II.—TWENTY-FIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “CHEMISTRY,” FROM PAGE 157 TO THE END OF THE BOOK.
76. Q. What are some of the most important uses of borax? A. In the manufacture of porcelain, and in other of the industrial arts, and as a remedial agency in medicine.
77. Q. In addition to the well known substances sodium and oxygen, what element does borax contain? A. A special and peculiar element, called boron.
78. Q. What are two of the most important sources of borax? A. Borax Lake, in California, and the borax lagos in Tuscany.
79. Q. What element constitutes about eighty per cent. of our atmospheric air? A. Nitrogen.
80. Q. As a simple and uncombined substance, by what is nitrogen characterized? A. By extreme inactivity. It does not burn; it does not support combustion; it can not be made to enter into chemical union with other substances, except by specially devised and circuitous processes.
81. Q. Of what is nitrogen a constituent? A. Of a very large number of compounds, which are themselves often characterized by a high degree of activity.
82. Q. What are two important compounds of nitrogen? A. Ammonia gas and nitric acid.
83. Q. In addition to oxygen and nitrogen what are some of the other substances always present in atmospheric air? A. Vapor of water, carbon di-oxide, and ammonia gas; minute quantities of a vast multitude of other gaseous substances; and it is likewise charged most of the time with still more minute quantities of solid dust materials of various kinds.
84. Q. To what do the principal explosives owe their activity to a very large degree? A. To the presence of nitrogen in them.
85. Q. What are the four explosives of chief importance? A. Gunpowder, the fulminates, gun cotton, and nitro-glycerine.
86. Q. What are the three principal constituents of gunpowder? A. Potassic nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur.
87. Q. Why is phosphorus a most interesting chemical element? A. Because of its exceptional chemical properties, the very important part it plays in the chemistry of animal and vegetable life, and its employment in the friction match.
88. Q. In what country is the manufacture of friction matches carried on to a very large extent? A. In Sweden; and that country, it is now stated, produces about seventy-five per cent. of all the matches made in the world.
89. Q. What is probably the most familiar and representative form of carbon? A. That known as charcoal.
90. Q. How is lamp-black produced? A. It is a product of the imperfect combustion of substances like oil, tar, resin, and the like, which are very rich in carbon.
91. Q. What are two well known compounds of carbon? A. Anthracite coal and bituminous coal.
92. Q. Of what origin do both of these combustibles, when carefully studied, show distinct evidences? A. Of their vegetable origin.
93. Q. What is the diamond? A. It is nearly pure carbon, crystallized.
94. Q. What are some of the other natural forms in which carbon is found in large quantities? A. In petroleum, marble, and limestone.
95. Q. When combined with oxygen alone, what two compounds only does carbon form? A. Carbon mon-oxide and carbon di-oxide.
96. Q. What is the material on which the manufacture of illuminating gas is based? A. Bituminous coal.
97. Q. In the distillation of coal for the manufacture of gas, what three distinct classes of substances are produced? A. Solids, which are left in the retorts; liquids, which are condensed in the various coolers; and gases, which pass on to the gas holder.
98. Q. What coloring matters are obtained from the liquids produced by these processes? A. Alzorine, affording Turkey red and other colors, and the well known analine colors.
99. Q. To what quantity does silicon exist in our globe? A. In a quantity equal to about one fourth its entire weight, including its atmospheres and its oceans.
100. Q. What is the principal earthy matter of our planet? A. The compound of silicon and oxygen, existing either alone in the form of sand, quartz crystal, and similar minerals, or else in combination with other well known abundant earth materials, such as oxides of calcium, magnesium, and aluminum.