The contents are of an oily nature, and when liquefied are of great commercial value.
It is a colourless gas which may be liquefied by a pressure of 7 to 8 atmospheres.
Again, by raising the temperature, a metal in the solid state can be melted and liquefied, and poured into a mould to assume any form desired, which is retained when the metal cools and solidifies again; the gaseous state of a metal is revealed by the spectroscope.
A certain critical temperature is observed in a gas, above which the liquefaction is impossible; so that the gaseous state has two subdivisions into (i.)a true gas, which cannot be liquefied, because its temperature is above the critical temperature, (ii.) a vapour, where the temperature is below the critical, and which can ultimately be liquefied by further lowering of temperature or increase of pressure.
The brine is cooled in a tank filled with spiral pipes, in which anhydrous ammonia, previously liquefied by compression, is vaporized in vacuo at the atmospheric temperature by the sensible heat of the returncurrent of brine, whose temperature has been slightly raised in its passage through the circulating tubes.