Of niter

Salpetergeist, m. spirit of niter (old name for nitric acid). — verstisster —, see versiissen. 

In his researches on iron in plants, Lemery also discovered that by dissolving iron filings in spirit of niter [nitric acid], he could make an iron plant or tree of Mars. When Tsar Peter the Great visited the Academy, Lemery showed him this curious chemical vegetation. The... 

In 1789 Dr M. Wall of Oxford, recalling Scheele s experiments on tartar, added some "Glauber s spirit of nitre to cream of tartar dissolved in boiling water. By careful evaporation of the solution, he obtained well-formed crystals of niter (saltpeter). He concluded that cream of... 

In a later passage Lemery observes the odd fact that the acid of sea salt (hydrochloric) will precipitate mercury previously dissolved by another acid, the spirit of niter (nitric acid) ... 

Note that almost any chemical change might be explained in terms of mechanical action of imaginary jostling of points and pores. But such an explanation has no predictive power at all it is all made up after the event. How does he know that the acid of sea salt has grosser points than the acid of niter In his mind it would have to have grosser points in order to precipitate the mercury. The circular reasoning is implicit, but obvious to us. 

Lemery describes the preparation of the red precipitate of mercury by first dissolving metallic mercury in spirit of niter (nitric acid). The product is dried, then heated further to form the red precipitate (mercuric oxide) ... 

Niter or saltpeter is an important material and has its own chapter (Chapter Four). Its importance lies chiefly as the source of the spirit of niter (nitric acid), and quite a lot of its chemical behavior was known. 

The spirit of Wine doth very well serve to dulcifie the Spirit of Niter for being a Sulphur, it easily joyns with the acid points, and renders them uncapable of corroding as they did before. 

To make the other acids, the appropriate salt, sea salt (sodium chloride), or niter (potassium nitrate), was ground fine and thoroughly mixed with potters clay, rolled into balls, and placed in a proper container for distillation. The function of the clay is to divide the parts of the salt and make it easier for the acids to be distilled off, which combining with moisture in the air form the solution called the acid spirit of sea salt or of niter, as the case might be. If the apparatus is properly arranged, the solution can be collected in a receiver. The reason why the clay is unnecessary in the production of Acid spirit of vitriol is that Vitriol contains earth enough. ... 

Acid spirits are Salts turned fluid by the force of fire, which hath disengaged them from their more terrestrious part, and they be revived again by pouring them upon some Alkali for example, the Spirit of Vitriol remaining some time upon Iroriy doth re incorporate into Vitriol, and the Spirit of Niter, poured upon the Salt of Tartar makes a Salt-... 

The potassium nitrate used in gunpowder was originally obtained from natural mineral deposits of niter. Small quantities formed as efflorescence deposits on damp stone walls were... 

And considering the action of niter heated with antimony, he says ... 

In the case of niter, it should be recrystallized from rainwater several times, allowing it to absorb the moisture of the air in between crystallizations, at the very least. An even better trick is to recrystallize the commercial product after solution in fresh urine followed by crystallization from rainwater. 

For example, we can combine equal parts of niter and vitriol and add 1/3 part of Alum, then distill up to about 800°C. This will yield (about 20% by weight of the solids) a solution of nitric acid with a concentration around 50% HNO3. 

An example is the mixing of niter and sal ammoniac as powders, to which is added a metal to be dissolved. A few drops of rain water will help get the reaction going. This mixture will generate Aqua Regia slowly and dissolve the metal. 

Other methods of obtaining the Regulus include the use of niter in the mixture, For example, twelve parts stibnite, five parts iron filings, six parts niter, and nine parts raw tartar. Even small iron nails can be used for the reduction in place of iron filings. 

The Regulus, once obtained, is ground and mixed with twice its weight of niter, then fused again in a crucible to purify it. This purification may be repeated several times in order for the starry qualities to develop in the metal. This Star Regulus of Antimony is also called the Martial Regulus because of the iron used in its production. 

To Make Touch Paper.—Dissolve % ox of niter in H pt. of hot water. Procure some 13 lb., double crown blue, cut each sheet into four equal parts, fifteen by ten. Lay them smooth upon each other, and, with a sash tool dipped Into the niter solution, wash them over on one side, and hang them up to dry. 

A spirit of niter spirit of salt spirit of vitriol... 

Lemery defined precipitation as an expression chemists used to describe the fall of a body which had been suspended dissolved in a liquid from which it has been subsequently disunited. Although Fontenelle construed this as a physical definition based on the principles of hydrostatics, Lemery used it to differentiate true metallic precipitates, or the products of displacement reactions, from false ones. One could obtain false precipitates, or the matters that lost their initial metallic form and were reduced to a friable and indissoluble mass, in several ways. Calcination (red and violet mercury), incomplete dissolution in acids (antimony in spirit of salt or in regal water), and calcination after dissolution and evaporation (mercury in spirit of niter), all produced such precipitates. True metallic precipitates differed from false ones in that they were directly separated from their dissolution in liquid. As Lemery put it, false precipitates were abandoned by the liquid, while true precipitates abandoned the liquid themselves. True precipitates were made sometimes naturally through agitation, but mostly with recourse to the intermediates such as alkali salts or other metals. The choice of intermediates depended on the nature of the bodies to be precipitated. Lemery provided an exhaustive discussion for each case. In order to precipitate a resinous matter dissolved in spirit of wine, one could use common water which, by meshing intimately with the spirit, would precipitate the resinous matter. Camphor in spirit of wine could thus be... 

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