CHAPTER XII SODIUM

itself by the appearance of a blue flame. Thus from a mass containing sodium sulphate we obtain a mass which includes sodium carbonate, calcium sulphide, and calcium oxide, but none of the sodium sulphide which was formed on first heating the mixture. The entire process, which proceeds at a high temperature, may be expressed by a combination of the three above-mentioned formulæ, if it be considered that the product contains one equivalent of calcium oxide to two equivalents of calcium sulphide. The sum of the reactions may then be expressed thus: 2Na 2 SO 4 + 3CaCO 3 + 9C = 2Na 2 CO 3 + CaO,2CaS + 10CO. Indeed, the quantities in which the substances are mixed together at chemical works approaches to the proportion required by this equation. The entire process of decomposition is carried on in reverberatory furnaces, into which a mixture of 1,000 parts of sodium sulphate, 1,040 parts of calcium carbonate (as a somewhat porous limestone), and 500 parts of small coal is introduced from above. This mixture is first heated in the portion of the furnace which is furthest removed from the fire-grate; it is then brought to the portion nearest to the fire-grate, when it is stirred during heating. The partially fused mass obtained at the end of the process is cooled, and then subjected to methodical lixiviation to extract the sodium carbonate, the mixture of calcium oxide and sulphide forming the so-called ‘soda waste’ or ‘alkali waste.’