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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished paper, 'On the chemical activity of nitrates' by Edmund J [James] Mills

Reference number: AP/52/9

Date: 1870

Description

In the course of his researches upon nitro-compounds, Mills found it extremely desirable to submit the genetic relations of those bodies to a detailed examination; in other words, to trace the modifications undergone by nitryl as it is transmitted (from the chloride, hydrate, or free radical) through an adequate succession of combinations. One of the first steps in this direction is the preparation of nitrylic chloride, which can be most easily effected, according to a statement in Watts’s Dictionary of Chemistry, by the action of phosphoric oxychloride on plumbic nitrate— 3Pb (NO3)2 + 2PO Cl3 = Pb3 (PO4)2 + 6 NO2 CI.

Subject: Chemistry

Received 21 April 1870. Read 19 May 1870. Communicated by A W [Alexander William] Williamson.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 18 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the chemical activity of nitrates'.

Reference number
AP/52/9
Earliest possible date
1870
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
24 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Edmund James Mills

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Citation

Edmund James Mills, Unpublished paper, 'On the chemical activity of nitrates' by Edmund J [James] Mills, 1870, AP/52/9, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_52_9/unpublished-paper-on-the-chemical-activity-of-nitrates-by-edmund-j-james-mills, accessed on 20 March 2025

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    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

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