Obviously some people had more trouble understanding that than I did. If you scroll down you'll notice there are comments where he elaborates on what he did; it makes much more sense that way!
He produces methyl nitrite gas gradually by dripping methanolic sodium nitrite into sulfuric acid -- the gas is produced relatively quickly and is not soluble, so immediately boils and is bubbled into methanol. The sol'n in the reaction vessel is very dilute: he uses fully 1.75 liters of methanol. That's why it works at normal temperatures without all the MeONO boiling away.
I suggest it makes more sense to add nitrite to acid than to add acid to nitrite. Nitrous acid is unstable at high concentrations. Distillation is a plus as well.
I thought it was quite a clever setup, but I'm used to understanding broken English -- foreigner English is the majority language at my university.
He produces methyl nitrite gas gradually by dripping methanolic sodium nitrite into sulfuric acid -- the gas is produced relatively quickly and is not soluble, so immediately boils and is bubbled into methanol. The sol'n in the reaction vessel is very dilute: he uses fully 1.75 liters of methanol. That's why it works at normal temperatures without all the MeONO boiling away.
I suggest it makes more sense to add nitrite to acid than to add acid to nitrite. Nitrous acid is unstable at high concentrations. Distillation is a plus as well.
I thought it was quite a clever setup, but I'm used to understanding broken English -- foreigner English is the majority language at my university.