Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ... late as 1865 it was prepared in small quantities only, and was used mostly as samples in teaching chemistry. The price then was about $16 per pound, while to-day it costs not far from 25 cents per pound. Tests. -- Free bromine is recognized by its odor and color and by its action on carbon disulphide when in water solution. When its water solution is shaken with ether or chloroform, characteristically colored solutions are produced. IODINE. Occurrence in Nature.-- Iodine do'es not occur in nature as a free element, its chemism causing it always to unite with some other element. Its compounds occur in small quantities in sea-water, and in the bodies of both animals and plants living in sea-water; e.g. in sponges, the livers of certain fishes, in oysters, and in sea-weed. It is always found in Chili saltpetre, combined with silver in Mexico, and in sea-water. Seaweed is one of its principal sources. Methods of Preparation. -- In the preparation of any substance for commercial purposes, the cost of manufacture decides the source from which the crude material shall come and the process by which it shall be prepared, providing there are several sources from which it may be procured. Various kinds of sea-plants assimilate the compounds containing iodine, thus virtually condensing the sea-water, so far as this substance is concerned. The gathering and burning of the weeds, after the storms have thrown them on the shore, forms the occupation of a large number of persons living on the coast of Ireland and Scotland and France. In the early part of this century the ashes of these sea-weeds sold for about $100 per ton; but owing to the discovery of iodine in Chili saltpetre, this method for its production has been quite largely superseded. The...
