Saltpeter solution

Autograph of Bernard Courtois (1794). Translation I have received from D orgeu township SO casks of saltpeter solution which they have drawn from their property and which they have asked me to take because they have no one sufficiently trained to extract the saltpeter from it. Dijon the 11th of Messidor, tire 2nd year of the Republic, one and indivisible. B. Courtois, son.. . . He was seventeen years old when he wrote this receipt. 

A glass or two of this water is added whenever you see that it threatens to rise and form a foam. The saltpeter solution is boiled until it becomes clear and of bluish color indicating that most of the water has been evaporated. It is then drawn off and placed in casks and allowed to solidify. It is then placed in wooden casks and allowed to stay three or four days, and then decanted, either by inclining the vessel or by holes in the bottom. The decanted water is saved and reboiled. The solidified saltpeter is then chiseled out and washed with its own solution then placed on tables to dry thoroughly. ... 

J R. Glauber was probably the first to form artificial niter beds. By throwing putrefiable matter of both vegetable and animal origin into pits and adding wood ashes, he obtained in due time a saltpeter eaith from which he extracted a solution which, on evaporation, yielded crystals of this salt. Glauber believed that the function of die putrid material was merely to draw the niter from the air (41). 

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... 

Salt Bridge concentrated solution of electrolyte used to complete the circuit in an electrochemical cell that helps to equalize charge distribution in each half cell Saltpeter potassium nitrate, KNO3 Saponification conversion of a fat to soap by reacting with an alkali Saturated solution that contains the maximum amount of solute under a given set of conditions... 

Powder that has been damaged by moisture will flash badly even if the ingredients had been carefully incorporated originally. This is because the saltpeter had passed partially into solution and segregated into crystals of comparatively large size Ref Marshall 2(1917), 415-16... 

Figure 74.1 Saltpeter production in the Middle Ages. Soil saltpeter is leached with water in a tub (B) that contains a layer of sand in the bottom and a plug (C). Filtrate is collected in another tub (D) and is reduced in a copper vat (A), which is heated over a hearth. Reduced solution s placed in crystallization containers (E) where saltpeter crystallizes on copper sticks. From De Re Metallica (On the Nature of Metals) by Georgius Agricolla (1494-1555), published in 1556.

Robert Hooke, in 1665, was seemingly the next writer to advance the theory of the function of the air in combustion. Hooke concludes that there is a certain substance in the air, which is similar to, if not the same as, a substance contained in saltpeter. This substance has the power to dissolve all combustibles when they are sufficiently heated. Fire may be caused by this solution, which is not merely a phenomenon of motion. The products of this may be aerial, liquid, or solid. In saltpeter this substance is so condensed that there is more of it in a given space than in the same space of air. Combustion in a limited air space ceases when the quantity of this substance in the space is saturated.40 Hooke s promise to explain further this theory was never carried out. Hooke s explanation of combustion is at fault in his supposition of solution instead of combination, and his uncertainty as to what the substance is which in air or in saltpeter supports combustion. 

STIR. SOME OF THE ADDED SALTPETER DOES NOT DISSOLVE. CLEAR LIQUID IS SATURATED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. (AT 20 C., 6.3 g KNO, MAKES SATURATED SOLUTION IN 20 ml WATER.)... 

PLACE CUSTARD CUP OVER ALCOHOL BURNER. ADD 10 g MORE SALTPETER. SOON ALL SALTPETER IS DISSOLVED. AT HIGHER TEMPERATURES IT TAKES MORE SOLUTE TO MAKE A SATURATED SOLUTION. (AT BOILING, 20 ml H,0 DISSOLVES 49 g SALTPETER.)... 

Nitrate, Potassium nitrate, [CAS 7757-79-1], saltpeter, niter, KNO3. white solid, soluble, mp 333°C, formed by fractional crystallization of sodium nitrate and potassium chloride solutions. Used Cl) in matches, explosives, pyrotechnics, (2) in the pickling of meat. (3) in glass, (4) in medicines, (5) as a rocket-fuel oxidizer, and (6) in the heal treatment of steel. See also Fertilizer. 

Nitrate. Sodium nitrate, nitrate of soda, Chile saltpeter, caliche, [CAS 7631-99-4], NaN03, white solid, soluble, mp 308°C. source in nature is Chile, in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen HN03 is frequently transformed by sodium carbonate into sodium nitrate, and the solution evaporated. Used tl) as an important nitrogenous fertilizer, (2) as a source of nitrate and HNO3, (3) in pyrotechnics, (4) in fluxes,... 

A few lines above the anagram, the author sets down the composition of black powder in another manner. Take then of the bones of Adam (charcoal) and of the Calx (sulfur), the same weight of each and there are six of the Petral Stone (saltpeter) and five of the Stone of Union. The Stone of Union is either sulfur or charcoal, probably sulfur, but it doesn t matter for the context has made it evident that only three components enter into the composition. Of these, six parts of saltpeter are to be taken, five each of the other two. The little problem in algebra supplies a means of checking the solution cf the anagram, and it is evident that the passage ought to be read as follows ... 

In many nitrations, for example, of primary amines, the nitric acid must be completely tree from nitrous acid in such cases, before the nitric acid is used, or before it is mixed with the sulfuric acid, it should be freed from nitric oxide by blowing air through it (cf. nitration of p-toluidine, page 165). It is also possible to add saltpeter, instead of nitric acid, to the sulfuric acid solution this procedure is less satisfactory, however, because saltpeter is not readily soluble in uliFuric acid at low temperatures, and a steady reaction is hard to maintain. 

SYNS AMMONIUM NITRATE AMMONIUM NITRj TE, liquid (hot concentrated solution) (UN 2426) (DOT) AMMONIUM NITRATE, with >0.2% combustible substances (UN 0222) (DOT) AMMONIUM NITRATE, with not >0.2% of combustible substances (UN 1942) (DOT) AMMONIUM SALTPETER HERCO PRILLS NITRIC ACID, AMMONIUM SALT O VARIOFORMI... 

AgsIOg, etc. Sodium periodate, NaI04, a salt erf the second series, pccurs in small amounts in crude Chile saltpeter. A solution of sodium periodate usually crystallizes as Na HalOg, a salt of the first series. 

Manufacture. In former times sodium nitrate was produced by the recrystallization of Chile Saltpeter. After the material was dissolved in hot water, the sodium nitrate was allowed to crystallize out this contained many impurities and was hygroscopic-. Next a saturated solution of this material in water was prepared and a quantity of nitric acid was added to it to allow the sodium nitrate to recrystallize out of the liquor as fine crystals the nitric acid was removed by heating. 

It occurs as 1 in seawater and as an impurity in Chile saltpeter, KNO3. The best source is the brine from oil wells. Elemental iodine is produced from brine wells by the oxidation of I by CB. Elemental iodine is slightly soluble in water, but it dissolves well in iodide solutions because it reacts with aqueous I to form the triodide ion, 13 . 

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