ACETONE, or DINIETILYL KETONE, A colorless organic liquid boiling at 5t; .3 C., and having at 20° a specific gray ity of 0.7:11:. It is volatile and inflammable, has a pleasant ethereal odor, dissolves various organ ic• substances such as fats and resins, and mixes in all proportions with water, alcohol, and ether. It is separated from its aqueous solutions by incans of calcium chloride. It dissolves con siderable quantities of acetylene gas (q.v.), and absorbs a very large amount of sulphurous anhydride. It is used as a solvent as well as for the manufacture of chloroform, iodoform, etc. Acetone is produced when various organic substances are subjected to destructive distil lation; it is thus found in pyroligneous spirit (see :11EritYi. At.conot.) obtained by the dry distillation of wood. It is separated from wood spirit by distilling over calcium chloride. It is usually prepared by distilling ba rium acetate at a moderate heat, according to the follow ing chemical equation: (CII„C00),Ba = BaCO, Barium acetate Acetone The somewhat impure product obtained either from wood spirit or from barium acetate may be readily purified and dehydrated by the use of the acid sulphite of sodium, with which it com bines to form a crystalline solid compound.
Pure acetone is obtained from the latter by dis tilling with sodium carbonate. When acted on by chlorine in the presence of alkali, acetone is converted into chloroform. lodoform is sim ilarly produced by the action of iodine (in am monium iodide solution) and ammonia upon acet.m•, the reaction forming the most sensitive test for acetone that is known to chemists. When acetone is distilled with strong sulphuric acid, mcsitylene is produced; this reaction has been of great value in determining the chemical con stitution of a vast number of benzene derivatives allied to mesitylene. Acetone occurs in small quantities in the blood, and is present in the liquid over When urine is distilled. it has long been known to chemists as a product of distillation of aeetates its composition was first determined by Liebig and Dumas in 1832.