given on a fate Trial. 343 



been grreatly alarmed, and should afterwards have come into 

 court and declared on their oaths, that they believed the boiling 

 of sugar by means of heated oil to be a dangerous process. 



Mr. Richard Phillips, F.R.S. E., Professor of Chemistry 

 in the Royal Military College, and Lecturer on Chemistry at the 

 London Institution, was next examined. He stated, that in his 

 first experiment with oil he heated half a pint in a retort for 

 about thirty hours up to 360° ; he then ^observed that the oil 

 had thickened considerably, and become darker. ** I then 

 heated it," said he, ** pretty suddenly up to about 500°, and 

 there distilled over, at that temperature, a volatile oil : this oil 

 I have a sp( cimen of, this is a portion of it," (producing it). 

 " This oil," continued he, '* though it appears extremely fluid 

 now, if taken into a cold atmosphere, becomes solid." He went 

 on to state, that he obtained a vapour from common whale-oil 

 at 500°, but that the oil which had been heated to 360° for 

 twenty-three days, gave out inflammable vapour at 400° ; that 

 this was vapour, and not gas, because the temperature, in his 

 estimation, was not sufficient to convert oil into gas ; but when 

 heated to 460°, it gave out aqueous vapour and inflammable 

 gas ; that water is formed during the distillation of oil, by a 

 portion of the oxygen and hydrogen uniting ; that he considered 

 the oil-apparatus for refining sugar dangerous ; that the oil- 

 vapour could not get on fire without coming in contact with 

 flame ; but, said he, " the oil, as in the public experiment, 

 would be forced out by sudden ebullition, and run down 

 to the fire-place, and take fire ;" that '* in the large vessel 

 there were 100 gallons of oil, and the force would probably, 

 be in some ratio to the quantity." On being asked what time 

 it would require to effect that, he replied, " A few minutes 

 after it was heated to 360° ; supposing they were at work at 

 that temperature, and the pump stopped, in twenty minutes, 

 I am certain, by a strong fire, the oil would spout out at the 

 end of the tube." In their experiment vessel, he did not know 

 whether the safety-pipe dipped into the liquid or not. 



