given art a late Trial. 351 



have exploded, or have burnt more or less quickly, in proportion 

 to the mixture of air with it ; that the explosion would not re- 

 semble that of gunpowder, for it would not be so violent, but 

 that the explosion, if such took place, would be of a bursting 

 nature, and would rapidly expand ;" that " the smell of the va- 

 pour is essential to the vapour, but when it is exploded it forms 

 other substances." After several other remarks from Mr. 

 Faraday, I was called and asked if I concurred in this testimony, 

 to which I replied, that I never witnessed the explosion of gases 

 without smell ; that I do not believe that an inflammable vapour 

 is produced from whale-oil at the low temperatures which have 

 been named, unless some other oil be mixed with it; that I con- 

 ceive it impossible that inflammable gases could have remained 

 in the steam-vent, they must have gone into the atmosphere as 

 they were generated ; that I never witnessed any explosions of 

 carburetted hydrogen gas without tremendous noise, nor without 

 smell." On Mr. Phillips being recalled, he said, that ** with 

 respect to the adulteration of the oil, it was as likely to be so in 

 the other case of this concern, as in the experiments they made." 

 After which one of the jurymen said, " We are not satisfied 

 about the oil being pure." 



Observation. — The obvious reply to Mr. Phillips's remark 

 is this : That it is not likely that the oil used by the chemists 

 for the plaintiffs was adulterated, because it had not the charac- 

 ters of volatility which the other oil had ; neither do we know 

 of any thing that could have been added to oil to restrain its 

 volatile parts, and render it less inflammable ; whereas, there 

 are many substances with which the whale oil might uninten- 

 tionally have been contaminated, that would increase its in- 

 flammability, such as oil of turpentine, or tar oil. 



Henry May and Mr. Lockie were recalled to explain some 

 parts of their former evidence.'; and when Sir John Copley, the 

 Solicitor-General, had addressed the court and jury, his lord- 

 ship summoned up in a very luminous speech. The jury with- 

 drew, at four o*clock, and returned in three quarters of an 



