Nickelous Oxide. NiO. Syn. Protoxide of nickel. Prep. 1. By heating the nitrate, carbonate, or oxalate, to redness in open vessels. Anhydrous.
Nickelous Sulphate. NiSO4. Syn. Sulphate of nickel. Prep. Dissolve nickelous carbonate or oxide in dilute sulphuric acid, evaporate down, and crystallise. Pale green prismatic crystals, and of the formula NiSO4,7Aq., or small pale green octahedrons, when crystallised at a higher temperature, containing NiSO4,6Aq.
Nickelous and Potassium Sulphate. NiSO4 K2SO4,6Aq. Syn. Double sulphate of nickel and potassium. Prep. By crystallising a mixture of nickelous and potassium sulphates. Pale green crystals, readily soluble in water. Sodium and ammonium sulphates form similar compounds with nickelous sulphate.
NICK′EL SIL′VER. See German silver.
NIC′OTINE. C10H14N2. Syn. Nicotina, Nicotia, L. A volatile base, discovered by Reiman and Posselt in tobacco.
Prep. (Ortigosa.) Infuse tobacco leaves for 24 hours in water acidulated with sulphuric acid, strain, evaporate to a syrup, add 1⁄6 of its volume of a strong solution of potassa, and distil in an oil bath at 288°, occasionally adding a little water to assist the process, and prevent the too great concentration of the solution of potassa in the retort; next saturate the distilled product with oxalic acid, evaporate to dryness, digest in boiling absolute alcohol, evaporate the resulting tincture to a syrup, and decompose the oxalate of nicotine thus obtained by adding potassa to it in a close vessel, and agitate the mass with ether, repeating the process with more ether until all the nicotine is dissolved out; lastly, distil the mixed ethereal solution in an oil bath. At first ether comes over, then water, and, lastly, nicotina, which, towards the end of the process, assumes a yellowish tint.
2. (Schloesing.) This chiefly differs from the preceding by directing the concluding distillation to be conducted in a retort, by the heat of an oil bath, at the temperature of 284° Fahr., in a current of hydrogen, for 12 hours; after which, by raising the heat to 356° Fahr., the nicotine distils over pure, drop by drop.
3. (Kirchmann). A tin vessel provided with two tubulures, is filled with tobacco, which is previously damped with sodium carbonate. One of the tubulures admits a glass tube reaching nearly to the bottom of the vessel; the other is provided with a glass tube merely penetrating the cork.
The vessel is made air-tight, placed into a boiling hot steam bath, and a rapid stream of
carbonic acid gas passed through it, entering the vessel by the longer and leaving it by the shorter tube; the latter dips into a mixture of alcohol and dilute sulphuric acid.