Unpublished paper, 'On some electro-nitrogurets' by W R [William Robert] Grove

Description

Grove states that he has made many attempts to render permanent the 'ammoniacal amalgam', a substance formed by electrolysing solutions of ammonia or its salts with mercury at the cathode. He has succeeded in freezing it by means of solid carbonic acid, during which solidification, and also while in its solid state, it underwent no chemical change. He subsequently attempted to procure a permanent compound by electrolysing a solution of hydrochlorate of ammonia with an extremely fusible alloy at the cathode, but this attempt was unsuccessful. He explains how it then occurred to him, that by using an oxidable metal at the anode, which could be revived in conjunction with nascent hydrogen and nitrogen at the cathode, one or both of these elements might be combined with the solid metal, and so form permanent compounds.

Annotations in ink throughout. Marked on back as 'Archives 10 June 1841'.

Subject: Chemistry / Physics

Received 2 February 1841. Read 4 February 1841.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 4 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'On some electro-nitrogurets'.

Reference number

AP/25/8

Earliest possible date

1841

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

18 pages

Format

Manuscript