Potash soap with the same reagent undergoes double decomposition - a proportion being changed into a soda soap with the formation of potassium chloride.
There is no separation of underlyes in potash soap, consequently the product contains the whole constituents of the oils used, as the operation of salting out is quite impracticable owing to the double decomposition which results from the action of salt, producing thereby a hard principally soda soap with formation of potassium chloride.
If two solutions containing the salts AB and CD be mixed, double decomposition is found to occur, the salts AD and CB being formed till a certain part of the first pair of substances is transformed into an equivalent amount of the second pair.
The tests for a salt, potassium nitrate, for example, are the tests not for KNO 3, but for its ions K and NO 3, and in cases of double decomposition it is always these ions that are exchanged for those of other substances.
The result is that although the forms of apparatus utilized for this purpose are all based on the one fundamental principle of bringing about the contact of the carbide with the water which is to enter into double decomposition with it, they have been multiplied in number to a very large extent by the methods employed in order to ensure control in working, and to get away from the dangers and inconveniences which are inseparable from a too rapid generation.
