molecules.In a row of water-molecules for instance the ether will within the molecules move from the oxygen to the hydrogen atoms and also from one molecule to the next one in the series ; but in a strong current the ether will move with sufficient force to sever the constituents of water and to cause that series of decompositions and recompositions which in Grotthussen's hypothesis is supposed to take place in an electrolyte traversed by an electric current. R. S. Continuation of Thermic Researches on the Condensation of Gases by Solid Bodies; Absorption of Hydrogen by Platinum Black. By P. A. FAVRE (Compt. rend. Ixxvii 649- 656). THEauthor has endeavoured to show that electrolytic hydrogen is an allotropic active modification of that elenient and that in passing into the ordinary form it disengages 4,600 heat-units.He also proves that the absorption of hydrogen by palladium gives rise to a true alloy since ABSTRACTS OF CHEMICAL PAPERS. the heat developed by the combination (9,000units) is the same for the last as for the first portion of hydrogen added. On the other hand the absorption of hydrogen by platinum (and of other gases by charcoal) are merely cases of capillary affinity in which the gas may be supposed to form a layer whose density diminishes with increased distance from the surface of the solid. This is indicated by the fact that the later portions of gas absorbed evolve less heat than the earlier.The com- plete saturation of platinum-black with hydrogen (24 volumes) disen- gages about 20,700 heat-units for one gram of hydrogen absorbed. Now on considering what t.akes place on electrolysiiig dilute sulphuric acid with (1) a. zinc-palladium couple and (2) with one of zinc-platinum it will be seen that in the former case the hydrogen must enter into combination in the active state since it has not been able to pass into the ordinary gaseous condition ;but in the lather the hydrogen liberated in the active state transforms itself immediately into the ordi- nary modification. In spite of the heat absorbed during its passage from the liquid state into the gaseous (which as indicated by the absorption experiments with platinum-black must be considerable) this change evolves 4,600 beat-units.The absorption of active hydro-gen by platinnm-black ought therefore to develop about 25,300 heat-units and this experiment the author proposes to make. These considerations and some former results are brought to bear upon the thermic relations of the formaltion of water. The author regards the elements of water as present in that compound in the uctive state and he points out the complicated nature of the thermic reactions in\-olved in the formation of water for the study of which process bufficient data do not at present exist. M. J. S. An Example of the Quick Diffusion of a Gas into a Heavier Gas underlying it. By M. v. PETTENKOFER (Zeitschrift fur Biologie ix 245-249).ATthe Marienquelle of Marienbad which spring is enclosed by a slight wooden structure and from which gas is continually being given off in quantity estimated as being equal to a layer over its surface of 360 centimeters in an hour the author found in the gas obtained from under the surface of the water 70 per cent. of carbo.1 dioxide ; at a height of 5 centimeters from the surface the air contaiued only 31 per cent. at 25 centimeters 23 per cent. at 100 centimeters 2 per cent. and at 145 centimeters not more than 4 a per cent. of carbon dioxide. E. I(. Specific-gravity Bottle for Liquids Spontaneously Inflam- mable in Contact with Air. By A. TRIBE(Phil. Mag. [4], xlvi 308). THEbottle usually employed for specific-gravity determinations con- sists essentially of a light flask with a perforated stopper.Regnault introduced a solid stopper and made the neck somewhat longer and INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. narrower. The author makes the neck of as even a bore as possible, and divides it into as many equal parts as can conveniently be read. “ When once the water-values have been determined for each division on the neck it is only necessary to fill the bottle so that the surface of the liquid shall fall within the range of the graduations. Another advantage is that the contents can be raised or lowered to the normal temperature and the volume read off without addition or subtraction of liquid.” G. T. A.