givm on a late Trial, 399 



myself ; but it was proved before it was put into the oil by hot 

 water. Mr. Pastorelli makes them ; he makes clocks, and 

 so on." 



Observations. So contrary is this testimony to every thing 

 which I have found to the conclusions of those gentlemen who 

 were consulted with myself by Messrs. Severn, King, and Co., 

 that 1 have gone through the whole with great care, and have 

 collected the principal points into one view, that any individuals 

 accustomed to chemical inquiries, may, if they please, repeat 

 the experiments, to see iflSlPtn common whale oil they can pro- 

 duce the results here related. 



I have first to observe, that he says Mr. Martineau boiled the 

 oil, which appears to me to have been very improper, as the 

 object ought to have been to assimilate the experiment as much 

 as .possible to what took place at the sugar-house ; where the 

 oil was always kept at a much lower temperature. The mixture 

 of two kinds of oil was also improper. It is stated by Wilkin- 

 son that " the vapour at 280° took fire, and there was a sudden 

 concussion in the boiler like an explosion." To this I have 

 only to say, that I have never been able to procure an inflam- 

 mable vapour from whale oil that would burn at the end of a 

 short tube fixed in the cover of the retort, until the oil was 

 heated beyond 600°, and that I never witnessed the concussions 

 and explosions which he speaks of. It is also remarkable, if the 

 vapour which issued from the oil was so explosive, that he was 

 not on the sixth day blown to atoms, when he unscrewed the 

 tube. On the ninth day he says " he had a worm-tub, with a 

 leaden-pipe fifteen feet long passing through a cask of water, 

 and at the end of this the vapour took fire at 497° ; it continued 

 burning twenty minutes, and burnt six inches in length." I do 

 not believe I could have produced such an effect with pure 

 whale-oil if I had heated the vessel to 700°. I have seen 

 the vapour burn at 480° for a moment close to the surface of the 

 oil; that is, when kept hot by the body of oil, but it would not 

 inflame at the end of a tube twelve inches long when heated 

 to 600°. On the tenth day, he says, " that at 390° it spread itself 

 like lightning, and on the eleventh and twelfth days was in- 



