SODIUM n.
n salt, in albite, etc. It is isolated as a soft, waxy, white, unstable metal, so readily oxidized that it combines violently with water, and to be preserved must be kept under petroleum or some similar liquid. Sodium is used combined in many salts, in the free state as a reducer, and as a means of obtaining other meta…
SPANISH a.
f earth used in painting, having a dark reddish brown color, due to the presence of sesquioxide of iron. -- Spanish buckeye (Bot.), a small tree (Ungnadia speciosa) of Texas, New Mexico, etc., related to the buckeye, but having pinnate leaves and a three-seeded fruit. -- Spanish burton (Naut.), a purchase composed of…
STANNIC a.
g and dyeing; -- formerly called spirit of tin, or fuming liquor of Libavius. -- Stannic oxide, tin oxide, SnO2, produced artificially as a white amorphous powder, and occurring naturally in the mineral cassiterite. It is used in the manufacture of white enamels, and, under the name of putty powder, for polishing glas…
SULPHONIC a.
of a series of acids (regarded as acid ethereal salts of sulphurous acid) obtained by the oxidation of the mercaptans, or by treating sulphuric acid with certain aromatic bases (as benzene); as, phenyl sulphonic acid, C6H5.SO2.OH, a stable colorless crystalline substance. Sulphonic group (Chem.), the hypothetical radic…
SULPHUR n.
mation of sulphur salts according to the old dual theory of salts. [Archaic] -- Sulphur dioxide (Chem.), a colorless gas, SO2, of a pungent, suffocating odor, produced by the burning of sulphur. It is employed chiefly in the production of sulphuric acid, and as a reagent in bleaching; -- called also sulphurous anhydrid…
SULPHURIC a.
trasted with the sulphurous compounds; as, sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid. (a) Sulphur trioxide (see under Sulphur); -- formerly so called on the dualistic theory of salts. [Obs.] (b) A heavy, corrosive, oily liquid, H2SO4, colorless when pure, but usually yellowish or brownish, produced by the combined action of sulph…
SULPHUROUS a.
Having the characteristic odor of sulphur dioxide, or of hydrogen sulphide, or of other sulphur compounds. Sulphurous acid. (a) Sulphur dioxide. See under Sulphur. [Obs.] (b) An acid, H2SO3, not known in the free state except as a solution of sulphur dioxide in water, but forming a well-known series of salts (the sulph…
SUPER- n.
as in calcium superphosphate. It has been superseded by per-, bi-, di-, acid, etc. (as peroxide, bicarbonate, disulphide, and acid sulphate), which retain the old meanings of super-, but with sharper definition. Cf. Acid, a., Bi-, Di-, and Per-.