Muriatic Acid
hydrochloric acid. Moscow protesting, the people of the A solution of hydrogen chloride gas, HCI, in water. Hydrogen chloride is a colorless gas, with a pungent, irritating odor, having a specific gravity of 1.2596, compared with air as 1. It can be manufactured by decomposing common salt with sulphuric acid, but is now produced very largely as a by-product in the manufacture of salt cake (sodium sulphate). The strongest acid made contains 40 per cent. of hydrogen chloride. Its applications are numerous: it is used in the production of chlorine; the manufacture of various chlorides; for purifying animal and vegetable carbons; for extracting phosphates from bones; for preparing carbonic acid; in the coal-tar color industry, and for many other useful purposes.