METHYL An organic radical, homologous with Elam. C,H.
It is the lowest term in the series C,, Like ethyl it forms every numerous class of compounds, but they have not been so completely investigated as those of the latter radical. • Methyl is obtained by acting upon iodide of methyl with zinc, in precisely the same way as described under the preparation of ETHYL.
Methyl is a colourless gas, of specific gravity 1•0365. It burns with a bluish, scarcely luminous flame, is almost insoluble in water, and only slightly so in alcohol. It Is colourless and tasteless, and is not liquefied at a temperature of 0' Fehr. Neither concentrated sulphuric said, fuming nitric acid, nor caustic potash, act upon it It does not combine directly with oxygen, sulphur, or iodine, nor in the dark with chlorine • but when two volumes of the latter gas and one of methyl are expo:ied to diffused daylight, a mixturo of hydrochloric acid gas and seesseehier-methyl (CO I,C1 is produced, no condensation occurring.
Hydride of methyl Light earburetted hydrogen ; Srloarlaeretted hydriven ; !omen ; Marsh-gas, or Firs-damp.
The lad two are the names for this gas in its heat known form. It sometimes issues, for months together, from a fissure In a coal seam, rushing forth as if escaping from under high pressure. " Blowers" is the name given by the miners to those natural discharge. of fire-damp. They are sometimes so numerous In a mine that it could not be safely worked were it not for the use of the safety-lamp, discovered by Sir If. Davy. [Lahr, sarrrv.] ply its mean, the miner in enabled to work in atmospheres that would be set fire to were his source of light a naked name.
Hydride of methyl is also one of the gaseous exhalations from marshes and stagnant pools, and hence the name of marsh-gem The bubbles of gas that rise to the surface when the mud at the bottom of a pond Ie stirred with a stick conand chiefly of marsh gas.
Hydride of methyl may be artificially prepared by strongly heating a mixture of four parts of crystallised acetate of soda, four of solid hydrate of potash, and six of powdered quicklime.
Hydride of methyl is colourless, inodorous, tasteless, and insoluble In water. Specific gravity Air containing a large per-centago of it may be inhaled, for almost any length of time, without producing the slighted apparent injury. It is inflammable, burning with a yellow,
somewhat feebly luminous flame, the products of combustion being carbonic acid and water. For this combustion twice its bulk, or two voliimee, of oxygen are neceseary, one volume of carbonic and two of steam leashing. inasmuch, !weever, as this oxygen is, in tho case of colliery explosions, obtained from the air, and as moreover air only contains one-fifth of its bulk of oxygen (the remaining four.fifths being nitrogen, which alone cannot support life), it follows that the buruing of fire-demp is Immediately attended with the complete venetian of ten times its bulk of air, the production of an equal quantity of suffocating gas, and the consequent vitiation of the whole atmos phere in the neighbourhood. The effect of such a state of things is, unhappily, only too well known to the miner, who fears the after damp, or (holy-damp as he calls it, perhaps more than ho does the explosion Itself.
(.ride of methyl Jfcthylie ether. This body corro spends to the ordinary ether, or correctly speaking ethylie ether, of the ETHYL series of compounds. It is also produced in a similar manner, namely, by submitting to distillation a mixture of meths-lie alcohol and sulphuric, acid. Unlike cthylie ether, however, methylie ether is at ordinary temperatures a permanent gee. When cooled to 65' below the Ireexing point of water, by moaned a mixture of snow and chloride of calcium, it condenses to a liquid, the boiling point of which is — 6° Fehr. (Berthollot). Its specific gravity is 1317. It is inflammable, burning with a pale flame, is soluble in water to tho extent of thirty seven times its bulk, and still more soluble in alcohol. It is colourless, has an oppressive ethereal odour and pungent taste, properties also possessed by its solutions. From its formula it will be observed that metbylio ether is isomeric with common ; in vapour-density the two are also identical. Methylie ether dissolves in strong sulphuric acid, but is again evolved on dilution. Anhydrous sulphuric) acid com bines with it, and forms sulphate of methyl.