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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Leonard Darwin   7 January 1878

Brompton Barracks, | Chatham.

Jan 7th. 1878

Dear Father

The following is the work on the lamp black so far. Boiled 25 grains in water; filtered; obtained a clear solution with a very slight green tint; evaporated to dryness and a residue was left; this may have been oil that came through with the hot water; then I red heated the residue, and a good deal went away with badly smelling fumes; there only remained .08 grain   I think that this contained a trace of iron; and that most of it was some soda salt, but I cannot be sure.1 The result in numbers is

Percentage of organic matter that came through with the water—– 1.92
Percentage of inorganic matter soluble in water.—– 0.32
2.24

Your affec son | L. Darwin.

Footnotes

CD wanted to know the composition of an ointment that he had applied to the shoots of plants; see letter to W. W. Baxter, 6 January [1878].

Summary

LD’s chemical analysis of lamp-black.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11316
From
Leonard Darwin
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Brompton Barracks, Chatham
Source of text
DAR 209.8: 153
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11316,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11316.xml

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