The alkalies produced were apparently dry, or at least contained no more moisture than might well be conceived to exist in the oxygen gas absorbed; and their weights considerably exceeded those of the combustible matters consumed.

The processes on which these conclusions are founded will be fully described hereafter, when the minute details which are necessary will be explained, and the proportions of oxygen, and of the respective inflammable sub stances which enter into union to form the fixed alkalies, will be given.

It appears then, that in these facts there is the same evidence for the decomposition of potash and soda into oxygen and two peculiar substances, as there is for the decomposition of sulphuric and phosphoric acids and the metallic oxyds into oxygen and their respective combustible bases.

In the analytical experiments, no substances capable of decomposition are present but the alkalies and a minute portion of moisture; which seems in no other way essential to the result than in rendering them conductors at the surface for the new substances are not generated till the interior, which is dry, begins to be fused; they explode when in rising through the fused alkali they come in contact with the heated moistened surface; they cannot be produced from crystallized alkalies, which contain much water; and the effect produced by the electrization of ignited potash, which contains no sensible quantity of water, confirms the opinion of their formation independently of the presence of this sub

stance.

The combustible bases of the fixed alkalies seem to be repelled as other combustible substances, by positively electrified

electrified surfaces, and attracted by negatively electri fied surfaces, and the oxygen follows the contrary order*; or the oxygen being naturally possessed of the negative energy, and the bases of the positive, do: not remain in combination when either of them is brought. into an electrical state opposite to its natural one. In the synthesis, on the contrary, the natural energies or attractions come in equilibrium with each other; and when these are in a low statę at common temperatures, a slow combination is effected; but when they are exalted by heat, a rapid union is the result; and as in other like cases with the production of fire.-A number of circumstances relating to the agencies of the bases of the alkalies will be immediately stated, and will be found to offer confirmations of these general conclusions.

IV. On the Properties and Nature of the Basis of Potash.

After I had detected the bases of the fixed alkalies, I had considerable difficulty to preserve and confine them so as to examine their properties, and submit them to experiments; for, like the alkahests imagined by the alchemists, they acted more or less upon almost, every body to which they were exposed.

The fluid substance amongst all those I have tried, on which I find they have least effect, is recently distilled naphtha.In this material, when excluded from the air, they remain for many days without considerably changing, and their physical properties may be easily examined in the atmosphere when they are covered by a thin film of it.

The basis of potash at 60° Fahrenheit, the temperature in which I first examined it, appeared, as I have

* See Bakerian Lecture 1806, page 28, Phil. Trans. for 1807...

already mentioned, in small globules possessing the metallic lustre, opacity, and general appearance of mercury; so that when a globule of mercury was placed near a globule of the peculiar substance, it was not possible to detect a difference by the eye.

At 60° Fahrenheit it is however only imperfectly fluid, for it does not readily run into a globule when its shape is altered; at 70° it becomes more fluid; and at 1000 its fluidity is perfect, so that different globules may be easily made to run into one. At 500 Fahrenheit it becomes a soft and malleable solid, which has the lustre of polished silver; and at about the freezing point of water it becomes harder and brittle, and when broken in fragments, exhibits a crystallized texture, which in the microscope seems composed of beautiful facets of a perfect whiteness and high metallic splendour.

To be converted into vapour, it requires a temperatare approaching that of the red heat; and when the experiment is conducted under proper circumstances, it is found unaltered after distillation.

It is a perfect conductor of electricity. When a spark from the Voltaic battery of 100 of 6 inches is taken upon a large globule in the atmosphere, the light is green, and combustion takes place at the point of contact only. When a small globule is used, it is completely dissipated with explosion accompanied by a most vivid flame, into alkaline fumes.

It is an excellent conductor of heat.

Resembling the metals in all these sensible properties, it is however remarkably different from any of them in specific gravity; I found that it rose to the surface of naphtha distilled from petroleum, and of which the specific gravity was 861, and it did not sink in double dis

tilled naphtha, the specific gravity of which was about 770, that of water being considered as 1. The small quantities in when it is produced by the highest electrical powers, rendered it very difficult to determine this quality with minute precision. I endeavoured to gain approximations on the subject by comparing the weights of perfectly equal globules of the basis of potash and mercury. I used the very delicate balance of the Royal Institution, which when loaded with the quantities I employed, and of which the mercury never exceeded ten grains, is sensible at least to the rob of a grain. Taking the mean of 4 experiments, conducted with great care, its specific gravity at 63° Fahrenheit, is to that of mercury as 10 to 223, which gives a proportion to that of water nearly as 6 to 10; so that it is the lightest fluid body known. In its solid form it is a little heavier, but even in this state when cooled to 40° Fahrenheit, it swims in the double distilled naphtha.

The chemical relations of the basis of potash are still more extraordinary than its physical ones.

I have already mentioned its alkalization and combustion in oxygen gas.-It combines with oxygen slowly and without flame at all temperatures that I have tried below that of its vaporization.-But at this temperature combustion takes place, and the light is of a brilliant whiteness and the heat intense. When heated slowly in a quantity of oxygen gas not sufficient for its complete conversion into potash, and at a temperature inadequate to its inflammation, 400° Fahrenheit for instance, its tint changes to that of a red brown, and when the heat is withdrawn, all the oxygen is found to be absorbed, and a solid is formed of a greyish colour, which partly consists of potash and partly of the basis of potash

in

in a lower degree of oxygenation, and which becomes potash by being exposed to water, or by being again heated in fresh quantities of air.

The substance consisting of the basis of potash combined with an under-proportion of oxygen, may likewise be formed by fusing dry potash and its basis together under proper circumstances.-The basis rapidly loses its metallic splendour; the two substances unite into a compound, of a red brown colour when fluid, and of a dark grey hue when solid; and this compound soon absorbs its full proportion of oxygen when exposed to the air, and is wholly converted into potash.

And the same body is often formed in the analytical experiments when the action of the electricity is intense, and the potash much heated.

The basis of potash when introduced into oxymuriatic acid gas burns spontaneously with a bright red light; and a white salt proving to be muriate of potash is formed.

When à globule is heated in hydrogen at a degree below its point of vaporization, it seems to dissolve in it, for the globule diminishes in volume, and the gas explodes with alkaline fumes and bright light, when suffered to pass into the air; but by cooling, this spontaneous detonating property is destroyed, and the basis is either wholly or principally deposited.

mena.

The action of the basis of potash on water exposed to the atmosphere is connected with some beautiful phenoWhen it is thrown upon water, or when it is brought into contact with a drop of water at common temperatures, it decomposes it with great violence, an instantaneous explosion is produced with brilliant flame, and a solution of pure potash is the result.