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double fluoride of beryllium and sodium or potassium with an excess of Crystal of beryl. beryllium fluoride. It is a malleable metal, of specific gravity 1.64 (Nilson and Pettersson) and a specific See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat of o•4079.

Its melting-point is below that of See also:

SILVER

silver. In a See also:

FINE

fine state of See also:

DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

division it takes See also:

FIRE (in O. Eng. f j'r; the word is common to West German languages, cf. Dutch vuur, Ger. Feuer; the pre-Teutonic form is seen in Sanskrit pu, pavaka, and Gr. irup; the ultimate origin is usually taken to be a root meaning to purify, cf. Lat. purus)

fire on heating in See also:

air, but is permanent at See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary temperatures in See also:

OXYGEN (symbol 0, atomic weight 16)

oxygen or air; it is readily attacked by hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but scarcely acted on by nitric See also:

ACID (from the Lat. root ac-, sharp; acere, to be sour)

acid. It is also soluble in solutions of the See also:

CAUSTIC (Gr. rcavvraubs, burning)

caustic alkalis, with See also:

EVOLUTION

evolution of hydrogen a behaviour similar to that shown by See also:

ALUMINIUM (symbol Al; atomic weight 27.0)

aluminium. It combines readily with See also:

FLUORINE (symbol F, atomic weight 19)

fluorine, See also:

CHLORINE (symbol Cl, atomic weight 35`46 (0=16)

chlorine and See also:

BROMINE (symbol Br, atomic weight 79-96)

bromine, and also with See also:

SULPHUR

sulphur, See also:

SELENIUM [symbol Se, atomic weight 79.2 (O=16)]

selenium, See also:

PHOSPHORUS (Gr. 4ws, light, sPEpety, to bear)

phosphorus, &c. Considerable, discussion has taken See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place at different times as to the position which beryllium should occupy in the periodic classification of the elements, and as to whether its atomic weight should be 9.1 or 13.65, but the weight of See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence undoubtedly favours its position in Group II., with an atomic weight 9.1 (0=16) (see Nilson and Pettersson, Berichte, 188o, 13, p. 1451, 1884, 17, p. 987; B. Brauner, Berichte, 1881, 14, p. 53; T. Carnelley, Journ. of Chem. See also:

Soc., 1879, See also:

XXXV

xxxv. p. 563; 188o, See also:

XXXVII

xxxvii., p.

125, and W. N. See also:

Hartley, Journ. of Chem. Soc., 1883, xliii. p. 316). The specific heat of beryllium has been calculated by L. See also:

Meyer (Berichte, 188o, 13, p. 1780) from the data of L. F. Nilson and 0. Pettersson, and appears to increase rapidly with increasing temperature, the values obtained being o•3973 at 20.2° C., 0.4481 at 73.2° C. and 0.5819 at 256.8° C. Beryllium compounds are almost wholly prepared from beryl.

The mineral is fused with potassium carbonate, and, on cooling, the product is treated with sulphuric acid, the excess of which is removed by evaporation; See also:

WATER

water is then added and the See also:

SILICA

silica is filtered off. On concentration of the See also:

SOLUTION (from Lat. solvere, to loosen, dissolve)

solution, the See also:

major portion of the aluminium See also:

PRESENT

present separates as See also:

ALUM

alum, and the See also:

MOTHER

mother liquor remaining contains beryllium and See also:

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

iron sulphates together with a little alum. This is now treated for some days with a hot concentrated solution of ammonium carbonate, which precipitates the iron and aluminium but keeps the beryllium in solution. The iron and aluminium precipitates are filtered off, and the filtrate boiled, when a basic beryllium hydroxide containing a little ferric oxide is precipitated. To remove the iron, the precipitate is again dissolved in ammonium carbonate and See also:

steam is blown through the liquid, when beryllium oxide is precipitated. This See also:

PROCESS

process is repeated several times, and the final precipitate is dissolved in hydrochloric acid and precipitated by See also:

AMMONIA (NH3)

ammonia, washed and dried. It has also been obtained by J. See also:

Gibson (Journ. of Chem. Soc., 1893, ]x111. p. 909) from beryl by See also:

CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, from convertere, to turn or ,change)

conversion of the beryllium into its fluoride. Beryllium oxide, beryllia or glucina, BeO, is a very hard See also:

white See also:

POWDER (through O. Fr. puldre, modern poudre, from Lat. pulvis, pulveris, dust)

powder which can be melted and distilled in the electric See also:

FURNACE

furnace, when it condenses in the form of See also:

minute hexagonal crystals. After ignition it dissolves with difficulty in acids.

The hydroxide Bc(OH)2 separates as a white bulky precipitate on adding a solution of an alkaline hydroxide to a soluble beryllium See also:

salt; and like those of aluminium and See also:

ZINC

zinc, this hydroxide is soluble in excess of, the alkaline hydroxide, but is reprecipitated on prolonged boiling. Beryllium chloride BeCl2, like aluminium chloride, may be prepared by heating a mixture of the oxide and See also:

SUGAR

sugar See also:

CHARCOAL

charcoal in a current of dry chlorine. It is deliquescent, and readily soluble in water, from which it separates on concentration in crystals of See also:

composition BeC12.4H20. Its vapour See also:

DENSITY (Lat. densus, thick)

density has been determined by Nilson and Pettersson, and corresponds to the molecular See also:

formula BeC12. The sulphate is obtained by dissolving the oxide in sulphuric acid; if the solution be not acid, it separates in pyramidal crystals of composition BeSO4.4H2O, whit, from an acid solution of this salt, crystals of composition BeSO4.7H2O are obtained. Double sulphates of beryllium and the See also:

ALKALI

alkali metals are known, e.g. BeSO4•K2SO4.3H2O as are also many basic sulphates. The nitrate Be(NO3)2.3H2O is prepared by adding See also:

BARIUM (symbol Ba, atomic weight 137'37 [0=16])

barium nitrate to beryllium sulphate solution; it crystallizes with difficulty and is very deliquescent. It readily yields basic salts. The See also:

CARBIDE

carbide BeC2 is formed when beryllia and sugar charcoal are heated together in the electric furnace. Like aluminium carbide it is slowly decomposed by water with the See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production of methane. . Several basic See also:

CARBONATES

carbonates are known, being formed by the addition of beryllium salts to solutions of the alkaline carbonates; the normal carbonate is prepared by passing a current of See also:

CARBON (symbol C, atomic weight 12)

carbon dioxide through water containing the basic carbonate in suspension, the solution being filtered and concentrated over sulphuric acid in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide.

The crystals so obtained, are very unstable and decompose rapidly with evolution of carbon dioxide. Beryllium salts are easily soluble and mostly have a sweetish See also:

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste (hence the name See also:

GLUCINUM

Glucinum (q.v.), from -Avails., sweet); they are readily precipitated by alkaline sulphides with formation of the white hydroxide, and may be distinguished from salts of all other metals by the solubility of the oxide in ammonium carbonate. Beryllium is estimated quantitatively by precipitation with ammonia, and ignition to oxide. Its atomic weight has been determined by L. F. Nilson and O. Pettersson (Berichte, 188o, 13, p. 1451) by See also:

ANALYSIS (Gr. avci and Meta, to break up into parts)

analysis of the sulphate, from which they found the value 9.08, and by G. Kruss and H. Moraht (Berichte, 1890, 23, p. 2556) from the See also:

con-version of the sulphate BeSO4.4H20 into the oxide, from which they obtained the value 9•o5. C.

L. See also:

Parsons (Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1904, xxvi. p. 721) obtained the values 9'113 from analyses of beryllium acetonyl-acetate and beryllium basic acetate. For a bibliography see C. L.

End of Article: BERYLLIUM

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